7 Magic Spells: How To Enchant the Recruiter at the Job Interview

Natalia Bielczyk, PhD
7 min readJul 16, 2022

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How Come Some People Always Pass The Recruitment Process!?

…And they don’t even have a Hollywood smile? Some people seem to have developed a secret formula for getting hired — they always land jobs with incredible ease! Did they sign a pact with the devil?

Well, these people just know the sentiment and understand what employers’ needs are and what they want to hear. There is a number of secret phrases which can single-handedly convince the Hiring Manager that you are the person they were looking for. They all might sound innocent at first but are really powerful when you give them a thought.

Here they are:

1. “I Prefer to Develop My Career in a Stable Environment and Challenge Myself in These Safe Conditions.”

This statement is a bit like saying: “I love to live and work in one safe place. But at the same time, I prefer to explore and choose another route every day while biking to work and back.”

Hiring Managers in corporations, large consultancy companies, and public institutions love to hear this statement. It strongly suggests that you prefer to stick around and develop your career with one employer.

And at the same time, you are not a sloth trying to chill somewhere until retirement — you are ambitious and willing to challenge yourself with new tasks, build your competencies, and climb the ladder.

That’s exactly the motivation profile that they need in their organization! Hiring Managers are not looking for tourists who jump jobs and companies and collect positions like gloves. Once they invest in you, they would prefer to have you around for longer.

At the same time, they love to hear that you have a growth mindset and you are eager to go for challenging projects. The essence of growth is a challenge so a lifelong learner and novelty seeker is always welcome on board.

2. “I Took Additional Professional Courses in My Free Time, as I Have the Ambition to Become a Full-stack Employee.”

“Full-stack” is a term taken from software development. A “full-stack” developer means a developer who has an overview at all stages of the development process. Full-stack developers can program both client and server software.

Needless to say, they are highly valued and sought in IT, as they are the only developers who can coordinate and effectively manage the whole development process. Similarly, you can use the term “full-stack” as a paraphrase to describe any professional who can develop a project from A to Z. “Full-stack” is a geeky synonym of “full-package.”

Today, employers seek full packages. They prefer to have people around who are not puppets and don’t wait for instructions but rather, who can conduct a project all by themselves. Especially once work to large extent moved towards remote teams, employers who are capable of thinking and working on their own, are highly preferred.

It is not only true in the IT industry, but also, in other market fields such as pharma and biotech. Programming languages and methods used in Data Science are now treated like any other foreign languages — they are always welcome in a resume, regardless of the market sector. Today, ambitious students in humanities, biology, or chemistry tend to take online courses and subscribe to online schools in programming and IT to become more competitive in the job market.

Moreover, industry R&D is moving so quickly that the employer can never predictfor sure what they need from you in a year or two. In general, being open to knowledge and taking action to increase your professional qualifications will always be taken as a bonus.

If you would like to start learning about machine learning and Data Science from scratch, the iconic book “ Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning “ by Christopher Bishop is a good start. Furthermore, you can learn more about the most useful programming languages in the today’s job market in our article “ Top 5 Most In-Demand Programming Languages in the Today’s Job Market .”

3. “I Am a Person of High Integrity” or, “I Highly Value Integrity.”

“Integrity” is a keyword used extensively by leaders, employers, and recruiters. For a professional in the workplace, integrity means sticking to firm social standards of behavior and staying faithful to virtues such as honesty, accountability, and loyalty.

It doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to adopt the exact same standards as your employer. It just means that you do develop your own set of rules for how to proceed toward other people depending on the circumstances. That you are not a loose cannon but you have a strong work ethic.

In other words, integrity means reliability. “I have integrity” means “I am a person who has rules.” Employers love that! You can learn more about the meaning and implications of integrity from our article “ Why Is It Good To Have Integrity in Your Professional Life and Why Do Employers Seek Integrity? .”

4. “I Am an Independent Thinker and Problem-Solver who always Works With a Team On Their Mind.”

Employers love ambiverts! They are not looking for nerdy people who might be genius but never lurk out of their cubicles nor communicate with their teammates. They are also not looking for talking heads and attention-seekers who constantly need people around them and cannot handiwork on their own.

They look for someone who is exactly in between these two extremes. Someone who can dive deep into work for a few hours straight and spend this time in complete silence — and then go to a team meeting and be the most active contributor at the meeting.

5. “I Am Motivated by Other People Waiting for My Results.”

The question about the personal source of motivation often comes in job interviews. Even when you are not asked that question, it is a good idea to smuggle this sentence at some point in the job interview.

To the Hiring Manager, this statement is an indication that you are a real team player who gets an extra boost of energy every time there is a group challenge or one o your teammates needs help. In other words, this is an indication of a herd instinct that Hiring Managers badly seek.

6. “I Am Finishing All My Commitments at My Current Position Because I Have a Rule to Always Finish My Projects Before Going On.”

This statement turns Hiring Managers on more than anything else! They constantly suffer from backlashes caused by employees who flee projects before they successfully come to the end. This leads to major losses and sometimes, even to the company’s ultimate failure in the market.

Today, employers are realistic. They know that many other best team members will eventually find another opportunity, choosing their own self-development over the company’s interest. BUT it doesn’t mean that they can take jumping ship during the project lightly. So, if you are a person who does their best to always properly clean their desk from commitments before moving on — all points to you.

7. “I Am Educated in the Areas of Data Safety and Intellectual Property.”

Today, in the economy based on services, most companies build their value on Intellectual Property (IP). It not only means patents and trademarks, but also: novel algorithms, product features, procedures for solving problems, insider professional training schemes, community building techniques, company documentation, and correspondence.

For any business, it is crucial to hire employees that can be trusted. Namely, your employer needs to trust that you won’t make the company IP leak, as it can lead to major losses or even ultimate failure on the market. That’s why “integrity” and “respecting Intellectual Property” are honey to the employers’ ears!

Therefore, if you know the meaning of terms such as “GDPR,” “copyrights,” “Creative Commons,” “patents,” “trademarks,” “firewall,” “digital certificate” or any other form of data and IP protection, say it loud! If you have any pattens on your account, put them in your resume and your LinkedIn account in a visible spot!

Conclusion: Can You Win the Interview Using Magic Spells?

Of course, the outcome of an interview comes from a holistic impression of yourself as a professional. However, you can effectively improve your chances of success, by speaking straight to the employers’ universal needs and fears

Good luck with your job interviews, and if you have come up with your own tips and tricks to share, please share them below in the comments!

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Are you thinking of changing your career path? Would like to get an intensive training oriented at discovering your identity as a professional, and learning effective career development strategies for landing great jobs? Please join us at our intensive online career transition workshops! We will help you choose the right career path, help you land your new job, and teach you self-navigation strategies that will guarantee your success in professional development, and stay with you for a lifetime! Please find all the information about the workshops and registration links HERE.

Originally published at https://ontologyofvalue.com on July 16, 2022.

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Natalia Bielczyk, PhD
Natalia Bielczyk, PhD

Written by Natalia Bielczyk, PhD

A neuroscientist helping professionals in finding their dream career paths at ontologyofvalue.com Privately, enthusiast of tech with affinity to blockchains.