Job Interview Tips

 

 

How To Prepare For A Job Interview


When and where?

Make sure that you know when and where your Job interview will be conducted. Find out who you should report to when you get to the location (the receptionist, the information desk attendant, etc.). Call and confirm this information if necessary. As a real life example, there was an applicant who came to his job interview seemingly well prepared and ready. Unfortunately for him, he was 2 days late and I had already filled the position. He inadvertently marked the wrong date on his calendar. It was an awkward moment for both of us.

Don’t be late for your job interview. It’s okay to be early, even extra early. You can sit in the waiting room, relax and get your thoughts in order. You’ll seem eager to interview for the position and that’s fine. But, if you are late, it will show a possible tendency to be tardy on your part, a perception that you will have to try to overcome during your interview. It may also be a perception that you will not be able to overcome during your interview. An interviewer may wonder, if traffic or the babysitter is your excuse for why you are late to the job interview, how often is this going be your excuse for being late for work if you are hired.

Often, interviewers have scheduled interviews for the entire day; if you are late you will throw off their “carefully crafted” schedule which includes their breaks and lunches. This does not bode well for first impressions.

If you feel that you have arrived too early, sit in your car or go to a nearby restaurant for a quick bite to eat. Be sure not to drop any food on your clothes and don’t drink too much. The desperate need to use the restroom during your job interview may cause you to lose focus on what’s at hand.

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Know your value


Before your job interview, you should have a very good idea of what you bring to the table and what skill set the company is seeking. In essence,

  • Your abilities + Company Needs =  Your value to the company

It can be said with certainty that if you are an expert flower arranger and a certain company needs an electrical engineer, that your value to that company will be zero. On the other hand, if you are an English teacher and a company needs a technical writer, you have some value to that company. How much depends upon how well your writing abilities and experience (if any) align with the technical writing skill set that they are seeking. And of course, if you are a cable technician and a company is in need of a cable technician, your value to the company is significant. You only need to reel in the job during the course of the interview.


Know the business


Learn some general information about the company and as much as you can about the position before the interview. Many applicants often go to a job interview only knowing very little about a company and nothing much about the position. This can often be obvious to the interviewer. Take a look at the company’s website and find out what the company does. Learn about the position in the job description area of the job announcement that you initially read. If the job description is too vague, make an attempt to find similar positions and read their job descriptions. Some of the duties for those positions may apply to the position that you are seeking. Remember, limited knowledge about the company you’re seeking employment with and the position that they are offering may make it difficult for you to tailor your answers to their expectations of a qualified applicant.