Self Evaluation for Job Interview Success

I am going to ask you to keep an open mind over this next paragraph, because as the title suggests this next section is about taking inventory of all the skills and abilities you offer your target employer. And most people when I introduce the topic, say they know everything they need to about themselves, and ask me to get on with it.

Well I’ve interviewed; and myself been unhappy in a job I thought I was suited to. So I am not going to let this stage go without making a couple of what I see as critical points.

Firstly to re-establish that for the employer; hiring somebody is a buying decision based on logical and emotional criteria, weighed on the scales of risk (miss hiring is a really expensive, and common mistake for employers).

For you to win the job offer you have to demonstrate and PROVE that you have the logical and emotional attributes they are looking for. The amount of proof you can supply reduces the risk in the employer’s eyes.

Therefore taking an accurate and professional inventory of you is essential. If you get your “ducks in a row” at this point it will really help you to structure your marketing messages. The outcomes will be honest and compelling for your target, rather than relying on injecting the usual “power words” which often come over as hype and spin.

This stage can also help you avoid terrible career decisions. I’ll use myself as an example of this point. Early career I was in sales. I thought I liked it, and was suited to it, but I did not realise that I had to adapt some of my natural behaviour to succeed. Adapting ones natural behave by a wide margin, makes for stress, de-motivation, unhappiness, more stress, you can see were this is leading…

It wasn’t until I started taking these new fangled (they were at the time) personality and motivational assessments that I realised, how off track I was.

Anyway the whole exercise is made simple and quick by a great free internet service (there is a paid version if you really like the self analysis stuff – but the free service is sufficient for most). Take a free online free motivational assessment test.

Wandering off into the wilderness used to be the preferred method of “finding oneself”, but with responsibilities and time constraints as they are, completing one of these online assessments with give you “fast food” solution, that is really very, very good.

If you want to know more, I’ve reviewed the MAPP Motivational  Assessment service in detail here

Otherwise sign up and take the MAPP test here

This will take you about 40 minutes and will give you:-

• What tasks motivate you and what tasks don’t – this may surprise you!
• Really professional and honest wording to describe yourself in your marketing materials – can be inspiring!
• You may face one of these tests as part of your interview, so why not have a practice run before the big day.

Once you’ve completed your test, you can get it sent to your email, or leave it on the MAPP website where you retain password access to it.

I suggest downloading it and printing it out.

MAPP themselves give a lot of information regarding how best to interpret the report. And I will add more information if requested (leave comments at the bottom of the page). But the principals are straight forward, ideally you want to work in areas that are motivational to you, avoid work that scores high negative motivational points. I realise most jobs have elements within them that you may strongly dislike, which you cannot avoid, but you may be able to delegate, or structure your day to get this work done when your fresh and full of life.

The results here often surprise people; I know some of this stuff surprised me.

The big WARNING sign here is if the work you’re doing or considering is mostly made up of negative motivational aspects. I know we have bills to pay, but extensive exposure to this sort of work will eventually suck the life out of you.

The point in asking you to complete a MAPP test or review similar tests you may have recently completed is two fold. Firstly as a checkpoint that career direction is on track and secondly for ideas and inspiration for developing your marketing messages.

As the words you choose to describe yourself are vital, both in print and spoken, we are trying to get the perfect balance, of using the most compelling words to appeal to your target, without over hyping or spinning things away from reality.

Yes; over hyping yourself at interview can on occasion win you jobs, but roles won based on misrepresentation don’t often end well.

As most of us are not great actors it’s also much easier to be confident and outgoing, when our script is based on the truth.

Right next step is to start filling in your side of the Target Employer Profile using both your own information and experience and where appropriate input from the MAPP assessment.

Input video.

Our next major task is to build your marketing silver bullet, your offer employers can’t refuse, but before doing that I want to plan an idea your mind, so the next page is about the skills and attributes that all employers want, and how we can use this information to our offer winning advantage…

Popularity: 1%

Be Sociable, Share!

•