How do you use NLP in a job interview? The possibilities are endless really.
My first recommendations to use NLP in a job interview is not to make things too complicated for yourself.
- Using these tools and techniques that are automatic or within your comfort zone.
- Using tools which are, for you, the simple pieces of NLP that you can easily apply.
- Understanding that there are two sides to an interview: your verbal and non-verbal behavior, and that of the interviewer.
Tip #1
Decide on which emotion you wish to have before the interview. I think good ones to go for are confidence, curiosity, feeling of flow. Before you go into the building, make sure that you can be in the chosen emotion state or states. this could be anchoring (circle of excellence), associating into a time you felt this emotion, or visualizing something that makes you feel this way. Also make sure that nothing gets in the way of switching into this emotion like rushing to be on time, getting stuck in the rain, forgetting things you should bring. Keep in mind things that help with changing into this emotion; for example, I would make sure that I could walk around the building to switch. Positive emotions will make you perform better, be more creative, be more flexible, and be more open.
Tip #2
During preparation, future pace, meaning you imagine what you would see, hear, and feel at the end of a successful interview. The positive emotions, feeling of flow, relief, achievement.
Tip #3
It has scientifically been proven that next to future pacing, it also helps do the same thing with the stepping stones towards the end of the interview. For example: your preparation, your packing list, making it there, them asking you questions, you asking them questions, etc. The whole movie.
Tip #4
Pay attention to whether the interviewer uses predominantly visual, auditory, or kinesthetic words. It may indicate what their preferred way of processing information is. To a visual person, you visually describe things. You use auditory words and descriptions for an auditory person. And to a kinesthetic person, you communicate feelings, and things like movement or actions. Worst case, use a combination of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic experiences.
Tip #5
Speak at the same speed and tonality (using your voice) as the interviewer. For instance, sometimes nervous or visual people talk very fast. This may be very hard to follow for the interviewer and generally gives a weak impression. If the interviewer talks too fast for you to follow, speak at a slower speed.
Tip #6
If you have “NLP Training” on your resume, do not physically match, mirror, and cross-over mirror (copying their body language). This is usually what people look for when they know someone is NLP trained. You are much better off using the types of words they use. That’s also rapport. Or their non-verbal gestures.
Tip #7
They will ask you if you have any questions. Prepare a few NLP meta-model questions.
- What specifically …?
- Who specifically …?
- How specifically …?
- Etc.
Now make sure that your questions don’t just give you the information that you need from them, but also are the type of questions the right candidate would ask. The right candidate is the person with the best fit in the job, in the team, and in the boss-employee relationship.
Tip #8
Usually, when people prepare for an interview, or when they are in the conversation, they think of their own position. The first perceptual position: What do you want, what are you going to say, the emotions you will feel.
But what would happen if you were flexible? You would be able to step into their shoes and know what they feel, need, want. What is it that you know about this person, their age, what they do day to day, etc.? In essence, they need to approve you as a candidate, and you are to do some work for them, to make their job easier or their job success larger. So not considering this position at all is a mistake.
You can also prepare to step into dissociation, the third perceptual position, where you are an observer of yourself and the person.
Tip #9
Put the interview subtly into the position where you also have power without being arrogant. Often interviewees show up as the weaker person because they want the job. However, many people I know place the company in the hopes of being in a more vulnerable position. You are interviewing them! This is a careful line to follow, but a thing to consider. How can you appear to be the strongest candidate they wish to hire? I have been to places where I had to pitch something to get approval for, and had the other person pitching to me instead.
Tip #10
What are your values? You have to know by the end of this interview if the job and the company you will be working in is aligned with your values and your life goals. Your career needs to give you positive emotions, engagement, flow, positive relationships, meaning, purpose, achievement, accomplishment. And can you balance your life wheel: career finance, personal development, spirituality, physical environment, fun and leisure time, physical and mental health, significant other, family, and friends. It is OK for you to say no to a job that will make you miserable.
Tip #11
Do you know someone who interviews well? Meet with this person, don’t just ask for tips and how they do it. Ask if you can role-play an interview as the employer, with them as the applicant.
Other important things:
- Ask yourself the question, what would the behavior (not just the emotion) of a good interviewee be?
- Listen and also speak and find the right balance. The one where you are in a stronger position and the other person feels like the most important person in the room.
- Be yourself. Authenticity is attractive.
- SMILE. There are so many scientific studies that indicate smiling make a huge difference in communication.
- Job interviewing is storytelling. Prepare in a way that you can be a storyteller who someone wants to listen to.
- Be specific about your experience, not just your job title but what you did. Only using vague statements puts someone else in a trance, and they may assume someone else did the work rather than you. People with the right job experience can give specifics.
- Come across as a player. Not a passenger, who freely coasts along. Also, not a prisoner, who is unhappy where they are now. You are the do-er, the action taker, the closer, the person who gets stuff done.
- Scientifically it has been proven that the beginning of a conversation sets the tone for that conversation. It immediately shifts someone into an emotional state. Rather than beginning with “wow the weather is terrible today” (starting with a negative), you could start with “I have been looking forward to this interview.”
Yes, staying away from the Milton model is intentional on our part. Overuse of it will make you a guaranteed failure, so use normal, natural language. Any Global NLP Training student will have some of it naturally already in unconscious competence. You don’t even realize you are doing it.
How would you use NLP during a job interview?
