- How do you ace a video interview and make the best possible impression? What are scientifically
proven things you can do in the job interview that are low effort, high reward? And how do you get companies to like you and give you a chance? This is Self Made Millennial. I'm Madeline Mann. In this video, I'll give you five highly
impactful strategies according to psychology of how to stand out in a
zoom or video interview. For bleeding edge, career
and job search tips from a human resources
and recruiting leader who has helped thousands of people land career defining jobs, make sure you subscribe to this channel and hit the bell to get
new videos on Thursdays. Okay, you're not only going
to get five practical tips of exactly what to say and
do in the video interview, but also know for me, when I hear the science and
psychology behind why it works, I remember the tip so much better and I'm so much more likely to do it. So I'm going to do that for you. And stay to the end because
I'll reveal that yes, there is a proven best time of
day to have a job interview. And yes, this can actually impact if you pass the interview or not. (people gasping) Tip number one, the power of similarity. We as humans are naturally
inclined to protect our tribe, or really anyone who seems similar to us. Of course, this is highly problematic because people often
hire and promote people who are like them, which leads to about
the level of diversity you'd find in a bunker full of minions. But there are ways that
we can twist this desire to feel like we are in their tribe. What I want you to do is
request the names of the people who will be interviewing you. Ask this to whomever is
coordinating your interview, and trust me, it's a normal ask. Then do some tasteful, internet sleuthing. Their LinkedIn profile will
often be enough information but you could branch out to their Twitter or their personal website as well. Pick out one or two things that you can connect with them on, such as they also have moved a lot. They also have stayed at a
company for more than four years. They also do community service. Notice none of these
things are hyper specific. Like you both went to the same school, which if you did that will really help, but not all of us have that luxury. So expand your mind and look for anything that makes you slightly similar and bring it up in the interview. You can say something like I
was excited to speak with you because I saw the different
cities you've lived in on your LinkedIn profile. And it's nice to connect with someone who has a similarly nomadic past. You get what I'm saying, right. And you know what's the wild thing? This person is going to feel seen. They're going to feel noticed. They can now talk about him or herself, which is their favorite topic, and they are now seeing
you as more similar. This is powerful stuff, pooches. This is just a small tasty morsel of interview preparation. And I have given you even
more tips in my video, how to prepare for a job interview where I give you the full
interview preparation framework that is streamlined so that
you're not prepping for days. I'll link that in the comments and in the description. Tip number two, the power of rest. Speaking of interview preparation, there was no doubt that the more you
prepare for an interview, the more you are going to slay it harder than J-Lo in any decade. But a huge mistake people make is cramming that information
the night before, late into the night, or
even worse the day of. Studies show that learning
doesn't happen in the moment. It happens when you sleep. It is best to do interview prep a few days in advance of the interview because the learning and memorization happens while you're sleeping. It's incredible. Studies show that a full night's sleep after learning new information significantly boosts how
well and how accurately you're able to recall what you learned. Being sleep deprived for an interview is proven to be one of the
most detrimental things you can do because
you're less clearheaded. You're less charismatic. And sleep deprivation isn't
calculated by one night alone. We actually build up this
thing called sleep debt over the course of two weeks. Once I realized how big of an impact sleep has on my performance,
my health, my happiness, I started tracking my sleep. And I use the app Rise app and it tracks how much
sleep you get every night and then calculates my sleep debt. It tells me when I'm groggy. It tells me when I should
wind down and go to sleep. And it is one of my
absolute favorite apps. I was so excited when they
agreed to support this channel and sponsor this video. So I will link the Rise
app in the comments in the description for you to check out. I know for me, whenever I
have a speaking engagement, which I feel like the pressure
of a speaking engagement is similar to a job interview, I always practice the evening before and relax the morning of because our brains do all
the hard work in coding in our memory while we're sleeping. And that's on working smarter, not harder. Tip number three, the power of primacy. The primacy effect, according to the APA
dictionary of psychology is the tendency for facts,
impressions or items that are presented first to be
better learned or remembered the material presented later. In short, your first
impression better be fire. There is an absolutely astounding study by Oregon State University where they filmed a real job interviews and collected the evaluation
of trained interviewers. Then they shorten those
videos to 20 second clips to only show the candidate
entering the room, greeting the interviewer
and taking a seat. And then they rated them
only on that interaction. And holy moly! Those who had only seen 20 second clips gave the same ratings as the interviewers who had
done the full interview. Oh, dang. Okay, the pressure is on, but don't worry, I got your back. First, you want to make sure
your answer to the question, "Tell me about yourself" is well refined. This is the number one most
common interview question. Interviewers ask it at the
beginning of the interview. So I created a free worksheet to help you sketch out your
perfect answer to this question. And this guide has helped
thousands of people. So I will link it in the
comments and in the description. So to make a great first impression, it's so important that you have energy and positivity in your voice. And often it's more energy than actually feels natural for you. Such as hello, I'm Madeline Mann. So great to meet you. I'm looking forward to this conversation. And turn your camera on before you go into the video call to see what you look like because the last thing you want to do is to be looking at yourself in the video and like fixing your
hair during your intro. I have a whole video about
how to introduce yourself in an interview and make
a powerful introduction. And this stuff is so predictive of whether or not you'll get hired. So make sure to check out that video. I will link it in the comments
and in the description. Study up. I don't just train job
seekers how to interview. I also train the interviewers, AKA the people who will
be interviewing you. And one thing I tell them to do is to notice how they
feel about the candidate after 10 minutes, and then spend the next 10 minutes trying to change their minds. So if they absolutely love the candidate, I make sure that they are deeply probing into that candidates answers with a healthy dose of skepticism. If they don't like the candidate, I have them start really
rooting for that candidate, and probing to see the good in their work. This can really help to shake
that first impression bias on the company side, but unfortunately most interviewers are
not trained properly. So I got to play both
sides of the fence here. Tip number four, the power of recency. We can't talk about primacy without giving a good old nod to its peppy, younger sister recency. The recency effect states that
people are likely to remember and be influenced by what
they last hear or see. So what we have here professor is a textbook case of
an influence sandwich, where we need to dazzle
them with our intro and then drop their jaws
in our final breath. You can totally do this. It is less elaborate than it sounds. At the end of the interview, provide them with a
scrumptious little summary. Here is the wrong way to do it. Well, Mrs. Hiring Manager, I am the best person for this job due to my hard work, determination and drive to
make your company successful. Hire me. Too braggy, too generic, too "I got this tip out
of a crappy online video". Here is a better way
to end your interview. You answered all of my questions. Thank you. Based on what you said about
the strategic direction of the company switching
to a subscription model, I am so excited to dive
into that challenge after all of my experience building out the subscription
model at XYZ company, and seeing the wonder that
that did for that company. And I'm looking forward
to bringing my insights from the e-commerce
space into your industry and building campaigns
that are completely unique. I'm really looking forward to next steps. Ooh, that was specific, sounded passionate, and showed competence without
sounding overly braggy. In this closing time, you can also ask about next steps or if there's anything
else you can provide. And now I'll also give you the easiest possible thing to end on, and it's so highly effective. And that is saying, thank you
so much for meeting with me. I'm excited about your company and the possibility of working here. Simple, beautiful, masterpiece. Tip number five, the power of timing. Okay, this tip is really juicy and takes no effort. When I look at my Rise app, it shows me when are my peak focus times and when are the times I am not focused. AKA, when I will find any
excuse to be distracted. And it sends me push notifications based on my circadian rhythms to say, you're about to
be productive this hour, get in the focus zone. Or your mind is about to be as useless as the G in lasagna. So just go relax and
don't screw anything up. These focus notifications are so helpful. So what does this mean for you? Take interviews in your peak times. A general rule of thumb is that most people are
peaking in the late morning and again, in the early evening. You and your interviewer will be at your emotional
and cognitive prime. 10:00 AM is my recommendation. That is the golden hour, but really having any interview between 9:00 AM and 11:30 AM is ideal. This research is reflected
in job interview studies, but also in studies of surgeons. They found that surgeons
had far lower incidences of mistakes for surgeries performed in the morning
instead of after lunch. So get those morning surgery slots folks. And remember to download Rise. It's linked in the comments and in the description. If you're digging this
content, don't be shy. Be sure to subscribe, share this video with a friend, and hit that like button so I know to make more
videos exactly like this. You've got this. Wifi high five.
