Ace that job interview: Fatemah Mirza

How to prepare for that critical job interview

Prepare for the standard and the unexpected questions

Episode 140 (Fatemah is based in Los Angeles, California)

In this conversation with Fatemah Mirza we explore:

• How to feel more comfortable with job interviews
• How to address those standard questions
• What "tell me about yourself" really means
• How to mitigate your red flags and time gaps
• How to tell enough without telling all
• Testing the fit between your personality and their culture

About Fatemah Mirza:

Fatemah started CareerTuners in 2010, through which she helps ambitious job seekers find, apply for and get higher-paying, more fulfilling jobs.

She helps job seekers take control of their job search. There are free resources about resume writing, Linkedin, salary negotiation and interviewing on the website.

https://careertuners.com/podcast/

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Excerpts from this conversation with Fatemah Mirza

The interview process itself is a key part of that. And that's something that a lot of people approach with, with trepidation. They're quite nervous, and they don't necessarily perform well. Why do you think they suffer so so greatly in an interview situation?

I think it's because you're putting yourself worth on the line. And that's really difficult for a lot of people, you're asking to be judged. And that's not fun. But if that's something you're struggling with, I recommend going out there and interviewing with companies that you just don't even want to work with. This will give you practice, you can even practice negotiating with them.

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I always wondered about the question. "Tell me about yourself". And I used to think that that was a lazy question. But then later I realized it's actually a brilliant question because people tend to answer it poorly. What did they do wrong? What should they do instead?

I think people tend to focus too much on themselves and their history as opposed to contextualize in what they've done to whatever the job is hiring for.

Transitions are so common now like transitioning from one field to another. So focusing too much on the field that you're trying to leave is not a good idea.

Even in that question. Tell me about yourself. You have to talk about, basically give the interviewer this message that I am the exact right fit for this position. I've been working towards this position my entire career history.

I have the adequate training for this position and I know the hard work that it's going to take for me to succeed in that position.

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You should ideally try to keep your answers to one to two minutes, you want to give the interviewer a chance to kind of mentally reset, because if you keep talking for too long, they might get disengaged, they only have a very limited attention span.

One to two minutes is about five to 10 sentences. And if you're like man, I'm really like short selling myself. I should be talking more about this once in a while. It's okay for one of your answers to be a little bit longer.

I could talk more about this if you like

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Your host is George Torok

George is a specialist in executive communication skills. That includes conversation and presentation. He’s fascinated by way we communicate and influence behaviors. He delivers training and coaching programs to help leaders and promising professionals deliver the intended message for greater success.

 

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