Self-presentation in interviews - Practical Tips

Tell us something about yourself. 

This is maybe one of the more underestimated interview parts of all. Everyone thinks it’s such an easy task to talk about ourselves and most candidates don't prepare at all for this. Talking about ourselves it sounds easy because we know very well what we have done and what our responsibilities were. However, in an interview we might discover that things are not so simple. If we don't prepare in advance, we will end up saying things that are not so relevant for the employer, that don't make too much sense or we will talk too much about the less important things.


It happens to me quite often, when I talk to candidates prior to the interviews, to hear "Self presentation, yes...I know what to say...I have been to many interviews before". My question 'Were those interviews successful?' makes them wonder and be quiet for a while.

Having a good self-presentation will help us to draw the attention of the interviewer(s) to the best of our strengths and away from your weaknesses. Ideally we should prepare a tailor -made presentation for each and every interview. If this seems too much, one option would be to write our highlights into bullet points and adapt it to the type of job we are applying for.

Usually approximately 2 minutes should be enough for the self-presentation. Here are the main points that should be included in the speech:

• personal background,
• educational background,
• achievements in our past or current employment;
• one or two examples of projects/responsibilities/achievements relevant for job we are applying
• our future career goals and how the job we are interviewing for would fit into our plans;
• summarization on why we are at the interview (explain how the job and our expertise would contribute both to the company and our career goals in the most satisfying manner).

Self-presentations should be prepared in advanced and before going to the interview we should ask ourselves:
Is the presentation interesting, overall?
Am I able to present the highlights of my achievements and strengths accurately?
Am I matching my skills to the needs of the vacancy the interview is for?
Am I confident when I am speaking?
Is my style of speaking clear and loud enough, fast/slow enough?

After having our presentation ready, it comes one of the essential parts: practice.  We should be careful to maintain a continuous flow, have a confident tone but not being too loud or arrogant and exclude the breaks of ‘aaaaa’/ ‘hmmmmm’ from our speech.  

What also always helps is to be critical to ourselves and after every interview to think about the way we presented ourselves. Recognizing the moments where we could have said things in a better way will help us to improve from one interview to another.

And remember that having many interviews doesn't necessarily mean that we are also good at it.  

Writing a letter of intent ...every beginning is hard

Writing a letter of intent is for many candidates one of the most difficult parts when preparing a job application. The purpose of this document is to grab the attention of the hiring manager, introduce the applicant, and inform the manager of the applicant’s abilities as well as answering several questions. All this in one page document and without copying what is written in the resume.

Here is how a young candidate is trying to get the attention of the employers and find his first job.

Email content:

Dear HR at [...],

Hello, I am […], who have just graduated from […] University of Munich yesterday!! And here I am to apply for the job: "ENGINEER ".

Maybe there is a gap between your requirement and my ability, since you are looking for some guy with at least 3 years professional experience. However I consider myself as faster learner with positive "Can do" attitude. And also I have almost 2 years experience in the industry level as a working student. So I think it won't be a problem to fit into the new environment.

Anyhow, please spend some time to have a look at my CV and Cover Letter attached in this e-mail, and I  really appreciate for your time and effort!!

Wish you have a nice day and future.

Best Regards,

[…]  

Letter of intent

Dear Sir/Madam at […],

Hi, I’m […], who just graduated from […] university in Munich on Oct 22th this year (2013).

I find myself a competitive candidate for the position ‘’Engineer” for the following reasons:  […]

Last but not least, I consider myself as a fast learner with energetic “Can do” attitude. Since I have overcome so many difficulties during my studying and working time, I believe I can and will survive in the future career. :-p

To sum up, I think myself a very excellent candidate and have confidence to handle this job perfectly. Please pay some attention on me and I won’t let you down.

Best Regards,

[…]

Do you think this candidate will be invited to an interview for the position he applied for? Do you think this approach will bring any good results at all? How would you react or respond if you were a recruiter or a hiring manager who receives such an application?

RE: Your application 32456

“Dear Ms Melita, 

Thank you very much for the interest you show for an employment in our company. 

Unfortunately, we cannot offer you an employment in our company at this time. But we are confident that your qualification and knowledge will allow you to develop yourself with regard to your profession and according to your wishes. 

We wish you good luck for your future in your private and professional life. “

It’s not easy or pleasant to receive such emails. However it’s quite inevitable when looking for a job. Like with any other rejection we need to be able to handle them properly and make the best out of the situation. Otherwise our chances to find our best potential job might drop considerably.

First of all, before starting the search it’s important to set our expectations right. That means we should expect the following:    

• We might be looking for several months before finding the job we want
• Inevitably we will receive messages like the one from above
• It could happen that we go to two or three interviews with the same company and still receive at the end a message telling us that someone else was chosen for the job
• For certain applications we will have no feedback at all
• We need to put considerable effort and to invest time and energy in order to prepare our applications, search for jobs, send them and constantly try to improve our CVs and letters of intent

Realizing all this from the beginning will not make the search process easier but will help us keep up our level of energy and confidence. One of the common mistakes people do when looking for a job is creating a CV and letter of intent and use them as they are during the whole process.

Doing the same thing and expecting different results doesn't make too much sense. Therefore applying with the same CV after receiving negative feedback it might not be the best idea.

We will never know exactly why we were rejected no matter how much we think and speculate about it. Instead of spending time thinking at the reasons the employer had, it would be more efficient to try and review our CV and letter of intent and improve it constantly.

The online environment is full with information on how to create CVs and letters of intent. All we need to do is to adapt the information to our situation and try different styles until we find the one that works for us. What we should not forget is that our CV is the first thing the employer will know about us. Even if it might sound obvious, the photo we choose to put in this document needs to be a professional one adequate for a business relation.

Having someone else checking our CV might also be very useful. If we don’t have any friends who work in HR we can look for someone who has recent experience with job applications or contact HR professionals who would be willing to evaluate our CV. We should never be happy with just one opinion. People have different experiences and points of view regarding this aspect even if they work in HR.

The quality of our application is the only thing we can really influence. All other things are speculations and suppositions.

When we understand that negative answers as well as positive ones are part of the recruitment process, our chances to go smoothly through it and to find the job that we really want will be definitely higher.  

Random applications – do they work?

         The purpose of job ads is to attract candidates who have certain skills, experience and education. They describe the ideal candidate and because most of the times the companies can’t find such a candidate they make some compromises and interview also the candidates that meet the critical requirements. However, generally the candidates are taken into consideration for a certain position if they meet at least 80% of the requirements.

Regardless of the job requirements, position, company and country I would say, the mailboxes of the recruiters are constantly invaded by random applications.

          The random candidates are those people who apply to every single job ad that they see. People that apply for Sales Manager positions but they have never sold anything in their life, people that apply for technical positions even if they have no experience or studies in that field and so on. For some, the only criteria are regarding the region in which they live. However, most of them consider no criteria.

So there will be no misunderstanding, when I say random applications I don’t mean spontaneous applications. For me, the spontaneous applications are happening when a candidate sends his application expressing his interest in a position that is not open at that moment. This kind of applications is recommended by all HR specialists because this way the candidate shows his initiative and interest in a certain company. 

        If it would be to find an explanation for the behavior of the random applicants, I would say that probably these people think that someone will see their CV, discover the well hidden potential behind their irrational application and call them to offer the job of their life. Some might even think that the recruiters will save their CV and when there will be a position corresponding to their experience they will call them right away. 

WRONG! Recruiters never save random applications. They are annoyed by such candidates that they need to go through in order to find the ones that really match the job profile. This is a waste of time for everyone. I haven’t met yet a person that obtained a job through random applications.

       Just a bit of responsibility when applying for a job would make a great difference for both candidates and recruiters.  According to Holmes and Rahe stress scale, losing a job is one of the 10 most stressful situations in life. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holmes_and_Rahe_stress_scale) Maybe this explains why some people act so irrational when looking for a job.

Candidates who stop answering the phone / Recruiters who never call back

Whoever has some recruitment experience was for sure at a certain point in contact with that type of candidates that suddenly stop answering the phone. You call them, you discuss about their experience, expectations, about future projects, they are coherent and seem normal. You get excited because you found someone with high chances to match the position you are recruiting for. You exchange several e-mails, spend time scheduling interviews, presenting and promoting him to the hiring manager as a candidate with high potential, you spend energy and you do your best so that the candidate will go smoothly through the recruitment process.  When you think nothing can happen, the candidate stops answering the phone. Considering the good communication you had before, you “presume his innocence” and leave him a message hoping that he was not involved in some sort of accident.

Then you wait and wait...and you rewind all the discussions looking for a sign that could have told you what is going to happen. Nothing... So after putting the candidate on the blacklist and telling all your colleagues about him, you decide to do the best thing you can: move on.

You are a candidate who did his homework: wrote a good CV, has a profile on several recruitment websites and professional online communities and applies only to the positions that match his experience and skills.  Sooner or later you start receiving calls from recruiters who tell you how interesting your CV is and what a great job opportunity they have. You schedule a phone interview for which you prepare in advance. You find out things about the company, you spend time and energy thinking how your experience and skills could help you to perform on that position. The interview goes smoothly and judging after the number of “Great!” and “Excellent!” you have heard during the discussion, the face to face interview is knocking at the door. Before you even get to ask what will happen next, the recruiter says that he will forward your profile to the hiring manager and in the mean while he will send you the full job description and more details about the company. Inevitably you get excited and maybe try to find out even more about the company.  

During the day and all next day you check your email looking especially for that mail. After the second day you realize that you will never going to receive it. You rewind all the discussions looking for a sign that could have told you what is going to happen. Nothing... So after putting the company or the recruitment agency on your blacklist and telling all your friends about what happened you decide to do the best thing you can: move on.

Respect is social value common for any society. Respect for parents, teachers, neighbors, relatives, people we know and especially people we don’t know. Respect is both given and received. Keeping your promises and taking responsibilities for your actions is also a sign of respect not only towards others but especially towards yourself.