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NLP Interview Techniques? Powerful Tips, Questions & Examples

NLP Interview Techniques? Powerful Tips, Questions & Examples

Do you want to learn how to interview better and are you looking for tips to become an even better interviewer? In this article you will find out how to achieve that with NLP.  We will discuss examples, questions, techniques, tips and tricks for taking your next interview with the power of NLP.

Tip 1 – Are you looking for the best interview tip or trick? Get a great start

  • Send your questions to the subject in advance. If necessary, indicate the purpose of each question. Maybe the subject will look at it – and maybe not – but it is certainly useful and thoughtful!
  • If you go to the subject and plan to arrive at the location well in advance, please let the other person know.
  • When the subject comes to you, arrange food and drink.
  • As you will see later in the examples, it is important to first create a connection – ‘ report ‘. So first have a nice chat and then gradually move on to the ‘official’ questions.
  • Make sure there are – literally – no obstacles between you and the subject. For example, if there is a high table between you, replace it with a low table.
  • The interview does not have to be completed in one go. Feel free to take a break in between.

Tip 2 – Ask introductory questions at the beginning so that you have complete information for a kind of ‘pitch / introduction’

The readers / listeners probably don’t know the subject at all yet. Therefore, ask as many ‘standard questions’ as possible at the beginning to create a clear picture of who the other is and what he / she does.

  • Who is it?
  • What is he / she doing?
  • Who is he / she doing it for?
  • Why?
  • If necessary, add a crazy question.

Tip 3 – Want to do an in-depth interview? Go in depth with the NLP logical levels

logical levels dilts bateson

In the example of the video below, you soon hear interviewer Tim den Besten ask: “What is it like to be {Maxim Hartman}?” This is an identity level question. As you can see from the model, this is quite a high level. The higher the level at which you ask your questions, the deeper. So see if you can climb up in the model:

  • Setting : What does {garment} say about you?
  • Behavior : What exactly do you do?
  • Skills : What are you really good at and how do you do it?
  • Beliefs : What do you believe? What do you think is important? What do you pay attention to?
  • Identity : Who is {Maxim Hartman}?
  • Mission : What do you want to mean for your environment?

For more inspiration, see this article on the logic levels.

Tip 4 – Use the Cartesian coordinates to discover a question from additional angles

The Cartesian coordinates are a great NLP model for interviewing. These coordinates offer inspiration to ask a question just that little bit differently, which gives you a completely different insight. In short: If you want to apply the Cartesian coordinates, simply ask for the opposite .

A question could be: “When is it fun to be Ariana Grande?” A follow-up question in the interview could be: “When isn’t it nice to be Ariana Grande” You could also have asked: “When are you not yourself, so when do you play a role?” Who looks like Ariana Grande? “” Who doesn’t look like you – who is just the opposite? “

Tip 5 – One of the most underrated interview techniques: Ask the TOTE questions

The TOTE questions are a humorous and concrete way to gain insight into someone’s expertise. How do you apply them?

In the interview above, Tim asks Maxim – after they get back from the pool: ‘What you constantly do is provoke and disrupt. What happens inside you? Is that something that is conscious? Or by accident? ‘

Tim thus applied one of the TOTE questions. If you were to apply them at all, you could ask:

  • How do you know it’s time to provoke? (T)?
  • What do you do next to provoke? What do you think, do and feel (O)?
  • How do you know you managed to provoke (T)?
  • What is the end result (E)? ‘

Tip 6 – Feel free to let your interview be informal too: feel free to think out loud

Feel free to think and summarize out loud so that you can follow the story yourself. The readers / listeners also like this.

Tip 7 – Ask questions to ‘model’ the subject

With the questions in the previous tips, we have already covered a number of parts of ‘modeling’ – and in this article about modeling you will learn everything you need  to know about modeling someone’s ability – or expertise.

Another example of a good interview

Take a look at the example above. What can you notice about this interview? What do you think makes this a successful and open interview?

To your success!

About The Author

Rubin

Hello! Thanks for reading these articles. My intention is to make happiness as simple and clear as posssible. By the way, excuse my English. I am not a native English speaker since I live in Amsterdam. Much appreciated if you use the comments to make suggestions on my grammar. See ya in another blogpost!