If you’re an introvert and dread the thought of attending job interviews, then this video has been created for you.

These six interview tips for introverts will give you all of the information you need to make a huge impact the next time you meet with a potential employer.

If you’d like to read more on this topic, head over to our blog post about it here: ‘7 Confidence-Boosting Interview Tips For Introverts‘

Transcript

Hi there, I’m Steph Lunn from Blues Point. We’re an IT recruitment Business. And this video is about interview tips for introverts.

Now, it’s probably quite hard to imagine as I’m on video, but I myself am an introvert. Given the job that I do that’s probably a bit of a surprise.

I’m quite happy to pick up the phone to someone, and I like building relationships with clients, but if you put me in a networking event, or something like that, where I don’t know anybody, I feel very uncomfortable and I don’t really enjoy it.

But one of the things introverts find most challenging is job interviews. Hence why we’ve put together some tips to help introverts express themselves well in the interview and make sure that they come across well, and don’t feel like they’re disadvantaged in that position.

Tip #1

So, the first tip I would give is to prepare really well for your interview.

Introverts can’t ‘wing it’ like extroverts can. They’ve not got, what we would call, I suppose, ‘the gift of the gab’, necessarily.

It takes them a little bit longer to open up and feel confident, so, the best advice I can give you is to prepare really, really well for your interview. And not just in terms of going on the client’s website, but actually going beyond that, so looking at the blog, looking at articles about the business in the press, looking at the LinkedIn profiles of the people that you’ll be meeting.

Just really getting everything together and being really well organised with it.

Tip #2

The second tip I would give you would be to arrive early for your interview.

If you’re like me, I get quite stressed about things like traffic and parking and things like that.

And all of that can make you a bit more nervous when attending an interview, so check out the journey the day before, make sure there’s no roadworks, make sure you know where you’re going to park, that kind of thing.

Or ask your recruiter, if appropriate to do so.

Tip #3

The third tip is that small talk really matters.

And, again, that’s something that extroverts tend to be a bit better at doing. So just give yourself an advantage, think about things you can about before the formal part of the interview starts.

It might be things like just talking about the weather. It might be that they ask if you want a drink, and you do accept a drink.

It could be that you talk to the receptionist on the way in and see if you can get any talking points from that.

Again, it’s just something informal that helps you to start building a rapport, so it is quite important in terms of how you come across.

Tip #4

The fourth point is to use the characteristics that introverts have, in terms of highlighting your skills to the interviewer.

For me, that might be something like, I’m never going to be the loudest voice in the room, but I’m very good at planning and organising things. I’m very good at completing tasks.

Think about examples from your career where you’ve excelled on account of, and not in spite of the fact that you’re an introvert. Those are very positive characteristics to talk about.

Tip #5

The fifth point is to bring some evidence of your work.

Bring a portfolio of what you’ve done if it’s appropriate to do so.

If you do that, it means that you’ve got your resources to hand, you can talk about them with passion, enthusiasm and energy, and it also gives you another chance to show how much preparation you’ve done for the interview.

That can be the difference between how you sell yourself well, and not really selling yourself well enough, because perhaps you felt too nervous.

It just gives you a bit of additional strength.

Tip #6

And the final point is to ask questions.

Again, use your preparation for this and really go above and beyond with asking questions.

Don’t stop at things that you’ve read on the website. Think about referring to things you’ve seen on the blog. Think about things like “Oh, I noticed your company won an award recently, how does your team celebrate success?”

“I’ve noticed you’ve had a business win, how is that going to impact on this team?” You know, that kind of thing.

And, again, because introverts can take a bit longer to feel confident and open up, by prolonging the conversation, by asking a lot of questions, you’re buying yourself a lot more critical time in which the interviewer can get to know you, and really start to engage with you, to like you, to understand what you’re like.

Conclusion

So those are the six points that I wanted to make. And just to sum up, the last two points give you the opportunity to show a lot of passion and energy. The things that probably come naturally to extroverts in that kind of situation, but you’re just doing it in a different way.

And remember that the loudest voice in the room is not necessarily the right person for the job. The interviewer could be an introvert also.

Thanks for listening. If you’d like to learn more about interview tips for introverts, or various other interesting recruitment related things – there should be a link to our blog just below me.

Thank you very much.