Selling Yourself in the Job Interview 137
10
Selling Yourself
in the Job Interview
C 137 c
ONE OF THE most stressful speaking situations is the job interview.
And, unless I miss my guess, we’ve all been through it one time or
another. If you really need that job, if it seems your whole life
depends on it, the stress can be almost unbearable.
I have a friend who worked hard all his life, earned a decent
salary, and reached a prestigious position in his field. Suddenly,
because of a merger, he found himself out of work, jobless. Be-
cause he and his wife had put several children through college and
had supported more than one indigent family member, they had
very few assets. Now, he had no job. After months of looking, his
resumé made an impression on a potential employer and he was
asked to come in for an interview.Desperation can kill the deal
My advice to my friend (and you) was, “Whatever you do,
don’t panic.”
“But everything, everything, everything is riding on this one
interview,” you say.
Maybe so, but if you’re desperate and it shows, you haven’t
got a chance. That piece of advice is really the key to success in
the job interview and in every other form of communication. When
an interviewer or an audience sees you squirm, becomes aware of
your desperation, you’re almost certain to be a loser.