Top Secrets for Landing Your Dream Job

So what do you do if you're in a job interview and all of a sudden you're blindsided by a question out of left field? It's not something you were expecting, yet it's a job interview. You feel the pressure. You feel like, I got to answer something. I could mess up my career. I might not get the job from it. So it's completely natural to be concerned about this, to be a little anxiety about this. I get it, I understand it. But. Timeout. Let's take a step back. Here's what might be happening. The prospective employer might be testing you. They don't expect you to know the answer. They simply want to. How do you react to stress? How do you react to surprise? How do you expect or react to the unknown? That's what they're doing sometimes. The key thing is, don't get angry, don't get upset. Don't say, how dare you. Don't act all flustered. I don't know. Because that becomes the most memorable moment of your interview. That can tell them you're someone who. Who doesn't react well to pressure. I can tell them that you don't react well to other people throwing surprises at you. And in so many job places, so many workplaces, they're surprised, especially if you're dealing with the public. So what is important is not that you have the answer to every single question. That's impossible. You could spend 10 years preparing for a job interview thinking of every possible question. By that point, the job's probably obsolete. If you want to be more successful, then improve your communication skills. The best way to do that, Smash the subscribe button right now, of course, you want to reflect on a whole variety of questions that could come up in your job interview, but you can't think of everyone because there's an infinite number of questions that can be asked. Here's my recommendation. If you hear a question that just blindsides you and you think, well, I never thought of that. Don't be afraid to be candid and say, I haven't thought of that. Be genuine, but be positive. Don't be overly emotional. Don't act embarrassed. That's really the key thing. Don't be afraid to say, I don't know. But what I do know is. And then try to bridge to something relevant or say, I don't know. That's a fascinating question. I'd like to explore that more. If it's something broader about the industry, where you really don't know. Now, someone asks you a question about what was Your first job and what did you not like about it? And it's entirely personal. Again, the key is don't act embarrassed, don't act flustered. Don't say, I don't know. That's been quite a while. When I look at my work career, I think of it sort of as a succession of progress. I love the money I got from the paper route. And now that I think about it, I didn't like getting up early. Do it something like that, where you're showing them you can think on your feet, you can be a real person, you can be likable, you can be articulate. It is okay to stop and think for a few seconds. Now, if you're in a job interview, you're going to feel like, oh, my God, I'm not saying anything. I have to say something every second or this is going to be embarrassing. No, you can pause for a couple of seconds to reflect. There's nothing wrong with that. You're showing the interviewer that you are reflective. That is a good thing. They want people to work their organization who can, in fact, be reflected. That's great. So, for example, if I'm being interviewed by a prospective customer who says, well, tj, why should we hire you? How many other media trainers and public speaking coaches are there in Sri Lanka that we could possibly hire? The answer is, I don't really know. But if someone is interviewing me because they're considering hiring me, I could easily say, I don't know how many are in your country. What I can tell you is, is that in every country in the world, there are some professional media trainers and public speaking coaches. It's important for you to find someone that you're number. It's important for you. Note to editor. We're going to edit that part out. TikTok funds. That's what we do. I mess up here and then I make notes to my editor so we can take that out. Okay, the important thing is. And I forgot where I was. This happens sometimes when I'm doing a side, so forgive me for that. This is why I want you to see this. I want you to realize nobody's perfect every single take. No one just does everything smoothly in every single day. I do it about 95% of the time, but not always. Okay. The important thing is when you're hiring a media trainer or a coach, find someone you're comfortable with, number one. But number two, make sure you're convinced that coach can take you from your current skill level to where you want to be. You Want to be great as a communicator, that's really the number one thing. You're not looking for a new best friend or a new pickleball partner or someone to go to dinner with. Some ways, it's no different than finding a surgeon. If you have a family member with a heart defect, you want the best surgeon in the world who has a track record of fixing people with those heart defects so they have a healthy heart and live a long life. When you're selecting a media trainer, a public speaking coach, you want to find someone who is going to help you get from your current level to the point where you are fantastic. Every single speech you give, every single interview you give, that's what I can do for you. Okay? So I was asked a question in that job interview, in my context, that blindsided me. I've never had anyone ask me, how many other media trainers are there in my country, meaning their country? It's not a question I expected, not a question I know the answer to. But the key thing is I listened. I candidly said, I don't know. But then I bridged information that I thought was relevant. I didn't just ignore their question and go back to, and you should hire me because I'm great. I tried to really listen, dig a little deeper to figure out, what are they really looking for? Why would they be asking that question? What's their true goal? And that's my suggestion for you. When you hear a question that's blindsiding you in a job interview, really listen carefully. Listen to every nuance of the question. Because so often there's a question within the question, or so often there are multiple pieces of the question and you can answer a part of the question. If you answer even part of the question, they're going to give you credit. Most likely, they are going to forget the fact that you didn't answer all their questions. So, for example, someone could ask you, well, why did you leave your last job? And you just weren't expecting that. And the truth was, you just hated it. You hated the boss. They had a horrible personality. Maybe they had stinky breath. But you don't want to talk about how much you hated your boss and his stinky breath. And in a job interview, because there's too much negativity, I don't want you to lie, but I do want you to focus on the positive and not derail the interview because of some question you weren't expecting. So in the case of, you know, why did you leave your last job? I Think you can honestly say, well, there were many, many things I learned in that job, and it was a part of my development. I think it helped make me a better employee for my next job, which is why I'm here. And I felt like I just needed more opportunities and more room for growth. That can be true, while at the same time, you couldn't stand your boss because of a stinky breath. They're not mutually exclusive, so you're not lying. I don't want you to lie. I want you to be sincere and I want you to be authentic. But when you're in a job interview, that's not the time to tell people every single flaw and go into details. Well, I showed up late, hungover three Mondays in a row, and my boss fired me. I hope that didn't happen. But it's not the time to talk about every single flaw the way you would with your best friend or someone you went to high school with. So please keep in mind what's going to derail your chances in a job interview is not typically the fact that you didn't answer the question right away. You can think about it for a second or two. It's not that you said the wrong answer to a tough question. It's the fact that you seem flustered or embarrassed and you couldn't handle a little bit of stress. So I want you to come across poised, relaxed, confident, no matter what comes out of your mouth for those tough questions. The bigger picture is this. Number one problem most people have when they're in a job interview is not that they gave a bad answer or the wrong answer to a tough question or a blindsided question. The number one problem most people have in a job interview is that two seconds after the interview's over, the person interviewing you didn't remember anything you said. Nothing stood out. They had to interview you. They interviewed five people before you, four people after you. A day or two have gone by, and when the committee gets together, their boss says, who do you want to hire? They don't remember you. So the main thing I want you to really focus on in every job interview is really making a case through stories demonstrating your expertise and passion. That's what will get people to remember you. That's far more important than how you answer any question.