Monday Motivation: Don't ask those questions - do this instead!

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Hey everyone and welcome to the Equipped Interview Podcast.
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With a combined 30 plus years of being interviewed and interviewing thousands of others, we're here to build your confidence, help you stand out and get your dream job.
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Your hosts are Joshua Tinkey and Linda Kamali.
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Let's get you equipped.
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As a reminder, in these short Monday episodes, we just bring you some motivation to help you push through that stressful, potentially stressful or even frustrating time of interview prep.
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We share quick, hit, practical tips, reminders and steps you can take to get your week going.
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The goal is to keep it around five minutes and jumpstart your week.
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For today's topic, we're going to make sure you avoid several big mistakes people make at the end of the interviewer when they ask you what questions do you have?
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For me, personally, I used to ask only the typical basic questions, things like where do you see the company in five years, or what's the biggest challenges you see in this role?
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These aren't the worst questions, but they're certainly not very engaging and they don't do what you need to have done, which is make the most of your opportunity and not use that as filler time just to get out of the room.
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If you really want to stand out, you have to transform not only your questions but your entire mindset and approach to that portion of the interview.
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We covered this briefly in the seven prep steps episode, but today we'll cover two things in a little more detail.
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First, how to transform your mindset.
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Second, the show method, which is it's the practical way we always recommend.
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How you ask those questions.
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Several years ago, I was given really fantastic advice from a mentor on how to completely change my strategy of asking questions at the end of the interview.
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So here's the premise the time at the end of the interviewer is not primarily for you to learn more about the job.
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It's actually a chance for you to share more about yourself, engage the interviewer in conversation and show them the real you.
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So, if you think about it, most of the interview is already over.
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It's behind you.
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Hopefully, the hardest, most stressful part's done, so you're less nervous and you're starting to relax a little bit.
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This is the time where you hopefully have a fighting chance of actually executing on that advice everyone gave you to just be yourself.
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So we've mentioned that your interviewer is trying to determine three things across any interview right.
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First, do you have the skills and competencies they need?
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Two, are you excited and passionate about the job.
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And then, third, and always do they like the skills and competencies they need?
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Two, are you excited and passionate about the job?
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And then, third, and always do they like you.
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So the interviewer has already written down their thoughts on your abilities, your skills and competencies.
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Now's the time for you to show them your passion in a little different way and what it's like to have more of a real conversation with you now that you're less nervous.
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So, while you're showing them more of the real you, it's also critical to demonstrate that you've done your research, you've been intentional about your prep and that you're really passionate about the role or maybe the organization or the industry as a whole.
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So that's how you transform your mindset, change it from just getting out of there to telling them more about you and engaging them in conversation and showing them.
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That's the whole gist of that, that's the transformation.
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So now, how do you do that?
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How do you set yourself up for success here?
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So, secondly, we recommend you use something we call the show method S-H-O-W.
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The last impression you have in that interview, of course, is the end right.
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This is the last impression they'll have of you and you'll be somewhat drained.
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So here's an easy, step-by-step approach you can use to prepare for those questions, so you don't have to remember as much.
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Going in S-H-O-W stands for S share something that you've learned, read, heard, watched, researched fill in the blank.
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Share something H have an opinion on that item, o opinion, get theirs this time.
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And W write and wonder.
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And that's right, as in write something down, write and wonder S-H-O-W.
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So we're going to just walk through each of these briefly and then that's today's episode S.
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When you think about sharing something that you've learned, read, heard, watched, etc.
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The key here is to do more than just a quick, no brainer question, probably wondering okay, what do I share?
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If you haven't done this before, if you've done it, you know how it works.
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But if you haven't, prior to the interview, you should do some digging, as you normally do anyway, but do some extra digging on the role, the company, industry, maybe the interviewers themselves.
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Among other options, I recommend obviously searching online through articles, podcasts, books, research papers, linkedin profiles, obviously the company's website, maybe looking for their mission, a purpose, a recent strategy change, some big initiatives, maybe something historical about the org, maybe a trend in your industry.
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The bottom line is look for topics that give you something to discuss that's relevant to the role and your skillset.
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H have an opinion.
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Once you've shared the research, give your own opinion on that topic.
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The best way to approach this is to not only give opinion on the facts but provide your thoughts on how the story, the article, industry, trend, how that could impact the company, the organization as a whole or the role that you're applying to.
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Oh, opinion, get theirs too.
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Now you can't just talk, right, you still need to ask a question.
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That's what you're there for.
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They say do you have any questions?
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And you say yes, so you share something that you've learned.
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Hey, I've read about this or heard about this topic.
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Here's my thought on that.
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Here's my opinion.
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Now I want to get yours.
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So this is where you turn everything into a conversation the the best way to have a robust conversation and get the interviewer to think is to ask for their own opinion.
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So, after you share yours, share what you've learned and shared your own opinion, it's time to get their opinion at this point and get them talking about their perspective.
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You know you've asked a great question if they sit back and have to really think for a minute.
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And either way, you're aiming for them to share their thoughts.
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So, whether they're already familiar with what you just shared the topic that you just brought up or not, it's a win.
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And W write and wonder.
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So why write and wonder?
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Because now it's time for you to actively listen and engage no-transcript either way.
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So how do you do this?
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Is you write and you wonder?
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Each of those kind of have two different memory triggers.
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For you, the right is to write down notes, keywords, phrases, resources, their opinion, something that the interviewer shares in response to you asking for their opinion.
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This just goes a long way to demonstrate your engagement.
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You don't have to capture everything they say, just key points.
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This shows that you're processing, you're thinking, you're engaged.
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What about wonder?
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So it's just one example, but it's a great way to continue the conversation after the hiring manager provides the opinion.
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So another way to think about this, though, is, if you don't like the word wonder, it's to be curious, be curious or wonder about what they said.
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Why is that their opinion?
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What else should, I know, dig into their response?
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So that's how you actually turn this into a conversation of back and forth, back and forth, rather than you just ask a question and then they answer, then it's over.
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So it could sound something like oh, that's really, really fascinating.
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You know, I didn't really think about it from that perspective.
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I wonder, if we changed this key element of it, would that change your opinion?
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Something like that.
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You use the word wonder as a memory trigger to get you to be curious and to ask a follow-up question to keep the conversation going.
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So there you have it.
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To summarize, that's S-H-O-W Share.
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Have an opinion, opinion, get theirs too and write and wonder S-H-O-W.
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Hope you enjoyed this Quick Hit Monday motivation episode.
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Stay tuned for our regular episodes and another Monday motivation episode next week.
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That's all for today, but let's keep the conversation going.
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Check out equippedinterviewcom.
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Be intentional, do the work and build your confidence to stand out in your next job interview.
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Thank you.