Interview Skills Training Course. Communication skills training courses, presentation skills programmes, public speaking, leadership development and executive coaching.

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Interview Skills Training Course

Open Interview Skills Training Course

(Click here for Targetted Interview Skills Training)

Interviews can be scary things! How often do you have to present yourself as the answer to someone's prayers?

This one-day interview skills course is for anyone who has an important interview coming up or who needs to master the art of interviewing well.

Interview Skills is run by Liz McKechnie   and Bronia Szczygiel

Whilst we are often comfortable considering our many faults and mistakes, not many of us are that comfortable singing our own praises. To succeed at an interview we are expected to present our very best side and take credit for our achievements - both as an individual and part of a group.

And what if we don't succeed? How do you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again?

In this interview skills programme we look at all the ways that you personally can maximise the chances of succeeding at interview and how to deal with rejection when it comes.

Interview Skills Course Objectives

* To look at all the factors that affect an interview situation
* To help delegates prepare an impactful personal statement
* To raise delegates awareness of the impression they make and how to change it
* To look at different sorts of questions and how to deal with them
* To explore ways of using rejection to feed success

Interview Skills Course Programme

Icebreaker

We'll have a 'getting to know you' energising warm up to put people in an interviewing frame of mind.

Introduction by Impact Factory on our style of working

Delegate Input

This interview skills course is always adapted to the needs of the people who turn up on the day, so here delegates will be asked what they specifically would like from the course.

What is a good interview?

We unpick what happens at the ideal interview.
How does the ideal interviewee behave?
When you have been at a successful interview what worked?

Interview Preparation

Preparing for an interview - whatever the interview - is essential.

Why are you having it?
Why have they asked you?
How well do you know them - who they are and what they do?
What's the outcome you want?
What do you think or assume is the outcome they want?

These are just some of the questions you need to ask yourself in preparation for any kind of interview.

Who am I? First Impressions

In the blink of an eye we create a first impression. This can happen as we enter the room.

It has been said that an interview is decided in the first 10 seconds - not a lot of time to make a good first impression. We have a slightly different view.

Participants will get a chance to demonstrate a variety of physical 'first impressions', firstly to see how easy it can be to change an 'impression', but also to see that even if they start off on the wrong foot, there are things they can do to recover. In other words, you do have a second chance to make a good first impression!

Nerves

We take a look at what happens to us when we become nervous. Participants try some practical ways to help the interview butterflies fly in formation.

Dress

What do our clothes say about us? How do we choose what to wear according to the circumstances of the interview?

Eye contact

When stress and nerves enter the equation it can be difficult to remember to simply look in the right direction and how do we know which interviewer we should be looking at anyway?

This interview skills exercise shows different ways to use eye contact to help to calm nerves, receive information, and present a confident image.

Handshakes

What does our handshake say?

We experiment with different types, the Presidential, the Wet Fish, the Fingertip Touch, The Vice etc.

Which one would you choose?

Table Dynamics

Here we look at what happens around the table. Delegates have a chance to try different seating patterns and look at the effect they have.

How much can you alter the dynamic by moving your chair?
What happens if you lean forward or sit back?

Five minute me

What is the personal story you have to tell?
What are the most important points?
Participants have the chance to tell their story in one minute using a model to guide them

Interview Hooks

What are the seeds you can sow to influence an interviewer to ask you about your chosen subject?

A pairs exercise where we try to influence each other to talk about a topic of our choosing.

Why me? Why this job?

A brainstorm on flip charts where we look at each participant's values and qualities.

What are the requirements of the job?
Where is the correlation between the two?

Listening and the Power of the Pause

A pairs exercise where we look at the power of the listener.

We also look at how to respond leaving pauses for the other person to fill, or even how to allow a natural pause without acting on the urge to fill it.

Being a Good Story Teller

As well as being a good listener, it's very helpful if you can be a good story-tellerl. Just giving facts and figures is boring. Bring those facts and figures to life - use what you've done in the past to illustrate and make real those facts and figures. That’s an interview skill worth working at.

Passion

Learn how to inject your interview with passion whilst at the same time not overwhelming the interviewer/s.

Handling difficult interview questions

Being wrong-footed is everyone's interview nightmare. Or being asked a tricky question and finding your mind goes completely blank.

This exercise helps you deal with what happens when you really want the earth to open up and swallow you.

Handling rejection

Whether it's a job interview, an interview for a promotion, an interview to see whether you should be included in a project or on a training programme - whatever the nature of the interview, rejection can be tough. Even if you never wanted it in the first place, it's quite easy to get a bruised ego.

Here we look at how you can take care of yourself if you are on the receiving end of 'no thank you'.

Let's Do It

Here we have a chance to replay recent or rehearse upcoming interviews using the techniques covered in the day.

'You are enough'

Personal Style

Each delegate will identify their own interview strengths and qualities and then receive positive feedback from their fellow course participants on what they perceive as their strengths and /or what they have seen them do that works for them.

Personal Take Out

Each person will have an opportunity to say

What they are taking away from the interview skills course

What specifically they know they will use

Where they will practise

Handouts will include:

Job Interview Skills - Going for a Job
Impact Factory's guide to getting the job you really want.

Web cards which give access to our extensive library of useful documents

Interview Skills Course

   

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