Know Yourself by knowing your Skills, Accomplishments & Goals
If you are preparing for an interview, it is sacrosanct that you should be well aware of your
skills, accomplishments, and goals! As the salesmen are well-equipped to handle all queries related to their product, you too, in a similar fashion, should be able to know about all your skills and should know how to sell them to the interviewer. Your skills, accomplishments, and goals help you grab the right job.
Basically, the very first question in the interview comes as, “Tell me something about yourself.” Now the question can be answered quite comfortably if you have a list of your skills ready which can define your accomplishments matching with the employer’s requirements. The closer your skills and traits are to the job description, the better chance you have of landing the job.
Start making a self-assessment while preparing for an interview:
Try to make an accurate assessment of your qualities and skills.
Ensure that you identify these skills and qualities before the interview. This is quite important as otherwise, you will be unable to highlight these qualities to the interviewer which can prove quite dear to you in the long run. You will definitely be required to use a few of these traits for ‘selling’ yourself in the interview. So try using the scale mentioned here which will help you to rate your perception of your competence, defining your quality and skill.
First of all, fix the gradings against each of the quality parameters:
4: Excellent
3: Good
2: Average
1: Weak
0 : Poor
You should be sought out personal qualities on grounds of being Enthusiastic/Energetic, Resourceful, Goal Oriented, Competitive, Responsible/Reliable, Effective Team Member, Analytical, Creative, Ability to teach/train and a candidate who is Motivated and have Effective communication.
NOTE: Think of examples for each rating of 3 or 4. Now try using these examples during your interview.
Make comprehensive research of the company. Try learning about it as much as you can before the interview.
As any other learning skill, successful interviewing also requires a thorough preparation and practice. Making an interview successful is more like a success sales encounter. In this case, you shall be required to demonstrate your interest by exploring everything you can about the company and its position before the start of an actual interview. The basic things you should be well aware of the company includes how long has the company been in existence, what services it provides or what products it makes, who are its major competitors, which is the parent company, what are the company’s assets and earnings and does the company has any international operations etc.
You should have your questions ready which can be asked to the interviewer and then you should also know the purpose of asking these questions.
Raising questions to interview demonstrate your interest, preparedness and critical 
thinking along with your desire to attain and achieve.
Your strong questions will also shed light on your knowledge about the job and will show that you are paying attention and establishing a personal connection with the interviewer.
It will simultaneously allow you to learn more about your position and the working parameters in the organization. Hence, you will be able to determine if the position and organization are right for you.
These questions will also give you an opportunity to further “sell” your qualifications as you will be able to gather specific information from interviewers. With the help of interviewer’s responses to your well-prepared questions, you will be able to learn more about the organization’s needs and hence will prepare your mind accordingly.
The core need for a successful interview is Practice, Practice, and Practice.
As you prepare for an interview, practice standing in front of the mirror. Work hard on your voice modulation. Bring in clarity in your speech and record your voice and do the self-evaluation. Engmates provides interview preparation course which will help you cack your interview and grab the opportunity.
During the Interview, you need to be prompt and prepared.
Always report before time on the scheduled day of your interview. You should be able to reach office 10-15 minutes before the interview. Be aware of directions and the distance to be covered, the traffic you will find and the parking issues before you fix your time. You should also be aware of before and even time zone changes if it comes as a long trip. Always remember to carry the significant documents as well as a copy of your resume.
If you liked this blog, you could check out the interview conversation example here.