The general conception of job interviews is that they’re daunting, nerve-racking and stressful. Even if you’ve been on numerous interviews before, you’re still meeting new people, selling yourself and your skills and you need to stay up-beat and enthusiastic through it all. Not every interviewer is the same so strategies that worked for one employer might not work for another, hence all the reason more why job interviews are considered stressful.
However, there are definitely ways to make job interviews less stressful and give yourself the best chance to
succeed. A little preparation can go a long way in making you feel more comfortable and confident. Below are some general strategies & tips designed for retired athletes on how to successfully ace an interview:
Highly Important: Have an understanding of what you’ve done so far and how the skills you’ve picked up are transferable to business. Be absolutely clear of mind about what you’re doing next and what your career goals are. If you’re like most athletes you probably have no idea what’s next. However, you still need to craft a clear and concise career goal & path and talk about what drives & motivate you now, as employers are looking for confident & assertive individuals.
5. Have 3 predetermined answers ready to go: Like a politician, if you ever get stuck on a question, have some extremely generic answers ready to go to bail you out of a tough situation. Remember, use your common sense about when you can use these and how. Be savvy enough to slightly adjust the answer to the question. As a retired athlete, here are the best 3 answers to have ready to go – 1. I’ve been a professional rugby player for the past 8 years, playing at the highest levels in Australia, France, England and Japan. During this experience, I’ve developed relationships with many people across different personalities, behaviors and cultural backgrounds. I was able to forge strong relationships due to my ability to adjust to various different personalities and empathize with a variety of different people. I believe this same skill is essential to succeed in sales – you need to be able to forge relationship with different decision makers. 2. What’s enabled me to become a professional athlete and succeed at the highest level is my dedication to hard work, time management skills, competitive nature, resilience and mostly my drive and hunger to succeed. I believe it’s those same principles that will enable me to succeed in business. 3. Sticking to a process and having good daily habits is key to success. For example, I would train at the gym on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. On-field training is on Monday and Thursday arvos. Physio and message is Friday arvos. Doctor & dietitian visit is Mondays. I would also break down each training session so I know exactly what I’m doing and how. Even my rest days have a process I followed. I found by following a set process and putting tailored good habits in place it enabled me to generate positive outcomes. Within the first 3 months of this role, I would work out the best process to follow & habits to put in place to produce best results
6. Have some questions ready to go: Towards the end of the interview, the interviewer will ask you if you have some questions for them. You should 100% have some questions. It shows you care and also that you are prepared. Again, there’s nothing wrong with bringing a notepad with you with some of these questions written down. Some questions to ask are:
Remember, the person interviewing you is just as nervous as you are. They are hoping you do well as much as you are hoping you do well. They want to find any reason to hire you. Hiring is a tough process, the longer they take to fill the position the more money they are losing and the more pressure they have to find someone ASAP! Another thing to remember, they’re hoping you like them and the company as much as you’re hoping they like you. You are also interviewing them because their business values and culture needs to align with your values and wants. So, relax and breath because the person interviewing you is probably more nervous and has more pressure on them.
Bonus Tip: After the interview, send a follow up email to the interviewer thanking them for their time and how excited you are of the potential of working with them.
Whether you’re an athlete looking to transition into a new career or an employer looking to build a high-performance culture within your team, Athlete2Business looks forward to working with you!
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