To successfully pass an interview, you need to be able to prove to the employer that you are the most suitable candidate for the open position. Self-presentation, confident behavior at the interview, specific and clear answers to the employer’s questions are very important.
Therefore, it is unlikely to avoid talking about your personal and professional achievements.
So, let’s start with this.
Why do employers ask about your achievements?
Employers ask about your professional achievements not out of idle curiosity, but because they want to check the following:
1. How suitable you are as a candidate for this particular position.
2. How you react to “hot” topics, they try to provoke you to frankness instead of listening to pre-prepared answers to possible questions.
3. Whether you can analyze your work activities, set goals, and successfully solve them.
Thus, you need to understand your achievements in advance, so that the employer cannot stump you with there questions.
How to determine your personal and professional achievements?
In advance, in a calm setting, you need to do the following:
1. Analyze your work activities at your current and previous jobs.
Think back to what you did in certain completed time periods, what tasks management set you, how you accomplished them, and what the results were.
2. Were there any compliments from management, clients, or colleagues for completed projects, tasks?
It makes sense that what you were valued for professionally by your supervisors and coworkers is in fact your work accomplishments.
3. What results have you achieved in your personal life?
Analyze what personal achievements you are proud of. For example, you may have learned a foreign language, come first in a city marathon, lost weight, or learned to embroider.
4. How can you confirm all this?
So as not to look presumptuous at the job interview, it will be much better if you have proof of your professional and personal achievements on hand. These can be photographs, graphs, certificates, certificates of appreciation, letters of gratitude, etc. (Excluding what falls under the category of commercial secrecy.)
5. Write down your answers in writing. Describe or attach evidence.
If you do not put this on paper, you risk forgetting something important or missing significant details. As for the confirming documents, they should be prepared and placed in a separate folder to keep on hand.
So, now all you have to do is successfully pass the interview.
How to correctly talk about achievements in a job interview?
Thorough preparation is only half the battle. You have been invited to the company, but you need to make a good impression.
To do this, you need to do the following:
1. Prepare your presentaion in advance.
A story about yourself, and especially about your achievements, needs to be practiced in front of a mirror or with a relative several times so that, when you are face to face with the employer, you feel confident.
2. Start talking about your professional achievements as soon as possible, without waiting for the interviewer to ask.
The employer needs to be interested as soon as possible, so don’t waste any time getting to the point.
3. You can mention your achievements in a short story about yourself, saying that if your interlocutor is interested, you can further cover this topic in more detail.
Your partner will probably be interested, want to hear more details and will listen attentively twice as much.
4. Back up your words with real evidence of your professional achievements.
As mentioned above, the necessary documents and arguments should be at your fingertips.
Don’t let the employer relax. Strike them with your full force!
Well, if you’ve done everything right, the company will surely not want to miss out on such a valuable employee and will offer a job or at least invite you for a second interview with a superior manager, which is not a bad thing either.
We wish you to successfully pass the interview and – many achievements, big and small!
