You’ve been focusing on your job search for several weeks now and, you’ve been asked to interview with a company that you would absolutely love to work for!
You’re nervous however because you haven’t interviewed in years since you were at your last or current job for a decade or more…
You need to prepare for your interview pronto!
Let me share several ways for you to distinguish yourself through the interview stage, with 3 simple steps:
1- Research:
Employers today expect job seekers to have done a thorough search prior to any interview with a company. It’s so easy since we have so much information available to us online, at our fingertips.
There’s no reason not to go in prepared and ready to ask some intelligent, well-researched and pertinent questions towards the end of the interview.
Here are the key pieces of research you want to make sure you capture:
Company Website: get a feel for the products, the culture, the focus areas and general feel for the company based on their online presence.
LinkedIn: research the people you will be interviewing with. Learn about their backgrounds, see if you have anything in common that can help you make a great first impression and, a deeper connection when you meet them.
Latest News: you’ll want to dig into the latest news on the company as well as the industry they conduct business in. Take note of any trends, important recent developments and newsworthy events. This will help you draft some relevant questions for the interviewers as well.
2- Be Prepared – well ahead of time:
The best way to come across as a confident/competent candidate is to be extremely well prepared. It helps to be prepared through every single step of the job search process, even more so for the interview stage.
To be prepared means:
- You have an appropriate interview outfit clean and pressed and ready to go at a moment’s notice
- You have drafted and rehearsed your answers to the most common interview questions. Yes, you want to rehearse them, several times and also at least once before each and every interview. Make sure however that you don’t seem too “rehearsed” as that can work against you but Step # 3 will take care of this.
- You have prepared questions for the interviewer ahead of time, and based on the first step which was Research
- You have mentally prepared yourself to be in the best possible frame of mind for the interview itself
By being prepared and ready to go at a moment’s notice, you’ll give employers and recruiters the sense that you’re an ultimate professional. You’ll also be less nervous leading up to the interview.
Being prepared can be an amazing confidence booster!
3- Tell stories:
This one may be counter-intuitive but it’s so important.
Employers are humans after all and humans have been socialized for thousands of years to respond to and remember stories. It’s in our DNA.
In an interview setting, you don’t just want to be telling random stories.
You want to tell stories that illustrate the skills and talents that you want to showcase and that are the best fit for the role you’re vying for.
This will make you stand out, and come across as a memorable candidate which is exactly what you want.
The best way to prepare for this is to write down potential interview questions, prepare your planned answers to them and work to illustrate them with specific examples from your past work.
Be careful not to ramble on endlessly but adding in some examples and stories through your planned answers will set you apart. And by doing this carefully, it won’t seem like you’re bragging either since stories are such a natural thing for us humans.
By following these steps, you are sure to raise your game and ace any future interviews!
P.S.: I currently have a few spots open for a free personal mini coaching session that can help you for example personally prepare for any interview.