Summary:
Match Your Strengths to the Company Profile
Once you have the relevant company information, you will need to work out the best way to convey what you can do and to demonstrate how you will add value to the organisation.
The best way to convince the boss that you can solve the problems and do the necessary work is to illustrate how you have solved similar problems and done similar work in the past. Based on your research of the company and the interviewer, choose the achievements you want to emphasise and decide on the way you want to present them. To be effective you should avoid using vague terms or clichés. Notice the difference in impact as you compare the following responses:
Stating Your Strengths
| Company's Job Critiera |
Avoid
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Appropriate
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| Leadership and Problem Solving Skills |
“I am strong in leadership and problem solving.”
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“I redirected a task force to accurately diagnose and solve the XYZ technical problem, saving the company $300,000 annually.”
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| Communication Skills |
“I get along with people.”
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“By going to the XYZ department personally several times, asking what concerns they had and encouraging an exchange of ideas, they became our greatest ally in the marketing process.”
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The process of recalling and writing your accomplishments will be extremely valuable during your job interviews. You will have opportunities to weave your accomplishments into interviews in a graceful, natural way. For example, as you get your interviewers talking about their problems, you can respond, “That reminds me of how we tackled a similar problem at XYZ Company.” It is important to write many more accomplishment statements than you actually use on your resume – to provide yourself with well thought out, specific illustrations of how you added value which you can draw from in an interview as you need them.
Of course, for the interview discussion you may need to elaborate on some aspect of the accomplishment statement. Be ready to expand appropriately once the interviewer indicates further interest in a particular action that you took.
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