Daniel Sage - Interview Superpower--How to Ace Your Interview and Get the Job You Really Want!

Whether you've never done it before, or need a refresher, this easy-to-read guide to surviving the interview is all you need to blitz it. Daniel Sage manages to humanise this often nerve-wracking experience with wit and eloquence. You'll find practical examples of how to answer the toughest questions, how to present yourself and how to ensure you're memorable.

Carolyn Hyams, Director of Marketing, Aquent

Encouraging and inspiring and soothing in one go. This book will help many candidates to prepare well for any interview but also, crucially, to be themselves authentically in the process.

Emily Fine, BHP

Spot on, effective, and funny, which is always a bonus. Sage definitely knows his onions! Highly recommended.

Ricard Faverley, Managing Director, Epson

Worth reading for any interviewee, young and old.

Mateo Nakamura, Former COO, Nomura International

INTERVIEW SUPERPOWER

How To Ace Your Interview And Get The Job You Really Want!

This how-to-guide gives you the confidence you need to meet your interviewers on equal terms and to present them with all the answers they are looking for.

It shows you that being human and using soft skills is still the most effective and powerful means of entry, even as automated interviews and online testing are on the rise, and Covid-19 has left its mark on the ways we interact.

The books easy-to-read style belies a steely heart. We are in it to win it, whatever the level: executive, student, and starter alike.

Combine your emotional intelligence with solid preparation and a deeper understanding of the interview process and you can walk into that room with your head held high and your hand held out ready for a firm shake.

How To Ace Your Interview
And Get The Job You Really Want!

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Published by Forward Books

Copyright 2021 Daniel Sage

All rights reserved

Cover design: Donovan Campbell

No part of this book may be reproduced, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

A CPI catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN

978-0-9567193-3-1

Fortune favours the prepared mind.

Louis Pasteur

I can count on one hand the number of people who wrote me a thank-you letter after having an interview, and I gave almost all of them a job.

Kate Reardon, Editor of Tatler

Whether you think you can, or you think you cant, you are right.

Henry Ford

One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.

Arthur Ashe, Tennis Champion

A word of advice: your interview is about you. It's not about the school you went to, what you majored in, what your GPA was, or who your parents happen to be or know. Most of that stuff is right on your resum, and it might even have gotten you into the room, but it won't get you much farther.

Ivanka Trump

Nobody likes an interview. Inspections, they should be called. Youre put under a microscope, judged by someone else, and usually for something you badly want. It's hard to decide if they're civilised or barbaric.

But they are a part of everyday lifefor work, school, even for love (many a date can feel like one).

The modern interview has evolved to fit busy schedules and to filter candidates quickly and accurately. Questions are asked, coffee is drunk. Sometimes mistakes are made, but in general interviews help the world spin around and keep us busy humans hiring and aspiring.

This guide gives you insider knowledge of what interviewers are looking for, with tips and pointers to help you prepare, approach and win the interview game. Because, make no mistake, there is a game aspect, as in almost all negotiations, and knowing more about how its played makes it easier to crack.

There are no end of books and websites teaching interview lore, many of them excellent. This guide doesnt profess to cover everything. Use it in conjunction with your other resources. But its intention is to go to the heart of the matter: being human in an increasingly automated world, and making that work in your favour to win the role, place, promotion or raise you want. Its engine is emotional intelligence. You are the driver.

Simply put: Be yourself, be concise, be confident, and prepare. Realise you have a lot to offer.

Three Sections

The book is in three parts. The first part is about getting ready, ticking off the checklist of stuff we need to do to prepare in an efficient and personal waythe interview is about you, and fashioning the best or most appropriate version of you is the aim.

The second part explores the day, room, and interview itself, when youre on best behaviour for something you really want, with tips for making it work to your strongest advantage, and even enjoying it while youre there.

Thirdly, we take a deeper look into whats going on behind the scenes in the interviewers mind and within the institution you are trying to join. There is more detailed discussion of the brains tricks and ways of seeing. To some extent these can be skipped if you are in a hurry to cherry-pick information, perhaps with an interview coming up soon, but they do contain valuable nuggets for understanding what is going on, of how humans appraise other humans, and this can greatly boost your confidence and success in dealing with the people and situations you encounter.

An interview is a two-way process . It's your responsibility to make sure the firm is right for youand if it is, they will appreciate your efforts to find out.

The crazy thing is, we are often in such a rush to give a good impression'pick me, pick me !'that we fail to look closely enough at the institution we are trying to enter, and who we want approval from.

What if they don't like me, our mind says. What if I get it wrong? What if my hair is not right/sticks up/falls flat? What if I forget all the key points I preparedthat I rehearsed over and over and I know by heart, and which I know are my best-selling features? What if the interviewer is in a bad mood! Maybe they woke up too early, had a bad night, argued with their partner? They may have already decided who they're going to pick and are just stringing me along?

Imagination is a fine thing when it's fired up. These are good questions, great and useful questions, but they are best left outside the interview room. And this is where solid preparation pays off.