OK, so the interview went well… now it’s time to WIN that job. Watch this short video to learn how…

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Transcription

Hello, my name is Jennifer Whitt, Director at ProjectManager.com.

I hope you joined us for our last session on how to win a job interview. In that session, we were focused on the job interview and actually being the one to win a job interview. This whiteboard session is on three simple steps to actually win the job.

I’ll never forget coming out of college, I competed among some of the leading people in the technology industry and won a job that I was searching for. I was really excited about it. After I talked to the manager and asked him why he selected me, he said it was one simple thing; I followed up with a personal note card. Since that time, I’ve never forgotten, after the interview, to follow up promptly with a personal thank you card just to thank them for their time and some specific things. And since then, I’ve incorporated three simple things in every job interview or client interaction that I have. I wanted to share those with you.

Two key words that I want to remember always are follow-up and show interest. Number one, email. After the job interview, I think it’s important to promptly follow up with an email to identify what got you excited about that job. Was it the team? Was it some topic area that you’re interested in? Was it learning new responsibilities? Was it expanding your role as a team? Was it going to the next level in your professional development? How can you support their efforts? As a professional coming in as a project manager, what is it that you can provide that will help them? You can provide links, templates, and again, samples of some of your work. Then identify what you understood to be the outcome of the meeting and what the next steps would be, and how you will follow up.

Number two. The personal note card. There’s power in just sending something with your signature, your genuine thoughts, something specific about them, something that you found interesting about their experience, their background, or maybe their leadership style, or even the environment, that you learned in that job interview. Also maybe including some takeaways. Again, we said it was important that during the job interview you include samples of your portfolio, samples of templates, maybe some of the tools you use, some of the techniques, some of the methodologies.

Some things that I like to do, some of the interviews I deal with, have to do with development, or leading teams, or maybe speaking, so what I do is I may include a signed copy of the book. “Here’s Project Pain Reliever. I was a participant in developing that book, and writer of “Optimize Your Thinking.” Send them a signed copy and let them know how that would support the topic of their interest. Also, the actions. Following up on time and sending a reminder; “I look forward to our call tomorrow or next week,” and then maybe including some of the action items that you are responsible for.

Then, the bonus. I think it’s important, if you happen to lose this job interview, to lose gracefully. You never know. That opportunity may not be the right fit for you, but that same manager, that same interviewer, that same project manager, whoever you were interviewing with, may have a different opportunity for you that’s even a better fit and even in that way you actually win that job.

If you need any additional tips, tools, or techniques to help you win that job and provide additional information for your interviewer, feel free to visit us at ProjectManager.com.