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&lt;p class=&quot;p1&quot;&gt;Although it&#39;s impossible to point to a single moment when Barack Obama jumped out in front of Mitt Romney during the presidential race, never to look back, I&#39;d argue that that moment occurred during the third presidential debate, supposedly focused on foreign policy. Romney, during a discussion of Iran and Israel, as he&#39;d done in all three debates to rather good effect, gave a clear overview statement about his position before saying he had a several-step plan in place to implement that position. He also pointed out that Obama hadn&#39;t visited Israel lately, which perhaps underlined how much Obama cared about the nation. Romney&#39;s answer was solid and strong, and appeared to be difficult to attack.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;p2&quot;&gt;But when it came for Obama to speak on the subject, he in fact did attack Romney, albeit indirectly. That is, Obama said that when he was a candidate for president during the 2008 election, and went to Israel, &quot;I didn’t take donors, I didn’t attend fundraisers, I went to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum there, to remind myself the nature of evil and why our bond with Israel will be unbreakable. And then I went down to the border towns of Sderot, which had experienced missiles raining down from Hamas. And I saw families …&quot; etc., etc.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;p2&quot;&gt;Which is to say Obama got personal and specific. And the result was a much more emotional, memorable, and effective response than Romney&#39;s, even if Obama didn&#39;t directly address Romney&#39;s claims. And, from that moment on during the debate, Obama appeared to maintain momentum, offering further responses that were detailed and personal, contrasting with Romney&#39;s mostly general and impersonal answers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;p2&quot;&gt;This tact of responding with the specific and personal was one that Obama continued to take outside that third debate. And, as was recently pointed out by &lt;em&gt;Harper&#39;s&lt;/em&gt; magazine, there&#39;s a scientific reason why Obama used these tactics. That is, empiricial evidence shows that using such tactics works.&#160;In any case, the point is that you, too, can and should use similar tactics in your interviews. And, the good thing is, they&#39;re not all that difficult to implement.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;p2&quot;&gt;First, while you practice for your interviews (if not with someone else, then at least by yourself, if only going over answers in your mind), ask yourself if you&#39;re giving general answers or specific answers. If you&#39;re giving general answers, then get specific. If you&#39;re already giving specific answers, then get more specific.&#160;For example, if you&#39;re asked about a project on which you took a leading role, when mentioning the class during which you took that role, instead of telling your interviewer something like, &quot;I worked on a group project in one class where I …&quot; try saying something like this: &quot;I worked on this project during Legal Studies 202, a fascinating (and challenging) class I took in the second semester of my junior year with a professor who formerly worked in the DA office in Miami-Dade County and later as a litigator for &lt;a rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; href=&quot;/company-profiles/law/skadden-arps-slate-meagher-flom-llp-and-affiliates&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Skadden&lt;/a&gt; …&quot; etc., etc. In other words, get specific, give your interviewer details, paint a picture. This will not only create a better story (a better answer) but also leave your interviewer with something they can see, feel, and remember.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;p2&quot;&gt;Second, also while preparing for your interviews, ask yourself if you&#39;re giving personal answers or more general ones. If general, see if you can&#39;t create answers that speak more to your own experience.&#160;For example, inevitably, in almost every interview, you&#39;ll be asked some version of this question: &quot;Why do you want to work here?&quot; And you better have a good answer. As well as a specific and personal answer. So, instead of saying you want to work for the firm because it&#39;s &quot;a large, global firm&quot; you could say something like this: &quot;I like that XYZ &amp;amp; Co. has offices in Europe, the Middle East, Latin American and Asia/Pacific. And that it offers opportunities to work with employees in those offices, as well as on deals in those regions,&quot; etc., etc. You could even add, if true, that you&#39;ve traveled to a few countries in some of these regions, and then tell a little about your experiences or impressions of the places you&#39;ve visited (without going overboard, of course).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;p2&quot;&gt;Likewise, instead of saying you like that a firm is &quot;a small firm&quot; and leaving it at that, you could say that you like that the firm &quot;has less than 60 employees and that it seems to be a place where all employees know each other by name. And where people are very friendly inside as well as outside of work. And I particular like the firm&#39;s One Mentor program where new employees are paired up with experienced employees and get to meet with them on a biweekly basis …&quot; etc., etc. And you might add that, if true, in your experience while working at firms of similar size, versus larger ones, you&#39;ve found that the quality of product is higher, and that clients are much better served.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;p2&quot;&gt;Third, while preparing answers to inevitable questions you&#39;ll receive during interviews, ask yourself which qualities, skills, and types of experience the job you&#39;re applying for requires, and make sure to insert them into your answers, even to questions where you&#39;re not directly asked about them. Chances are that interviewers won&#39;t be able to get to all of their questions, so you&#39;ll want to make sure you communicate, before your 30 minutes are up, that you&#39;re qualified for the position and why you&#39;re qualified.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;p2&quot;&gt;At any rate, remember to give specific details and personal details whenever you can during your interviews. In most cases you&#39;ll find that, if you do, you can&#39;t lose.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;p2&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;em&gt;Follow me on Twitter:&#160;&lt;a rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; href=&quot;https://twitter.com/vaultfinance&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;@vaultfinance&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;p2&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Read More:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; href=&quot;http://harpers.org/blog/2012/11/the-electoral-battle-between-corporationism-and-empiricism/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;The Electoral Battle Between Corporationism and Empiricism (Harper&#39;s)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; href=&quot;/blogs/workplace-issues/obama-s-advice-for-would-be-ceos&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Obama’s Advice for Would-Be CEOs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; href=&quot;/blogs/workplace-issues/3-takeaways-from-mitt-romneys-video-gaffe&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;3 Takeaways From Romney&#39;s Video Gaffe&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; href=&quot;/blogs/interviewing/3-interview-tips-from-johnny-ramone&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Interview Tips From Johnny Ramone&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Derek Loosvelt

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