I am sure you have all seen tips, tricks and lists that provide “advice” for your job search and the interview process. However most of it is either not applicable to this job environment, or hokey advice meant to drive blog traffic.

nexus IT group wants to talk about real job interview advice. Something you can read, and apply in a job interview. Yes, some of it will be review, but the hope is to take a refreshing approach rather than a slideshow with stock photos.

Find your passion.

This doesn’t mean only apply for roles as a dance instructor. You can find something your passionate about in almost every position you apply to. Applying to work in Desktop Support? Then your passion can be working with individuals, customer service, problem solving, etc. Maybe you are looking for a position in management. Then your passion can be leadership, creating bonds amongst a team, or creating solutions through creative direction.

The bottom line is find out what your passion is, and then build on it. This doesn’t have to be your strongest point, but if you focus is on it during an interview it will show that you care about the role and growth in the company.

Be yourself.

There are a hundred different ways to ask a question. Think you can script out some answers to that list of frequent interview questions you found online? A good interviewer can ask the same question in several different ways without you even realizing it. They do this to catch you off guard. Is that a bad thing? Not really, a smooth communicator can talk his way through an interview without giving a single genuine answer, so it is important to get down to the core of who you truly are. The interviewer’s job is to surprise you so they can see the true you. If you’re genuine in the interview and don’t know some of the answers, it looks a lot better than a wall of scripted responses.

Some people struggle with things like answering the question “what your greatest weakness is.” Be truthful. Maybe you can focus intently on one aspect of your job, but have a hard time multitasking. Or you have a hard time communicating with your team members without sounding too direct. If your genuine about your weaknesses, you can develop them and transition them to become strengths over time. What you shouldn’t do is answer that question with, “I work too many hours”. That will put a bad taste in any interviewer’s mouth. You are basically saying “I don’t think I have any weaknesses, and I will have a humility problem at work.”

Being vulnerable creates relationships.  Diversity is respected. If an interviewer stops cold because you are genuine about your weakness, but they feel it detracts from your ability to work, then I don’t know why you would want to work there in the first place.

Elaborate.

This point is key.

Okay, so incase I didn’t make my point, elaborating on your answers are more important than you think. Before you get any crazy ideas, I am not suggesting you ramble on, but you should add some meat to your responses. If the interviewer asks you a tough question, or one that is broad, there is a trick to answering it correctly every time.

Say they ask you “tell me about a time that you dealt with a difficult employee.” That is a tough, open ended question. However you can answer it correctly by rephrasing the question in your answer. For example,

 “When you say difficult employees I think of two different situations. The first situation being an employee whom is going through a rough period, or is having trouble with performance. The second situation would be an employee that is being disruptive or detrimental to the organization”

You could then go on to talk about situations within the two examples. This gives the interviewer a chance to interject and correct your assumption, or judge your answer based on your guidelines.

This takes some practice, but can keep you from misinterpreting a line of questioning and missing out on that ideal opportunity.

And that’s it.

These three actionable snippets of advice should put you on the right track in your interview process. There are some other benefits as well, finding your passion and rephrasing questions really helps build on your communication skills. If there is one secret to a job interview, it is that communication is the end all be all. If you can communicate well, you will get a position that you love.

www.nexusitgroup.com  is an up-and-coming IT recruiting and consulting firm that combines boutique firm attention with a national reach and niche expertise, while consistently delivering first-class service. nexus IT group, Inc. mission is to provide a refreshing approach to IT staffing by providing a customer and candidate experience that unmatched in the industry.