How to succeed in an interview

Learn some simple, tried and tested techniques that can make all the difference at your next interview.

We spoke to Michael Beale, Principal of PPI Business NLP, who revealed some easy-to-master approaches to help you shine in front of your next employers.

Michael, who teaches top business professionals communication and influencing skills, says that although some of these approaches may appear slightly ‘off the wall’ on first reading, the trick is to actually try them out, and see which are right for you. “The strange thing is, some of them do work very well,” he explains. “What’s important is to play around and explore these approaches. What doesn’t work, put that to one side. But if you keep on exploring, you will find things that work for you.”

How to choose your state for optimum performance

In the first of our series, Michael explains how your ‘state’ will influence how you come across at interview. And how you can easily learn to change your state at will, to set the scene for a great interview.

If you’re going for an interview, and you’re a bit frightened or nervous about the idea, it’s worth considering which states it would be useful for you to be in when you’re in front of the panel. ‘States’ are things like ‘interested’, ‘curious’, ‘passionate’, ‘knowledgeable’, ‘confident’ etc.

Take some time and think about which states would enable you to come over in the right way. I usually get people to think of as long a list as possible.

And this works because the state that you’re in, and the beliefs that you hold, will directly lead all of your behaviour. So if you’ve got a reasonable state, and a reasonable set of beliefs, you’re much more likely to perform well on the day.

Ask yourself, what do you think are the sorts of states it would be worthwhile to be in, to perform for the better? If you went in in a genuinely interested state, just for example, then you will tend to listen to people, you tend to ask questions – in fact your state will have an impact on the other people in the room.

Choose how would you like to come over

So, if you had a total choice about how you could come over, how would you want to come over? And you might also want to think about what would work for those interviewing you, because if you can imagine that, that can really help you. Take some time to work out which are the right states that will be most effective.

Pick what’s right for you

Then just pick three or four states. At this point, people often come up with words like ‘confident’, ‘curious’, ‘interested’, ‘knowledgable’, ‘determined’, ‘tenacious’ ‘energetic’ ‘excited’; you may even choose ‘mischievous’ – although that one definitely won’t work for some interviews! But there again, it might work for others!

So as an example, let’s try ‘interested’; so what you do is, remember a specific time in your life when you were interested. There must have been lots of them. Just put yourself back so you’re at that time. Imagine what you could see, imagine what you could hear, and remember what you felt. Then – and this may sound daft – just tap your thumb and your finger together, as you remember that state.

Don’t try too hard

What you can do as a rehearsal every now and then before the event, is to just remember that time, and bring back those images, bring back those sounds and feelings, and click your thumb and finger together – and then forget about it. It’s a very simple exercise, and you don’t have to try too hard or take more than say thirty seconds over it.

You can add other useful states too. So say you wanted to add ‘confident’ too, because you think that would be useful in your interview: just repeat the process - remember a time when you felt really confident, in any context. And you do the same thing again - remember what you saw then; remember any sounds; and finally, what were those feelings of confidence? Ask yourself, how do you know you felt confident? And the answer to that is normally some sort of bodily sensation. And as you remember that, just tap a different finger to your thumb. And again, for confident, and for other states you want to add, rehearse them from time to time before the event.

Set the scene for a great interview

Then, as you walk up to your interview, just do exactly the same thing: remember that time when you were interested – or whatever states work for you – and tap your thumb and finger; remember that time when you were confident, and so on. And you will find that you will bring back those memories of that state, and for a period of time you will get into that state.

This state thing is very important. If you’re in a good state from the beginning, you’re setting the scene for your interview - or any other meeting or event you have coming up in your life. You’re creating an initial impression, of someone who is interested in what is going on, who has an air of confidence, so you’re setting up the thing to go in the right direction. And it can overcome feelings of anxiety and nervousness.

But remember, when you’re actually in your interview, don’t bother too much about any of this, because what you really want to be doing is listening to and watching what’s going on!

How to access the states you want:

• Choose the state you'd like to be in at your interview
• Remember a time when you were in that state
• Think about what you saw, heard and felt
• Click your thumb and finger together
• Repeat for other states as required, using other fingers
• Rehearse each a few times before your interview
• Repeat the process just before your interview begins
• Then focus on what's going on in the room!

Check back again soon for other interview tips from Michael Beale.