The screening stage is over, and now your interview success depends on your ability to speak about your experience and show off your personality. As a job seeker, a big confidence booster is seeing a hiring manager’s subtle smile and nod of approval after you respond to each interview question.
Ensure you maintain their attention by saying these five phrases in your next interview – it’ll better your chances of hearing the most desired phrase of them all: “You’re hired.”
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“I’m flexible”
Leave your ego at the door. When scouting for a new job, keep in mind employers rarely hire (nor like) stuffy, my-way-or-the-highway candidates. New work means a new opportunity to start fresh, apply your skills and, most importantly, learn.
Be transparent with your openness to conform and contribute to a new role. By voicing your flexibility, it will show hiring managers you’re open to things like new, challenging projects, diverse team members, and different workplace dynamics and schedules.
“I’m looking for the opportunity to grow”
Hiring managers want to know you’re looking for an opportunity that’ll make you excited every day. They want to see that you have ambition and aren’t just looking for a temporary fix in employment.
Discuss your interest in growing with the company. Think of it as less of an expected pay raise or an immediate title promotion and more about long-term personal and professional career development.
“I really like that your company does this”
Landing a new job doesn’t always rely on what you can do. Enthusiasm is a huge contributor to interview success. Ultimately, hiring managers are interested in knowing what makes them a unique employer from another, and are typically more focused on candidate potential than by-the-book knowledge.
By asking thoughtful questions or sharing what you like about the company, it will look impressive to employers and will also prove you’ve done your research.
“We do that at Company Y, too”
A job interview is as much of a learning experience for you, the job seeker, as it is for the hiring manager. Oftentimes, interviewers will outline their company processes and discuss the role in detail, to which you compare it to your knowledge and past experience.
By agreeing with their processes (where true and applicable), you’re showing that you’re familiar with practices similar to theirs – whether it’s executed at your current job or commonly practiced in your industry.
And if you’re in a career transition, don’t worry – the phrase is still valuable to say in an interview and can be used when discussing transferrable skills or company values.
“That’s a good question”
This is a phrase that can be used with caution in a job interview. It can be effective in two ways: To provide a time buffer to a challenging question or to subtly stroke an interviewer’s confidence.
There is a downside, however. Avoid overusing the phrase because it could make you seem unprepared – even if you were genuinely stumped by the question. Try to limit yourself to saying this only once in your interview. That way, it comes off as more of a compliment to your interviewer than a flaw in your preparation.
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