Overcoming imposter syndrome in interviews

Why do candidate struggle to “sell themselves” during an interview? What is the point of an interview? Seems like a pretty easy question, right? It’s an opportunity for the interviewer to get a clear understanding of who you are, what you do and your alignment to the role they are recruiting for.

If that’s the case than why do we hear time and time again that people struggle to “sell themselves” during the moment of truth? If I had a dollar for every time a marketer I was interviewing told me “I could sell ice to an eskimo but I struggle to market myself?” I wouldn’t need to buy a tattslotto ticket!

TL;DR
To combat the difficulty of 'selling yourself' in an interview, candidates must overcome imposter syndrome by being thoroughly prepared and confidently articulating their past achievements and personal value-add.

Key Takeaways:

• Interviews are a crucial opportunity to clearly showcase your unique value and alignment with the role.

• Always highlight and be ready to discuss your key achievements, focusing on the specific impact you personally delivered to the organisation.

• Be overprepared by thoroughly researching the company, their competitors, and the role's core competencies.

• Practice structured answering techniques like the CAR format (Challenge, Action, Result) for effectively articulating your experience.

• Be confident in your experience that secured the interview, and allow your authentic personality and enthusiasm to shine.

• Recruiters note that candidates with a positive attitude can often move forward even if they are a more junior option.

• Be articulate and concise in your responses; clearly stating your value is being clear, not arrogant.

It’s pretty plain and simple – interviews are your opportunity to showcase who you are and what you can do for an organisation and if the person who walks into the interview room right after you does a better job of selling themselves then you are potentially doing yourself out of a role that you could be a better fit for!

So let’s break it down:

Highlight your wins

I find it absolutely shocking when candidates do not have their key achievements on their CV.

There are potentially hundreds of people who have the technical skills to do a role, but none will have exactly the same experience as you.

Hiring Managers want to understand what you delivered in your role, what kind of an impact did YOU make in the organisation in your role, because this experience is something only you can bring.

Discussing these key achievements will often shape the interview and not having a CV with them clearly listed might see you not landing an interview at all.

Be prepared!

It is always better to go into an interview over prepared than underprepared, that way you wont be rattled during the interview if it is more formal than you’re expecting.

Practice the funnel technique, have your achievements prepared in CAR format (See: The Art of Interviewing) and read over the PD to understand the key competencies they are looking for in the role and have examples prepared demonstrating your abilities in these area.

Additionally, research the business, have insights that you can share about the category they play within or what their competitors are doing in the space so that you can share these with the hiring manager and they can get an insight into your thinking.

Be confident in who you are and what you do

Recruiters or HR Teams can receive upwards of 50 – 200+ applications for a role, you are not in that interview because of luck or chance, it’s because your CV and experience aligns to the role they are recruiting.

Confidently talk through what you have achieved and let your personality shine. If they don’t move forward with your application because they don’t think you are culturally a good fit for the organisation, then chances are you wouldn’t have enjoyed it there either. You can only pretend to be something you’re not for so long.

Also don’t hide your passion and enthusiasm – I’ve had numerous examples of clients moving forward with candidates who were maybe a more junior option because they were impressed with their positive attitude.

In short, you only have one opportunity to impress, so don’t miss out on a great new role because you weren’t confident enough to own it in an interview.

Follow the structure, be articulate and concise. Don’t worry about being arrogant, you’re just being clear in what you’ve done and the value you can add to an organisation.

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