Keep the Interviewer’s Perspective in Mind

Many career experts would tell you the same strategy: keep the interviewer’s perspective in mind, which means you must try your best to answer interviewer’s “what’s in it for Me?” question.

While many questions asked during job interviews appear to focus on your past accomplishments, here’s an important tip: they may be asking about what you did, but what they really want to know is what you can do now, for them.

Think of the disclaimer that accompanies every advertisement for a mutual fund or investment brokerage: “Past performance is not an indicator or guarantee of future returns.” Or imagine Janet Jackson asking, “What have you done for me lately?” That’s the interviewer’s perspective.

The key is to talk about your past accomplishments in a way that shows how they are relevant to the specific job for which you are interviewing. Doing advance research about the company will be extremely helpful.

For example, when the interviewer asked, “What’s your greatest accomplishment?” You might answer, “I won an Olympic Gold Medal.” Indeed that’s great accomplishment which you should be very proud of, but remember the interviewer’s perspective. Your interviewer would be impressed, but he’s thinking “What’s in it for me? What an Olympic Gold Medal can do with helping me to increase business productivity?”

A better answer could be, “I developed and implemented a web-based inventory control system to automate inventory management in our company. My system helped our company increasing productivity in our warehouse by 40%. I was named Employee of the Year because of this accomplishment.” This answer is much less spectacular, but it’s relevant to the position and indicates that you have what it takes to be successful in this particular job. It tells the interviewer, “I have what you’re looking for; I can help you with your specific needs.” Looks like you have a new job!