How To Prepare Yourself For An Interview

Follow Up After The Interview

No introduction is complete without a goodbye. After your interview has ended, follow the lead of your interviewer: stand when they stand, shake their hand again and thank them for their time with a smile. You can prepare to say a few phrases that will end the conversation on a positive note, like,

• It was a pleasure meeting you, I appreciate your time today.

• Thanks for a great conversation, hope you enjoy the rest of your day.

• It was great to hear more about your role here, I hope to be in touch in the future.

If you have multiple rounds of interviews, be prepared to stand and greet your next interviewer, repeating the steps above.

After youve had some time to process and review your interview notes, remember to send timely follow-up notes to your interviewers, whether that be via email or handwritten. Sometimes recruiters dont give out interviewer emails, so be sure to ask for their business card or ask the recruiter if they can pass a thank you message to the interviewer. If youre sending handwritten notes, an easy way to get them to your interviewers is to send to the office address under their name.

Related:

Here are a few additional considerations for making a great first impression.

Review Your Facebook And Other Social Media Postings

Employers often review Facebook and other social media sites to get information and background on prospective employees. So make sure to review your online postings and pictures and delete any information that is embarrassing or could cast you in a negative light with the prospective employer.

Its also useful to Google yourself to see what your prospective employer would see if they did a search on you.

Using Tell Me About Yourself As An Argument Youll Prove In The Interview

Since its almost always asked first, or at least early, in the interview, you can use this question to argue why your background, skills, and personality make you the ideal candidate for the role. Essentially, you want to preview who you would be if hired then, you can support that snapshot of yourself with more evidence throughout the interview.

It can give you peace of mind to remember that your answer is only an introduction you cant win the job with one perfect response! Instead, youll be able to use the rest of the interview to create a clearer, more holistic portrait of yourself.

Preparing for a job interview? Go and check our latest executive jobs!

Don’t Miss: Interview With Cfo

Research The People Who Will Be Interviewing You

Before your interview, try and get a list of the people you will be meeting with. Then research these individuals, including:

• Do a Google search on each person.
• Review their individual LinkedIn pages .
• Review any information about these individuals on the companys website.

The goal is to learn about your interviewers backgrounds and interests so that it will be easier to establish a rapport. Show interest in them and their role in the company.

Be Ready To Answer Questions

Remember, interviewers and candidates are evaluating each other during interviews. On their part, candidates will try to determine whether the job can fulfil their aspirations and whether the company is a good place for them to work. So they might ask relevant questions which you should be able to answer. If you give pertinent, transparent answers, youll be able to create a better candidate experience and sell your company in a way that helps candidates decide if theyre a good fit. Preparing for these questions in advance may take some time, but youll need to do this only once before the interview phase begins.

Ensure you can talk to candidates about:

• The companys strategy, mission and structure
• The teams projects, direction and goals
• The perks and benefits tied to the position youre hiring for
• The next steps of the hiring process
• What you like about your job and the team or company

For some of these questions, interviewers may need to consult HR. For example, are you allowed to divulge the pay range of the position? Which future projects can you mention if a candidate asks and which are confidential? If candidates ask something you dont know the answer to, or arent allowed to disclose, prepare to say so tactfully.

Read Also: What To Wear For An Interview Women

Share This Post Through Email

No matter how many you go on, job interviews can always be nerve-wracking. You put on your nicest clothes, print out your resume, and remind yourself to smile real bigâand just when you think everything is going well, the interviewer hits you with a curveball question you arenât prepared for.

Luckily, youâre not going to let that happen again and youâre planning ahead to ace this monthâs interview. The best way to for anything is to do your research ahead of timeâwhich is why weâre here to help.

If youâre preparing for a big interview during COVID-19, prepping beforehand with these 15 interview questions will help you get one step closer to that dream job.

Be Aware Of Body Language

Nonverbal communication is important to keep in mind. When youre meeting people during the interview process, remember the attributes you want your body language to display. For example, if you want to communicate confidence, keep your shoulders back, chin raised and chest high. Keeping eye contact as you introduce yourself is another good practice, showing interviewers youre engaged in the conversation and capable of communicating well with your potential future colleagues.

Pro Tip: Unsure about how you may be presenting yourself during introductions? Try recruiting a friend or family member for a practice introducing yourself, including your dress, body language, even your handshake. The mirror is a great practice tool, too.

Youve likely met hundreds of people in your life, and a job interview involves much of the same etiquette you would use when meeting any new person. Your interviewers want to hire a great teammate just as much as you want to be on the teamwhich means they want you to succeed. When introducing yourself at your next interview, confidence, preparing ahead of time and a smile will go a long way.

Read more:

Also Check: Best Interview Clothes For A Woman

What To Prepare Before An Interview

Knowing that you have an interview coming up can be stressful. However, if you use the time before your interview to prepare yourself, you will likely look and feel more confident during the interview. This lesson will guide you through different ways to prepare for an interview. It will explain how to research the company beforehand. It will help you identify appropriate interview attire and will provide you with a checklist of items to bring along with you. And it will help you both prepare to ask the right questions and practice answering the questions you are likely to be asked.

Follow Up With A Thank You

It takes a few moments to send a thank you card or email, and it allows you to stay top of mind. Include a solution to a talking point in the interview or a response to a tip or piece of advice they gave you. Even if youre not the right fit for this role, they might refer you to a colleague or friend.

Also Check: Mailscoop Io

Dos And Donts In An Interview

Know Why You Want The Job And What You Can Offer

Go through the requirements listed in the job description, and review your resume this will help refresh your memory and will enable you to discuss projects you’ve worked on in detail.

Make a list of measurable examples from past work experiences that prove that you have skills and qualities that are relevant to the job description. Identify your unique selling points – what youd like your interviewers to remember you by.

Overall, make sure to have a clear understanding of why you want the job and why you are the right fit.

Also Check: Questions To Ask Cfo During Interview

How To Prepare Yourself For An Interview

Your accomplishment in a job Interview relies on an incredible arrangement upon how you plan for it. Interview preparation fundamentally includes exploring the work and the organization and insightfully considering your responses to the inquiry questions.

However, pre-talk with planning, there are sure angles you ought to get ready for during and after the interview. In this article, we look at some steps engaged with getting ready for a job interview screening and some noteworthy hints to improve your odds of progress.

These are some Interview preparation tips, so while you want for your chance at the venue, switch off your cell phone or put it on silent or vibration mode. In the event that you need to accept a critical call, talk in a delicate and soft tone.

Sit patiently in the waiting area. Walking here and there around the workplace would give a bad impression of the candidate. This is a kind of Patience test.

Be mindful so as not to ask any personal questions to your interviewer, HR staff, or the secretary.

Keep your answers short and centered and prescribed in Nature.

Discuss positively your current or past boss.

Be straightforward in the answers that you dont have the foggiest idea about the response to any question asked by the interviewer.

However, you need an ideal opportunity to gather your thoughts it is fine to stop and ask the interviewer for quite a while to think.

Get Yourself Into The Right State Of Mind

If you get nervous before interviews, it can help to remember that the employer almost certainly thinks youre qualified, or at least that youre very likely to be qualified! They wouldnt be interviewing you if they hadnt already determined that youre at least plausible for the job.

It can also help to remember that no one gives a perfect interview. The other candidates interviewing for the job arent giving flawless interviews, and you dont need to strive for that either. Your goal is just to give a good interview that shows why youd excel at the job and what youd be like to work with day to day.

It can even help to approach the interview as if you were a consultant. If you were a consultant meeting with a prospective client, youd explain your expertise, learn about the work that needs to be done, and talk about how youd tackle it and youd be talking as a potential business partner, not as a nervous job candidate waiting for the interviewer to pass judgment on you. The more you can think of an interview like that as a collaborative business meeting where you and your interviewer are both trying to figure out if it makes sense to work together the better your interview will probably go .

And if you really get nervous in interviews, try pretending that you already know youre not going to get the job . Sometimes lowering the stakes can lower your nerves and help you give a better interview.

You May Like: How To Prepare System Design Interview

Dive Into The Tailoring Method

Alright, the STAR Method alone is a pretty strong approach. But, by also learning the Tailoring Method, you have a secret sauce for creating delicious answers to behavioral interview questions.

The Tailoring Method is all about customization. You dont want to give the hiring manager a basic answer to a question you want to make it relevant and enticing, building an exceptional value proposition by showcasing how you can help their company thrive. Thats what the Tailoring Method helps you do.

Its an approach that makes the hiring manager and company the priority, not you. Its about positioning yourself as a solution to the problem the hiring manager is trying to solve . That makes the Tailoring Method a competitive advantage, as not all job seekers are going to go that extra mile.

Reread Your Resume Or Application

Reread your resume? Why would you need to do that? After all, you know your own background, right? Well, sort of.

If you tailor your resume to each job , and youve applied to more than one recently, you may not remember which details you included. That could spell trouble.

You can almost guarantee that the hiring manager is going to talk about your resume. If you forgot which accomplishments you mentioned, you might not prepare to discuss them. Then, if the hiring manager asks which they almost certainly will you might give a stumbly answer.

Review your resume! Know what you said! Remember, your resume might be all the hiring manager knows about you, so make sure you can discuss those points with ease.

Don’t Miss: Cfo Interview

Interview Preparation Question #: Tell Me About A Time When You Faced A Challenge With X

The average candidates say:

One time I showed up late for work. But I was willing to skip lunch that day so it all worked out.

Whats wrong with this response? If you guessed everything, youre absolutely right. Not only does it make the person look unreliable, but also it seems like they think showing up to work late is okay.

Heres a better response:

When I first got hired at Company A, it was actually difficult to make it to work on time.

The traffic was pretty bad no matter how early I left home. And one day, I actually showed up late, which was pretty frustrating for everyone involved.

Even though I was still getting my work done by staying late my coworkers didnt like having to wait on me to finish.

So I decided to look deeper into the situation. I wanted to see if there was a way to make things easier on everyone.

And I realized that I could actually work on them from home and still do most of the projects being delayed. I put together a proposal for my boss to test it.

And we tried it for a few weeks. Not only did working from home help everyone leave work on time, but it also gave me a huge productivity bump by not spending so much time in traffic. I havent had an issue since.

Why this works: This answer is beautifully done. It takes a really bad problem being late to work and shows that the person was in complete control of the situation.

Conduct Research On The Company

Find out who you might be working for.

If it’s been your goal to work for a particular company and you’ve been religiously following them for years, you may be able to skip this step but candidates who are unfamiliar with potential employers will need to do thorough research before they start preparing for a job interview.

Some things you may want to find out include:

• Who they are, what they do, and where they’re located.
• Founders and other key players.
• Mission statement and goals.
• Recent milestones and other significant achievements.
• Projects and initiatives they’re involved in.
• Specific details about the department you’ll be working in.
• Conversations they’re currently having.
• What role you will play and the contributions you can make.

You wouldn’t want to bring it up in an interview, but when conducting your research, also look for red flags, such as poor reviews and lawsuits related to the company. Part of being well-prepared is finding out everything you can about your potential employer.

Start your research by looking at their social media pages and company website. Companies usually include a link to their site in any email correspondence.

Determine who the key players are and find out more about them. They may show up in Google searches, but should also have LinkedIn and social media profiles you can access.

Run a Google search on the company and see what comes up. You may also find video testimonials from previous clients and employees, which can be helpful.

Recommended Reading: Interview Questions To Ask A Cfo

Keep Your Introduction Short And Concise

You’ll have an opportunity to introduce yourself on an in-depth basis during the interview. Many hiring managers will start an interview with an open-ended question like “Tell me about yourself.” The core of your response should focus on the key elements in your background that will enable you to excel in the job for which you are interviewing. Create an elevator pitch and practice it, so you’re comfortable describing yourself.

Carefully analyze the job before the interview, so you can point out the interests, skills, experiences, and personal qualities that will enable you to meet or exceed the job and company requirements.

Review answers to tell me about yourself questions. Learn the best ways to highlight your skills, experience, and personality without sharing too much information or taking up too much precious interview time.