You chances of being hired are increased greatly if you come across as being confident, successful and competent at your interviews yet you are been placed at an unfair advantage for people to see you in your best light because the interviews are usually stressful and nerve racking.

There is not much that can be done about that other than try and remain calm and collected and don’t get flustered, for your interviews to be a success you have to learn how to manage them comfortably and remain in control. Here are five key strategies to help you achieve success:

Selling yourself

Your interview is your chance to sell yourself yet many people get confused about what this actually means and rather than show themselves in the brightest light possible by talking about the accomplishments they have achieved and the difference they made to the company and elaborating on this they simply answer with the bare minimum.

Turn negative into positive

Sometimes during your interview you may be asked something you have no knowledge of or have never used before, this could quickly turn into a negative aspect of the interview. For example the interviewer could ask you about working on spreadsheets within Excel, if you haven’t used the program the don’t simply say you don’t have any or have never used the program. You could easily turn it around back into a positive aspect by saying that you have worked extensively with spreadsheets in Lotus so you were sure you could pick up Excel in no time at all.

Go from big to small

If for example you are asked about your experience with mergers and acquisitions go from big to small to organise your thoughts, start big and give a very short description of the depth of your experience, then follow up with the smaller ones.

You got this far and passed the first test

Try to remain calm and collected and remember you have got this far and passed the first test which was probably the phone interview after reading your resume, this if nothing else tells you that at least they are interested in you and what you have to offer.

Take the bull by the horns

If you sense the interview is closing and there is something that you wanted to get out and haven’t yet had the chance then don’t hold back, you could say something like “before we end I would just like to mention one more point that I think would be valuable to the company” then proceed to tell the interviewer. It is important to voice your thoughts if you think they are an asset to the interview and it will show initiative.