Yes, it's the most important aspect of all to a successful interview — FUN!

Whether you believe this is so or not, start treating the interview as one of the most exciting aspects of job hunting. Relax, enjoy it and have fun with the whole process. If you don’t, you will almost certainly destroy your chances of success, because you will be so nervous and negative.

You may be thinking, "Interviewing gives me headaches and sweaty palms! It’s no fun!" But interviewing is fun if you have the right approach and the right attitude. Interviewing is nothing more than a game. There are winners and losers. In order for you to be the winner, you have to have a better strategy than the loser’s line of attack.

Talent alone does not win: Talent is not everything. Often, the sports teams that recruit and possess the best players still don’t win. Just look at the school sports tournaments. Every year there seems to be at least one team from a small school that reaches the finals. On paper, they look like just an average team.

The reason they make it that far is that they put no pressure on themselves to win. They have a better strategy and they go out and have fun. Thus, being more relaxed and confident, they make more shots, foul less and make fewer mistakes. The end result is they win.

Have you ever noticed that the people who have the most fun on their jobs tend to be the most successful people in their profession? Interviewing is the same. You have to have fun.

Treat interviewing like a game: Treat interviewing and job hunting like a game. Why not see how many offers you can get? Why not try to anticipate questions before they are asked? I used to have fun by trying to guess how the people would look just by their name. By taking an attitude that interviewing is like a game, you will be much more relaxed and confident.

Laugh at your learning experiences: The more fun you have, the better you will perform. After all, interviewing is a game for interviewers as well. They may have fun by seeing how you handle a tough question or how you stack up against the others. In fact, some of them ask some crazy questions just to make the process more fun and to make the interviewee squirm. One of my friends, a fellow manager at a company I worked for, asks the question, "Why are manhole covers round?"

In asking this question, he looks for how candidates handle a completely unrelated and utterly useless question. He also looks to see how someone handles a situation where they did not know the answer. He marked down many candidates because they stumbled and tried to make up an answer even though they clearly had no idea why. This question tells a lot about a person’s morals. If someone makes up an answer to this question in the interview, what would they do in front of a client?

Be honest: If you are ever asked a question where you do not know the answer, be honest and say you don’t know. Say that you would be more than happy to research the answer and get back to them. Lying and making up answers to questions is the surest way to be rejected.

(So, why are manhole covers round? The answer is that a circular shaped lid, unlike a square or an oval, won’t fall through the opening. There’s no way to position a round cover to slip through a slightly smaller hole of the same shape. That’s because a circle has a constant width (the same width all the way around).

However, an oval has a shape that is longer than it is wide. Thus, you can always find a way to slip an oval lid through a hole of the same shape. That’s also true of a square or a six sided, hexagonal cover. If you try to cut those shapes out of a piece of paper, you will see that you can slip the cut out piece right through the opening created by it.)

Sell your skills and abilities, not yourself: A favorite question of interviewers is, "Why should I recommend you to be hired over the other people I have interviewed?" It is amazing how differently people answer it. (By the way, some of the top attributes employers are looking for include adaptability, vitality, passion, willingness to go the extra mile and conscientiousness.)

You can win if you relax and do not put pressure on yourself. Look at every interview as an opportunity for you to sell yourself, an opportunity to learn and an opportunity to have some FUN. Remember, if you get the cane around the neck, so what? You will have gained knowledge from the experience and be that much closer to your dream job.

Try rewarding yourself: Another tactic you can use, to make interviewing fun, is to treat yourself to something nice after each interview—regardless of how it went. That way you always look forward to the interview. Maybe you want to reward yourself with a nice lunch or a massage. Whether you choose to reward yourself after each interview, or to treat each interview like a game, you can have fun with the entire process.

Look at interviewing in two ways: First, you have to sell your skills and abilities (not yourself). Second, make the organization sell itself to you. You have a lot of talent and positive qualities. Good employees are not easy to find. There are a lot of mediocre people out there. Don’t sell yourself short. You have a tremendous amount to offer.