It's Linda Raynier of LindaRaynier.com, Career Strategist

I help driven professionals like you to

enhance your personal brand, so you can pursue a career you'll truly enjoy.

And in this video I want to share with you 5 tips

that I have to help you be more confident in your upcoming interviews.

And one of the most common things I hear from my clients is

when they go into an interview room, they feel extremely nervous.

They're super intimidated.

You feel as if there are multiple sets of eyes on you even if it's just one person.

And when questions are asked of you, because you're nervous

you either start rambling, or, you completely draw a blank

your mind shuts down and you just don't know what to say.

So here are 5 things you should keep in mind before going into an interview

in order to maximize your confidence.

So let's talk about the first one and that is to remember your value.

I've talked about this concept in many other videos

and that's because knowing your value is all part of having a strong personal brand.

So ask yourself, and remind yourself,

"Why did they invite me to this interview in the first place?"

It's because I have the right technical expertise,

and the experience.

Or the potential to be able to help this organization

in this particular position.

When you can remember your value it really helps you to boost your confidence.

And if that doesn't help then ask yourself even other further questions.

Such as, what have I contributed to other organizations in the past?

Or what have I done to improve a situation in the past

that I can contribute and repeat in this new opportunity?

Think of all the positive things that you've done.

And that helps you to build a concept around

your self worth and your value for what you can do for them.

In this particular interview setting.

All right let's move onto #2 and that is, use the power of persuasion.

To be a truly ideal candidate for a new job opportunity,

or to get a promotion

to get a salary bump

in the corporate world, you need to first of all know what it is that you want,

But more importantly, know how to convince and persuade others to help you get it.

Now this has nothing to do with being manipulative, or sleazy and slimey.

Or bribing people to get you what you want.

It's about the power of persuasion and influence.

And being able to influence the person across the table from you

that you are exactly what it is they need to hire.

And the basic building blocks of persuasion are

Context and Timing.

You would never approach that same hiring manager out

in the middle of the grocery store and ask them to

hire you on the spot.

You wouldn't try to convince them in that situation

because it's the wrong context and the wrong timing.

In the context of an interview,

hiring managers are wanting you to persuade them.

They're very persuadable.

So I would say it's the perfect environment for you to be able to

influence and show off your ability to convince them

that you're the right fit for them.

So overall, don't forget to persuade them.

And to effectively persuade them, that leads me to my next point

which is to frame every answer appropriately.

When answering interview questions,

you don't want to dive into the meat of the answer right away.

Instead, you want to take a step back and set it up.

Frame it.

It's almost as though you're developing the skeleton

before you add on the meat.

And this is particularly applicable

for behavioural questions.

Where the interviewer is expecting you to tell them an entire story.

About a situation or conflict that you had to overcome

and how you handled it.

If you don't deliver the story the "right" way

by framing it and setting it up properly from the beginning,

then your point isn't going to come across the way that you'd want

and it won't come across as very convincing.

So for example, when the interviewer asks a question like

"Tell me about a difficult situation and how you handled it"

A lot of people get very superficial, they brush over the facts

and they jump right into "this is how I resolved it."

What that does is it lacks the feelings

and the emotions and the details that you could've provided to

the interviewer, to really engage them.

They don't feel compelled and convinced that

the situation was really all that big of a deal

when you really just brush through it and get to the end.

So instead, when they're asking you,

"Tell me about a difficult situation and how you handled it"

Describe the difficult situation itself.

Really get into the details, paint the picture.

Talk about the emotions that you experienced.

The thought process that was going on in your mind.

And then once you've painted that and set it up well,

whatever process that you went through to resolve that situation

is going to look amazing because

you really did a good job at engaging and pulling in the interviewer

to your world, into your story.

And #4 is to always have extra stories in your back pocket.

The worst situation is going into an interview unprepared

and not having predicted the questions and answers to

what you would be asked.

So it's important to have multiple examples,

and stories and accomplishments,

that you can leverage and pull out of your back pocket

any time there is a new question being asked of you.

So you don't want to use the same simple story

because you're not going to get very far in the interview process.

So I would say maybe bucket your answers according to the

category. So it could be you have an example and a story for

your technical expertise. You have another one that demonstrates your leadership,

and you have another one that demonstrates your strong communication skills.

However way you want to organize them,

make sure you have at least 3 or 4 examples

or stories that you can simply pull out of your back pocket

whenever a new question is asked of you.

And finally, visualize and energize.

Visualizing means that for the days and nights leading up to

the actual date of the interview,

you want to take some time out of your day

even just for 5 minutes

Close your eyes and visualize your interview going well.

See yourself getting along with the interviewer

being able to seamlessly answer their interview questions,

and developing a really strong rapport with them.

You see them nodding,

you see them wanting to get to know you even more

and really being engaged. And you see yourself going over the interview time

(which is always a good sign)

then that was allotted for you.

Athletes do this all the time

before a big game.

They do this so they can see themselves winning

and it creates this sense of belief that

it's going to happen. And what that does is it

creates this energy and momentum for you

that you are going to do well.

So when you have that spirit and energy and momentum going for you

really, there should be nothing holding you back.

Sometimes, it's just as straight forward as giving direct eye contact,

leaning in when they lean in,

mimicking their body language,

and just giving that sense you're genuinely actively listening to what they have to say.

And that you're really engaged in the conversation and

you truly just want to get to know them.

So there you have it.

My 5 tips on how you can be more confident in your interviews.

Now if you're in a situation where you're an experienced corporate professional,

and you want to find your purpose

and enhance your personal brand

and be more confident in your career overall,

then feel free to reach out to me.

Head on over to LindaRaynier.com

and click under "Work with me"

You'll see the words, Personal Brand Renewal - Stand Out & Get Hired

then fill out the application form

and from there, if I think that we're a match,

I will reach out to you to contact you directly.

So if you liked this video then please give it a thumbs up,

subscribe, share it with your friends.

And let them know that this channel is all about

helping driven professionals like you to

enhance your personal brand so you can go after a career you'll truly enjoy.

Thanks so much for watching and I will see you in the next video.