A career coach and job search expert has shared four rules to follow in a job interview to calm nerves and make it a better experience both for you and the person interviewing you
A career coach and job search guru has dished out her top four rules to perform well in a job interview.
Shay Loko regularly offers advice on job hunting and nailing interviews. Preparing for an interview can feel daunting and many people get nervous before they step into this intense and sometimes stressful situation.
Based in London, Shay has given jittery candidates advice on how to nail their next interview. She understands that people often let their nerves get in the way during an interview and they forget one essential thing.
In a TikTok video, she advised: “You failed your last interview not because you were not qualified but because you view your interviewer as up here and yourself as down here. There’s one thing I could tell everyone about interviews that they need to understand is this. Interviews are conversations.
“In order for you to turn your next interview into a conversation, here are my rules that I want you to follow. These are very, very simple. Everyone can do this.”
Break the mould
One key tip she emphasises is to “break the mould” at the start of your interview, since you could very well be candidate number five that day. “Put yourself in the shoes of the interviewer for a second,” she advised.
“You might be their fifth interview of the day. They are bored. Everyone is asking them the same thing. When they say, ‘Hey, how are you?’, you don’t say, ‘I’m good, thanks’, you say something different. You bring some energy.”
She shared a time when she had a flower delivery and placed the flowers next to her for a video call interview later so she could show the flowers to the interviewer. Shay emphasised that the “goal is to be memorable and likeable.”
Don’t save all your questions for the end
If you’re going for a job interview, it’s likely you’ll have some questions ready to ask the interviewer. However, Shay advised against leaving these until the end of the interview.
She claimed this is the “key thing behind making the interview a conversation.” The job search expert suggested to “make sure you weave questions throughout the conversation.”
For instance, when an interviewer asks the common question ‘tell me about yourself’ and you share your background, you should then ask ‘does that fit with the normal background that you would see someone getting into this role having?’
She explained that posing questions throughout the interview allows you to turn the interview into a “back and forth” dialogue between you and the interviewer, transforming it into a conversation.
Ask questions you – and they – genuinely care about
Shay advised: “This is now referring to the questions at the very end. Ask about the person that’s interviewing you. Ask them about their background. People’s favourite thing to do is talk about themselves.”
She suggests that asking your interviewer about themselves can demonstrate your interest in learning about them, just as they are interested in learning more about you.
Remember they have a life outside of this interview
You might remember being a child and being shocked to bump into your teacher on a weekend. Shay also reminds us that interviewers have lives outside of their professional roles, just like our favourite educators did when we were young.
She believes that remembering this can help reduce nerves and foster genuine interest in the conversation. The career coach’s video has amassed 124,100 views, 10,500 likes, and dozens of comments at the time of writing.
Her post caption reads: “I promise you’re not bad at interviews. You’re letting your nerves make you forget that this is simply a two way conversation! ! ” One user commented: “Your personality will always help you land a job” which received 400 likes, making it the top comment.
Another user added: “Interview convo as an intro is KEYYY. I always yap eg: ‘yes I’m good, except my cats have been going crazy all morning etc etc!! ‘ – whole interview turns into a chat and then later, a job offer.”
A third person backed Shay’s suggestion, writing: “Treating interviews as a conversation is such a game changer.” Shay’s video also prompted a flurry of other comments from those who praised her tips, including “love this advice”, “great advice! ” and “great tips!”