Putting your best foot forward in the interview process is a critical aspect of a successful job search. But even more importantly, it can have a long-term impact on your loss prevention career in general. These impressions can have a lasting effect on how you are perceived as a professional as well as how you approach your career development plan. Whether the information serves as a reminder or a revelation, the most important objective should be to make a strong and lasting impression when exploring new career opportunities. Let’s take a closer look at how we should approach the interview:
Focus on Your Accomplishments to Set Yourself Apart
During the job interview, the person you’re speaking with wants to learn more about the person that they’re talking to in order to help determine whether or not they’ve found a good match. When asked about your experience, don’t simply reiterate your job descriptions. Talk about performance. Discuss the way that you responded to the different positions that you’ve held along your loss prevention career path, and the different things that you accomplished in those roles.
Did you lead? Are you capable of creating something new and fresh? Can you develop programs? How much effort and success did you show at developing your subordinates? Are you capable of managing through change? Are you willing and able to show flexibility? How did you enhance results? Were you able to build business partnerships? A good interviewer wants to be able to see how you carry out your responsibilities so that they can then project you into the position that they are hoping to fill. Show the value that you can bring.
On the topic of strengths and weaknesses—always have both; and always attempt to turn the weakness into a positive. There is a reason that this is a popular question during the interview process; and while the answers are important, our response can reach well beyond what those specific strengths and weaknesses might be. Decision makers also want to know if you can be self-reflective—can you look yourself in the mirror and ask, “Where can I get better?” If this question is asked, the question that typically follows is “What are you doing about it?” Answer the second question before it is asked. Show the maturity and the resiliency to recognize your developmental needs, and the initiative to try to make personal improvement.
A Winning Approach Starts with a Winning Attitude
A job interview provides a means to open a window into who we are—as a professional, as a leader, as a partner, and as a person. We are given precious minutes to summarize our value and our character; and make a positive and lasting impression on those having offered us the opportunity. This is a platform, and not a guarantee that others will see us for who we are. It is up to us to open the window and share the picture.
But an interview is also something more. It is a search for a match, and a chance to take our skills and abilities to another level. It is a means to build upon our career, and find a home that not only meets our needs, but helps reveal our future. Unfortunately, it is also a skill that many take for granted. It’s simply not enough to be good at what we do. We also have to be able to share that information with others, and offer the best possible picture of who we are so that we continue to move forward down a successful and rewarding loss prevention career path.
Check out loss prevention job opportunities at www.lpjobs.com.
