Selling yourself – prepare for that interview!

From the time you open your eyes on planet Earth, you have been selling yourself. Not only to the rest of the world but even to your parents, brothers & sisters and your friends. Confused? Let me explain.

At the age of 2 -5 whenever your mother/father took you to a toy shop to select the best for you, you were not interested in the best, you were fascinated with the most interactive and ‘stupid toy’ you could find. So you can use the ultimate weapon of a child by crying and convince your parents of your choice.

And in your teenage years, you have different methods to convince your parents to let you go out with your friends and stay up late etc. But the bottom line at any stage is that you are selling yourself (selling your point of view to others).

And even at the time of your accountancy interview, you are selling yourself to your employer (or the interviewer in front of you). Famous business celebrity Donald Trump, in his book, How to get Rich, wrote that some people are only good at giving interviews. “You can only judge their competence after giving them a try on your money”. So what should you do after you get a job?... I will tell you later! But for this article let me give you a hint as how to sell yourself to your interviewer, in the first place.

Before we go any further, remind yourself one thing about human psychology. We (humans) evolved emotionally first, and still are emotional, subrational, intuitive, and instinctive. To put it quite simply, as something we routinely ignore, we are animals.

We are so animal; in fact, that we share 98 percent of our genes – forty nine of every fifty – with chimpanzees. We are, as Desmond Morris memorably wrote, The Naked Ape.

This means that if all you during your interview is factual reasons to hire you, you will only appeal to a small part of their mind. You need to interact with them emotionally as well. To twist the words of the old song, the head bone connects separately from reasoning; they often dominate them. Emotions change thinking; researchers can demonstrate that to you on a brain scan.

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