I’ve rarely heard someone exclaim that they’re looking forward to a job interview. But my client did, and I'll tell you why… After coaching, she knew exactly what to say in a non-scripted way. And she felt confident she could improvise in the moment, as she might in a natural conversation, no matter what came up.
That’s because a job interview is simply a conversation with a new person. And just like meeting new people, it can often awaken the stranger-danger anxiety that lies dormant inside you, likely a hang-over from our evolutionary past.
But unlike meeting a complete stranger, an interview is actually easier than you might think. That’s because…
🔸 You have a reason to be there.
🔸 You have a shared context to riff off.
🔸 You have a common knowledge pool to connect with.
It’s a matter of knowing how to touch into the places of greatest resonance.
🙋🏻♀️ My client wanted specifics.
She had a habit of slipping into a passive listening mode, thereby handing over all the controls and the flow of the conversation to the interviewer. This meant that when it came her turn to say something, she never felt prepared. She’d clam-up and then feel anxious, which would only get more intense as the interview progressed. After the interview she’d play it back and berate herself for missing the chance.
During our session, we explored the idea of listening with curiosity and feeling for the ‘landing pads’. I explained that these two moves would enable her to by-pass her inner critic and its castle in her thinking mind. They would also help her identify times when the conversation became more enlivened, even if only momentarily. Such ripples in energy would signal openings, opportunities, and places of resonance.
She did what we talked about. She connected strongly with her interviewers in a relaxed and confident way, listening and feeling for pockets of resonance. That made it so much easier to know what to say. No sooner had the interview ended when she was offered her dream job! 🎉😎
