How a Interview Preparation Can Make A Big Difference

Remember when you had a big high school or college test that was super important to your grade? And for whatever reason, you waited until the night before the test to study. Do you remember the stress you felt the next day during the test and the anxiety you had, wondering if you had done well? Many people approach interviewing for a job in the same way, without any interview preparation. I had two candidates recently who decided to start preparing the night before an interview, although they had the date set for over two weeks.

Now that they started preparing late, it doesn’t mean they didn’t have a good interview. But I don’t believe they allowed themselves enough time to give enough attention to preparing so they could go in with confidence and hopefully be more prepared than their competition for the position.

A great resume is an essential part of Interview Preparation

For most positions in the job market, you need a great resume. Note that I said great instead of good because a great resume is what gets noticed and stands out from the crowd. A great resume also leads to the opportunity to interview, and great interviews get job offers (check out our professional resume writing services).

But there are times when a good resume shows qualities that an employer might like, and they also get invited to interview. And the candidate with a good resume might have a great interview because they put in the time to prepare. We see this all the time during the interview process where the candidates with the best resumes and who seem to be the most qualified don’t get the job because they don’t interview either. Many times that is due to a lack of preparation.

For a majority of candidates interviewing, they do prepare more and get started a few days in advance, so they don’t have that cramming for a test feeling the night before. However, I consistently hear the same game plan when preparing for interviews – read the job description to be clear on the requirements and check out the company’s website.

Tools you can use during your interview preparation

Here are a few tools for your interview preparation to give you confidence and help you be better prepared than the rest.

• Read the job description and be prepared to give examples of how your experience and skillset match those requirements. If you have examples to show, you will want to take them to the interview.
• View the company’s LinkedIn page and their information on Google Finance if available, and learn something about the history of the company.
• View the company’s website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube channels. You will want to learn about the company wherever they have an online presence. Finding one exciting tidbit to discuss during the interview can go a long way to separate you from others.
• Review the LinkedIn profiles of anyone involved in the interview process.  Do you have anything in common with anyone? Is there anything that could make a quick connection when you meet?
• If the position has anything to do with a product, go into multiple stores to see how the product is displayed, note who the competition of the product would be, and you might want to take photos that could be used as examples if needed.
• Google recent news articles about the company. Find out what is buzzing about them financially, their products, recalls possible sales or mergers, etc.

Be prepared to answer common questions.

According to Harvard Business Review, these are the 10 most common questions asked during job interviews.

1. Could you tell me about yourself and briefly describe your background?
2. How did you hear about this position?
3. What type of work environment do you prefer?
4. How do you deal with pressure or stressful situations?
5. Do you prefer working independently or on a team?
6. When you’re balancing multiple projects, how do you keep yourself organized?
7. What did you do in the last year to improve your knowledge?
8. What are your salary expectations?
9. Are you applying for other jobs?
10. From your resume, it seems you took a gap year. Would you like to tell us why that was?

By practicing these questions during your interview preparation, you will gain confidence, and you will be better prepared on the day of the interview.

Source: https://hbr.org/2021/11/10-common-job-interview-questions-and-how-to-answer-them

There are thousands of articles, videos, and classes about interview preparation, and these are just a few of the tips that I would suggest to take some of the anxiety out of interviewing and have more fun and success.

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