Step-by-step guide to a job interview: Personality

Personality

With competency and motivation out of the way, we can focus on the last aspect: Personality. Unfortunately, this is the part of the interview you cannot really prepare for.

Attempting to change your personality overnight is pointless. So instead of pretending to be someone else, focus on gradually developing your strengths and compensating for your weaknesses. Find out what qualities are valued in your industry and work on them over the long term. But be advised that this is not a change that you can achieve during the short preparation for the interview.

Also, forget all the universal advice and tips. We’re all little different and every position requires a slightly different personality. Moreover, the desired conduct may also vary by job or by the company culture.

Still, there are some general tips that can be applied to almost all positions:

Match your clothes to the company culture (see Chapter 1)
Try to appear likable and show interest in the conversation. An appropriate smile and eye contact can go the extra mile.
Think twice when answering questions about your weaknesses – there is no need to immediately reveal everything you perceive negatively about yourself. Instead, try to think of them as opportunities for personal growth and present them as room for improvement.
Don’t pretend to be someone you’re not. Be yourself. Afterall, you don’t want to work at a company that does not suit your personality.

nonverbal expression

Your nonverbal expression reveals a lot about your personality. Focus on the following:

Eye contact
When someone is constantly looking elsewhere while talking to you, it can be very uncomfortable. Try to learn to maintain eye contact. But don’t overdo it! Staring into someone’s eyes for a minute without blinking can be pretty scary and one can stop paying attention to what is actually being said.

Gestures
Use hand gestures while speaking. The key is to have relaxed hands rather than a flawlessly rehearsed routine. Every word doesn’t need its own hand gesture, nor is it natural to stand at attention.

Posture
Don’t slouch and don’t cross your legs and arms. Keep an eye on involuntary hand rubbing.

Intonation
Focus on appropriate intonation. If you have the courage, record part of your speech and then listen to how you sound.

Articulation and pace of speech
Intonation goes hand in hand with correct articulation. Stress can make us talk too fast or slow down our speech considerably. Aim for something in between. A slower pace of speech will help you avoid the risk of saying something incorrect or breaking into an incomprehensible chatter. Speaking too slowly, however, can frustrate your listener.

It goes without saying that nervosity can occasionally shake our voice a bit. But don’t worry about that. The people you will be talking to know what it’s like to be in your shoes and will appreciate both your effort and courage.

Tip

Imagine a colleague you would like to work with. What are their qualities? What do they do? What do they avoid? What are they not?

Be the colleague you would want to work with. :)

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Questions that reveal your personality

In addition to self-presentation and nonverbal communication, the answers to certain questions can reveal a lot about your personality and every recruiter has a few of these questions up their sleeve. If you want to get an edge, prepare your answers in advance.

Here are some examples of such questions:

What are your strengths?
How would your old colleagues describe you?
What do people value about you the most? What do they praise you for?
How do you react to failure?
How do you accept criticism?
Do you prefer working on your own, or in a collective?
What are your work-related values?
What is important to you at work?

Did you know...

Studies consistently confirm the importance of nonverbal communication in an interview. For example, nodding and maintaining eye contact nonverbally expresses one’s interest in the conversation and thus increases candidates’ success rates.

Step-by-step guide to a job interview: Motivation

Elevator pitch