FINAL ROUND INTERVIEW TIPS! (How to ACE Your Final Interview)

0:00 A final interview is much different than every other interview you do. And in fact, because it's so different, you need to be preparing differently. The things you need to convey in your final interview are much different than the things you need to convey in your first interview. I've been in recruitment for 15 years, and in today's video, I'm going to tell you exactly what you need to do to nail your final interview and increase the likelihood that you get a job offer. Let's go. Now, first or second interviews are different from final interviews in one major way.

0:27 Initially, they still need to confirm you are qualified. So, they are really focused on making sure you check all the boxes. Do you have the must-haves? Do you have most of the nice-to-haves, right? But if you get to the final interview, if you've passed those initial steps, they know you are qualified. So, getting to the final interview and being prepared to tell them how you're qualified and talk through your qualifications isn't really necessary. They know that at this point.

0:51 And in in a way, it's kind of counterproductive, because what you need to be doing are three specific things in the final interview. And if you do the following three things, you will increase the likelihood of you getting a job offer. By the way, if you're finding value in this video, do me a favor, hit that like button. It is free. It tells YouTube I don't suck, and it motivates me to make more videos like this. And if you're already willing to do that, hit that subscribe button. That way, you never miss my three free weekly videos, all designed to help you land your dream job and maximize your career. Okay, so what are the three things you really need to nail in your final interview in order to get the job? The first is these hiring managers, at this point in the interview process, are looking for people they connect with. Now, I know that seems stupid, right? You're like, "Well, what does that have to do with my ability to do the job?" But you have to remember, everybody who gets to this point can do the job. The competition, the people who are also going to a final interview next to you, right? Your competition, they are also qualified.

1:46 So, at this point, a differentiator is do you connect with the hiring manager? So, you want to make an intentional effort to connect and start to build the foundations of a relationship. Now, how can you do this in an interview format? First and foremost, be friendly, smile, look them in the eye, try to mimic their body language, their voice, their level of enthusiasm, etc. But, a really important thing that not enough people do is they don't ask questions to the boss. And I'm not talking about at the very end of the interview. Absolutely do that. But, more so at the beginning. If you can find ways to ask them questions and get them talking about themselves, that is a huge step into actually building a relationship.

2:29 Psychologically, people have a much more positive recollection of a conversation when they have the opportunity to speak instead of when they're just focused on listening. When people try to connect with people, one of the things they do that's a bit of a mistake is they spend too much energy on trying to show them that they are interesting. What you really want to do is show them you are interested in learning about them. So, if they're talking, "Hey, how are you doing? What did you do this weekend?"

2:53 Don't just tell them, but also ask them, "What were you doing?" And when they tell you, "Oh, I went and did this." "Oh, really?" "Tell me a little bit more about that." "Or, oh, that's so interesting. I've been curious about that." But, what you really want to be doing is throughout the entirety of the final interview, you also want to be trying to find a way to make connections with the person who is interviewing you. The next thing you need to do is demonstrate passion and enthusiasm for the role. Look, I think you should be doing that at every single step of the process. But, in the final interview, it is much more important because they already know you're qualified. They know you can do the job, okay? So, now it needs to be, "I want someone who has a burning desire to do this job." And every time I say this, people push back and they go, "Oh, Ben, that's stupid.

3:32 I'm an accountant. Do I need to be passionate?" yeah, if you want to land this job. If you want to be the best candidate, trust me. I I've made this this comparison many, many times before. So, I just want you to take it for what it is. If you had a dog or if you have a child and you want someone to watch that person that animal. And imagine you are interviewing two babysitters and you talk to the babysitter and you go, "Hey, why why do you think you'd be a good fit to watch my kid or to watch my dog?" And the person goes, "I'm a good fit because I need money." Okay? Or they go, "You know, I'm a huge fan of animals.

4:12 My dad's a vet, so I spent a lot of time in his clinic growing up." Who's who's more appealing? The person who tells you straight up they're doing it just for money or the person who has passion? In the final interview, one of the things that can push you over the edge and help you get that job offer is demonstrating your passion and enthusiasm for the industry and the type of work you were going to be doing.

4:33 Trust me, you will not regret showing a appropriate amount of enthusiasm and passion for the role. Now, the last thing you want to share in your interview is last-minute differentiator points or hero stories. Now, these are two different but similar things here. A differentiator point is something that you have that other people in your industry or in your role typically don't. That gives you an advantage. Maybe it's you speak another language. Maybe it's you have an advanced degree most people don't have.

5:02 Maybe you have industry experience in a different industry that makes you more well-rounded and most people don't, right? That's a differentiator. The other thing is a hero story. A hero story is a story in which you made a significant impact in a similar role in a previous organization that maybe they weren't aware of. And this is a fully quantified hero story, meaning you tell them what you did over what period of time, what the impact was, and what that translated to from a financial standpoint for the organization. This is one of those last-minute things where you can really wow them. So, remember, differentiating point or a hero story, those are the things you really want to be focusing on in the final interview where you have already established you are qualified. Now, another thing you don't want to do during in final interview is you don't want to tell a lie that can really hurt your chances of getting the job. What are those lies you ask? Well, I made this video here. This video here is lies you should never tell during an interview. Now, there are things you might want to say that are slight mistruths or exaggerations. I've certainly heard that before, but these things, any of these things can get you in trouble. So, I'm done here, but I'll see you over there.