Preparing for Your Interview
You’ve secured an interview, now what? Preparing for your interview is just as important, if not more important, than the actual interview itself. After all, you only have one chance to make a good first impression. Follow these tips below to set yourself up for interview success.
Find out the logistics of the interview: Whether your interview is over the phone or face-to-face, it’s imperative to know ahead of time the person(s) you will be speaking with and their role within the company. You should also find out how long the interview will last so that you have blocked off enough time in your schedule. If the interview is face-to-face, make sure you have the correct directions and you know any tricks to parking or getting into the building ahead of time, so that you are allowing yourself enough time to arrive at least 15 minutes early.
Research the company and the interviewers: First, start by going to the company’s website. What do they do? Who are their customers? Do they have their annual report posted? Secondly, do a Google search on the company. Have they been in the news lately? Have any articles been written recently about the work they’ve been doing? If you’ve done enough research, you should be able to speak confidently about the company’s background in the interview and you should be able to explain what interests you about working there. Lastly, you should also research the individuals you’ll be speaking with during the interview. See if there’s a bio for them on the company’s website; if not, search for them on LinkedIn. This is important for two reasons – 1) you’ll be able to establish any commonalities with them and 2) you’ll have a better understanding of their background and work history. Being extremely knowledgeable about the company and the interviewers will give you a leg up against other candidates.
Understand the job description as it relates to your experience: Make sure you have a job description before the interview and understand what’s required of the position. Be able to match your own experience and expertise to the requirements of the job description. These are the areas you’ll want to focus on during the interview. Avoid answering questions with “As you can see on my resume,” because they’ve already read your resume – they now want to hear it from you! If there’s a particular requirement that you’ve never had experience with, research the topic so that you can talk intelligently about it during the interview. After all, you need to sell them on why YOU are the best candidate for the job.
Prepare a list of questions: You shouldn’t be the only person answering questions during the interview. You should be asking the questions too! Based on the pre-interview research you’ve done, prepare a list of questions that you would like answered. These questions can be about the company, the team, the job, the growth potential, etc. It’s best to pepper in these questions during the actual interview discussion rather than waiting until the end of the interview. This shows you are listening and paying close attention during the interview. Also, the more questions you ask, the more interested you will come across!
First impressions are everything. Are you prepared to give it your best?
