Interview Responses That Land Jobs

How to Create Sound Bites to Sell Yourself in an Interview

By Andrew Hewitt & Luc d'Abadie

Whether it's a brief conversation or a job interview with potential employers, you are always selling yourself. Most people ramble on about themselves-mixing in a combination of qualifications and features of past experience-hoping to keep the attention of the other person. Have you used this approach before? Do you know people who do?

The approach of just talking and hoping you communicate your qualifications for a specific job is not the most effective way of selling yourself. So how can you sell yourself to employers? And how can you do it effectively in 60 seconds or less?

The answer is to communicate in sound bites. What are sound bites? A sound bite is a 15-60 second bite of information delivered in a way that captures the attention of the person you are speaking with. Not too much detail-no fluff, all stuff! A sound bite can be a short story or piece of information that effectively communicates the point you are trying to make in less than 60 seconds.

The ABCs of Making Sound Bites

Sound bites have three parts:

1. the problem or challenge you faced
2. the specific action you took
3. the result of that action

By blending together these three pieces of information in a sound bite you will have a concise and powerful bite of information that will hold the attention of listeners.

Before you get into the interview, create sound bites specific to the job you are interviewing for. To do this, review the job description and note the qualifications it requires. Then, think back to all the unique experiences you have had-anything from sports teams to summer jobs. If you created a Focused-resume, you should already have many sound bites to draw from. Find the unique experiences you've had that will demonstrate you meet the job qualifications.

Here are some examples of sound bites and the specific qualification they highlight:

Teaching (30 seconds)
"In my Junior year I volunteered at my old high school to teach math. I had a strong background in math and remembered how busy things got for the teachers. Every Wednesday I would spend the afternoon giving seminars on specific math concepts to the students who felt they needed the extra help. I would then stay after school and tutor the students in small groups and individually. The school was glad to have the extra help, especially with some of the students who were in danger of failing. I really enjoyed working with the students and teaching. The head of the math department told me I was as good as any of the teachers in the school."

Event Planning (45 seconds)
"Last year I had a deep urge test my mental and physical capacity and thought that a seven-day hiking trip in Western Canada called the West Coast Trail would be a great place to do it. I was faced with the challenge of planning the entire excursion while meeting the unique needs of everyone who came on the hike-all from the opposite end of the country of the trail and the hikers. Over the course of six months I proceed to round together seven other people who wanted to do the hike. I booked the trail for the best weekend in August, managed the payment from all seven people and organized the logistics of getting to the trail, the equipment from hiking boots to tents and all the other fine details associated with planning the adventure. The hiking trip was a sure success and a life changing adventure for all eight of us and it ran smoothly from start to finish. People still talk about how smoothly the trip ran."

Working under pressure (40 seconds)
"My boss comes into the mailroom where I worked. She says to me ‘You know anything about PowerPoint?' I knew some basics of the program, but at the time I was far from an expert. Before I could even answer her she handed me a stack of paper and said, ‘I have to give a presentation to the CEO in three hours. I am confident you can turn it into a great presentation....'. Finishing that presentation in time took immense focus and prioritization. I had to stay cool, calm and collected in order to work efficiently and not let the pressure of the deadline get to my head. Two and a half hours later I had finished the presentation and sent it to my boss for a review. She was very impressed. There were no spelling or grammar errors that she was expecting to correct. She said that it was better than Power Point presentations she put together over several weeks. I certainly felt pressured, but staying calm and staying focused allowed me to perform to my max potential.

How you learned from your mistakes (60 seconds)
"Three months ago my computer crashed. It was the week before I had three huge papers due not to mention the months of other information I had on the computer. After I got over my devastation I knew it was time for a killer back-up system. I called everyone I know who knows anything about computers and a week after my computer crashed I had a new hard drive and a system for backing up my computer each and every week, which I do religiously!"

Ability to work under little supervision and be innovative (60 seconds)
"It was my first day of my internship at . In the morning my boss introduced me to the office and showed me where I would be working. After barely finishing the tour of the office my boss casually mentions to me, ‘I'm going to be travelling for the next week. I'll see you when I get back, just keep yourself busy.' I hadn't even got my login and password for my computer yet and now I was completely on my own. I spent the afternoon reading the company Intranet and decided the next day I would take action and find work. I walked from office to office talking to the team members about what the organization was up to where they needed the most help. After a morning of doing some photocopying and other small jobs I was back where I started. I then went back to each person and asked them what was one thing that Taylor (my boss) had always wanted to get done but never had the time to do. I heard the same answer three times and knew that updating the company service manuals and corresponding website pages was the project I was looking for. With the help of the team I spent the next week updating all six service manuals and the website. When my boss got back he was shocked to see I didn't play solitaire for seven days and even more shocked to see the service manuals had been updated."

Leadership (20 seconds)
"I was VP of Marketing for the Management Student Society at my school. The President had an unfortunate death in the family three weeks before a huge fundraiser event. No one was appointed to take the President role so I jumped in the driver's seat. With the short timelines I was able to gain the respect from the team, effectively delegate responsibilities and pull off an amazing event. The event brought in $15,000 more than we had planned and upon his return the President was extremely impressed. I am going to run for President next year."

Teamwork and Bilingual (50 seconds)
"I was three weeks late for the start of my semester away in France. I barely knew any French and the purpose of my trip was to further my knowledge of the written and spoken language. In my Economics class I was thrown into a group who had already been working together for a few weeks. The teacher thought I might be able to help the group out-it was clear they were having difficulties getting along. There were students from all over the world in this group and the diversity seemed to create language barriers and a ton of frustration. Over the next two months we worked together to complete a large research paper and prepare a presentation. In the beginning one group member ended up leaving and there were many tough conversations. My focus was first to be accepted into the group and then work to get everyone working together towards a common goal. In the end we got a B+ on our paper, which was above the class average of B and we did an outstanding presentation. I learned a ton about working with people, especially people of different cultures and I really improved my French. My teacher later thanked me for turning the group around. The best part was that I now have friends all over the world because of that group work experience."

Attention to detail (30 sec)
"My auntie was about to publish her new book. She knew I was a big reader and asked me if I would take a read through it to find any typos. I happily accepted the task and spent the next three days going through the book line by line. At the end of 250 pages I found 16 typos and 3 grammatical errors. It turned out that my auntie had given the same task to three other people and they each only found five or six typos without even noticing any grammatical errors. My auntie was impressed with my attention to detail and my ability to outshine these other individuals."

Your objective in any job interview is to convince the interviewer you are qualified for the position and can deliver great results to their company. Your sound bites should do this one by one and 60 seconds at a time. By using 15-60 second sound bites you can communicate you have the qualifications needed for the job and do so in an effective manner. It is also a great way to demonstrate you have great communications skills-a skill needed for any job.