Welcome to the Just Get Hired Newsletter!

I hope you’ve had a wonderful first week of 2024. This is the time most people are the most motivated and working on their goals. Don’t be like most people: start strong but make sure you have a plan to stick with your goals in the weeks and months to come.

In today’s issue we talk about job interviews. I’m confident you’ll have interviews knocking on your door soon enough if not already. Today, I’ll give you everything you need to be ready.

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• Connect with me on Linkedin here 

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Let’s get into it.

The key to succeeding in job interviews

When you step in a job interview, there are two things that are true:

1) You can’t prepare any more — you are what you are

2) The company thinks you are qualified and are rooting for you to succeed

Let me explain.

Everyone gets interview anxiety — that feeling in your gut before a job interviews that feels kinda like butterflies and kinda like you’re gonna throw up.

But once the interview begins, that’s it. You’ll have 30 minutes - hour (usually) to just be yourself and hope for the best.

You can’t suddenly have more work experience, you can’t learn a new skill, and you can’t research the company any more.

Also, the company ROOTING FOR YOU. I know it feels like a test where they’re hoping you’ll mess up at any moment, but it’s actually the opposite.

No company wants to waste their time. And they’re looking to fill a role, quickly. They want nothing more than for you to be the person to do that.

So all that’s left for you is to do your best. You do that by showing what it would be like if you joined their team.

I call this “interviewing like a team member”. Here’s how you do that:

1) Shift your mindset

Most people go into a job interview feeling stressed, in the spotlight, and nervous.

Instead, think about your last internal team meeting. Channel those feelings:

• Conversational

• Collaborative

• Familiar

• Casual

Come in like you belong on the team.

2) Research beforehand

To feel like you’re already on the team, you need to have knowledge like you are. Spend 30 minutes learning:

• The company’s business model

• Recent news and events of interest

• Potential problems they are facing

• Likely areas of interest for your role

You won’t be able to learn everything, but you can get close enough.

3) Set intentions in your intro

Pretty much EVERY job interview is going to begin with “tell me about yourself”.

This intro isn’t about you. It’s about your value to your potential employer.

Make sure it reflects that — keep it brief (90 seconds), and finish with something like:

“I’m specifically interested in this role for XYZ reasons and know I can help solve XYZ problems (taken from job description) for the team. I also saw you have XYZ going on from my research and am excited to learn more about htat during the interview.”

Prior to that close, I like the “past, present, future” format:

• 30 seconds on how you got to where you are today (e.g. education, prior work experience, formative stuff)

• 30 seconds on what you do today (current job / most recent work experience)

• 30 seconds on what you’re looking for next → including the closing sentence from above

4) Don’t dominate the conversation

Many interviews follow a “call and response” style: the interviewer asks a short question followed by monologues from the candidate.

Avoid this trap.

Answer questions directly and succinctly + allow the interview to share equally about the company (more on that next).

5) Ask clarifying questions

Interviews can feel like a vacuum. Questions asked in isolation.

But in real life, questions can rarely be simply asked and answered on the spot.

When faced with problems, ask clarifying questions about constraints, resources, priorities, and company values.

It will help you answer better and show your probelm soving acumen.

6) Follow your curiosities

Everyone knows you’ll have a chance to ask questions at the end of an interview.

But you don’t need to ‘wait’ until then.

As the interview progresses, if you have curiosities about the company, why certain questions are being asked, or the interviewers experience, ask them.

It helps avoid you dominating the conversation + employers love curiosity.

Here’s an example. Let’s say you’re interviewing for a social media role and they ask you about growing a TikTok account at a prior role.

You might answer with something like “I devised a content calendar that increased our production from 20 posts per month to 50 and helped grow our account from 10,000 followers to 100,000 followers over a 6 month period. One thing we did struggle with was aligning our brand voice across different social channels, I noticed you all have 12 different social accounts — have you thought about that problem and if so how do you think about that?”

This answer shows your competence, the fact that you’ve done research, and allows the conversation to naturally flow into a brainstorming session as if you were already on the team.

7) Learn their challenges

If they’re interviewing for a role, it means they have things that need to be solved.

Problems and challenges they’re facing.

Try to come in with assumptions (from research + JD) and ask about them.

Even if you’re wrong, they’ll clarify.

Understanding the problems + speaking to them will help you stand out.

8) Ask “insider” questions

When you do finally get to the ending “questions” part of an interview, ask “insider questions”.

Avoid “so what’s it like working here”.

Instead, ask things like:

• If this hire could solve one problem in their first 30 days what would it be?

• What qualities does it take to progress into a leadership role at this company?

9) Close the loop with a thank you note

After a real company meeting, you would expect a follow up note with next steps.

Take the initiative to do the same for your interviews.

In this case, you should cover:

• Appreciation for the opportunity

• Call out of notable conversation points

• Reiterating your value and excitement

Here’s to more interviews for you in 2024 and the offer you’re looking for.

One of my personal goals in 2024 is to grow this newsletter. If you get value out of my content, you can help by sharing the link below and getting credit for referrals :)

I appreciate you in advance!

-Ben