How Interview Coaching Helped Me Land My Dream Job

Michael’s story of success – Management Accountant at a Manufacturing company in Kenya

By the end of 2017, I had attended at least 18 interviews all of which were unsuccessful.

I think it’s only fair to say that by the 10^th one I became extremely depressed and frustrated. I almost gave up but kept going.

I knew there were certain areas I was going wrong in the interview and in other areas I didn’t know what I was doing wrong. Then one day on the internet I came across something called, “Get Hired Now”.

You see, I had never heard of anything like job interview coaching so I was curious to learn how it would help me pass any interview and get the job I wanted.

So, I signed up! After all, I had everything to gain and nothing to lose.

Having come with a professionally done CV and a recent job description, I was ready to have an eye-opening encounter since I could not afford to fail another interview.

In a very personalized session, the interview coach took me through every question I had ever been asked in an interview.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but job interview questions are normally the same regardless of the position for instance “Tell us about yourself”, “why should we hire you”, “what are your strengths and weaknesses” etc.

So we began the session by having the interview coach assess how I was responding to the questions. I noticed that there were a lot of things I was doing wrong.

The most useful 4 pointers I got from the interview coaching session:

1. You MUST know the Job description!

Did you know that 90% of questions actually come from the job description? Neither did I! What a terrible mistake it was.

Initially, I would just gloss over the job description without really taking time to understand what the job entails.

No wonder I did not have confidence. But now I know.

2. The 80-20” rule

Maybe or maybe not you’ve heard of this rule before in a different setting. This golden rule helped me understand the perfect way to respond to the “tell us about yourself” interview questions.

All this time I had been doing it wrong yet I did not know! My coach insisted that when answering this question, I had to make sure I focus 80% on my technical skills and 20% on the soft skills. Again, all my answers had to be in line with the job description.

3. Be very specific

I realized that one of the mistakes I would make in an interview was being too general. For instance, when I was asked about my achievements, I would give a general view without going into the details.

But now thanks to the interview coaching program, I realized how I could make myself stand out by being very specific when answering interview questions.

4. Always ask a relevant question

You know how at the end of the interview the interviewers ask, “Do you have a question for us?” Well, I used to ask the worst of questions.

For instance, I would start asking, “When should I expect a call from you?”, “what are some of your employee benefits” etc.

Now let me reiterate what my coach said. These questions are perfectly fine but they are rather selfish because they do not show interest in the growth of the organization.

Additionally, those are questions you should ask after you’ve confirmed for the job.

The best question I learnt is to ask about the challenges the organization is facing in a certain area and how my skills can help!

My first interview after the coaching session….

Need I say I passed the interview with flying colours!

I gained a whole new level of confidence and by the time I was leaving the room, I knew I had the job. I would have probably made the same mistakes were it not for the interview preparation.

Maybe you’re also experiencing several unsuccessful interviews. There is help.  I have no doubt that this interview preparation will help as much as it helped me and you will be well on your way to securing that job.