In light of its vast database of professional insights, LinkedIn is well on its way to becoming the next best thing since sliced bread for HR professionals and recruiters. However, for it to become the ultimate hub of employment tools and systems, it shouldn’t only cater to recruiters; LinkedIn also needs to look into options to help candidates connect with the best roles and enhance their presentation skills.
We have all learned the hard way that Job interviews are more of a game of wits than a test of your abilities. Going back to the basics, the simplest of things like how much you smile, which way you lean your body, what time you arrive, or what you wear can make a huge difference to the hiring manager, who can catch you off guard with the right trick interview questions.
Luckily, The platform’s latest update is an answer to your entreaties! LinkedIn is now rolling out a comprehensive list of common interview questions to help users better prepare by giving them a chance to formulate their responses to questions they are likely to be asked, in advance.
After the user applies to a job, LinkedIn also dispenses advice on answering common interview questions, such as “What is your greatest weakness?”, “Are you a team player?”, or “Why should we hire you?”
I am not done yet. Even better, LinkedIn has collaborated with a bevy of experts to provide short video guides to each question, to help candidates garner a better understanding of how to address the question. Premium LinkedIn members will also glean access to “expert-approved sample interview answers”, a little something for extra context and understanding. If that didn’t make you gasp, LinkedIn is also giving users the option to practice and record their responses via video, so that they can watch their answers back for some self-critique or share with others privately for extra feedback.
As LinkedIn puts it, “As you prepare for an interview, remember that practice makes perfect. That’s why more than half (52%) of successful job seekers in the U.S. spend time creating answers to tough questions they expect ahead of the interview. As part of our new interview preparation tools, we’ve included an easy way for you to privately practice answering interview questions, self-evaluate, and improve by reviewing your recorded answers at your convenience.”
Why are these tools so indispensable, you may ask? Because, as per LinkedIn:
- 54 percent of all job seekers cite “lack of confidence” and “uncertainty” as the main reasons why the interview phase is “moderately to extremely challenging”.
- 67 percent of Millennials feel a sense of dread at the prospect of giving an interview.
37 percent would rather clean out their garage than meet up with a hiring manager, while 15 percent throw up in anxiety and nervousness before every interview.
- 80 percent of Millennials feel stumped by an interview question at least once in every interview.
- 41 percent of all interviewers grade a candidate based on how well-informed questions they ask.
These tools will inevitably help candidates prepare for interview questions. Not to mention, when we factor LinkedIn’s advancing data matching tools connecting members with the right roles for them, into the mix, the platform is bound to become quintessential for both job seekers and HR professionals. Especially housing the largest professional dataset in history, this seems like the right direction for the platform.
What I Thought of the New Development?
I don’t like to admit it very often, but I used to feel pretty jittery before every interview. Not just the part where you wait for your turn in the lobby, palms sweaty, checking your hair in a frenzy every second, ready to run at the slightest provocation.
After using the LinkedIn tools, I have discovered that the best part about using the tool was less about knowing how to answer the questions, and more about getting comfortable with the actual interviewing process. The more I recorded and re-recorded myself, the more I realized that I was finally making “more eye contact”, peppering in less “umms and aa’s. The more times I watched myself answer a question, the better I could envisage myself sauntering into an interview and breezing through it effortlessly.
Calming my nerves before meeting a hiring manager is very challenging. I believe using the videos to compare my performance to others would make sure I am less nervous once the real interview happened. Since I am a Premium member, I watched the sample videos to see how the mock candidate answered the same prompts. I feel pretty confident about my next interview… though I hope its not anytime soon.
