Today’s topic is 6 interview tips. Now, you spend a lot of time, a lot of frustration, a lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into a job search, and now you are at the interview stage. You don’t want to blow it. Now, you could be in the position to get an offer as a result of this interview or maybe one or two interviews down the road. Don’t blow it. So please take the notes of these six interview tips. They’re pretty common, everybody should know them, but I want to remind everybody because I see so many people who don’t do, don’t learn from their mistakes, their previous mistakes in interviewing, and then they go from a mistake to mistake to mistake. And that’s not good because you are a few inches away from maybe getting that job, and it could be a dream job. And in today’s market when recruitment hiring is very, very strong, you could even get yourself into multiple of, because like many of my clients do.
So here we are, this is the six top interview tips.
Number one is research the company.
There’s no point in just walking in the door of the interview room or going on Zoom or WebEx or teams or any other virtual communications without doing any research. So research their products, their services, their career, their history, and their culture. That’s very, very important. How do you find out about their culture off the hiring line? So, if you’re going for a sales job, linking with somebody connect with somebody who’s not in sales but in is in a different function, maybe marketing or supply chain or finance, and tell them you’re coming for an interview and you just need to know the culture. You could interview two or three people, and that’s the way you get to learn about the culture. Culture and cultural fit are very, very important today. So make sure you learn about the products, the services, the history of the company, the senior executive team, who they are, and which positions they hold, and the culture. And the more intelligence you have, the better it’s going to be. So research, research, research. Yes, this could be very frustrating and it takes a long time, but feel free to use LinkedIn to do a lot of research on the other platforms. Zoom info and there are many platforms you can do glass store that you can do a lot of research in today. So don’t just walk in that door or sit yourself in front of a computer and think, “Oh, I’m gonna do it. I’m going to breeze it.” It doesn’t happen that way. The more prepared you are, the better it’s going to be for you, and the more prepared you are, the more that they see that you are prepared. So number one is research the company.
Number two is practice answers to the most common interview questions.
Now, there’s going to be some thrown at you, you don’t know what they are, and that’s okay. Hang on, we’ve got one that tip one, one question here. Babu, hello Martin. I recently graduated, have been applying for hundreds of jobs, but I’m getting rejected from everywhere. Is it because I do not have any reference? How to find out if my resume is reaching the recruiter without going on to your LinkedIn profile? Swathy, I don’t, I want to see where you are if you are going through a recruiter. You pro, you may be junior, in which case the recruiter might not be your best friend. But if you’re applying for hundreds of jobs, I would say there’s something wrong with your resume or your cover letter. So, you should be getting traction into that. I don’t even know what you do, what your profession is or whatever, but you should be getting traction. And it’s actually better to send maybe 10 targeted resumes out than it is a hundred. So, take that on board. But I’m more than happy to give you a free, no-obligation resume critique. And I will put my information, my email up there so you can see and send me your resume. And I’m more than happy to connect with you to give you a free, no-obligation resume critique. And that applies to everybody else.
So coming back to number two, practice the answers to all the interview questions, the common ones. You’re going to get some that are thrown to you that are specific to that particular company or specific to that particular professional discipline. But try and rehearse, practice, practice, practice the delivery as well. It’s not just your verbal. It’s the way you articulate and your body using your body language, your poise, and whatever. Don’t slouch, just keep it up and look at the interviewer when they are asking you questions. Look straight at them in their eyes. And if it’s a panel interview or a bit panel interview, you scope along the panel and then come back to the person that you have who has asked that question from the panel. So practice, practice, answers. That’s number two.
Number three, dress appropriately.
You have to look sharp. It’s first impressions. As I said, it’s not just your delivery of your verbal answers. It’s your poise. It’s the way you carry yourself. And you’re on watch as soon as you enter that building. If you’re going into a potential employer’s building, you are on watch. They sometimes ask the receptionist or whatever to for feedback on how you reacted and how you carry yourself, how you introduced yourself, even at the receptionist. So make sure that you are dressed appropriately. You have the great poise. Don’t slouch. Don’t drop your hands behind your back or whatever. Look sharp, look on the ball. This is what you need to do. So number three, look sharp.
Number four is arrive early.
Now, do your due diligence. If it’s a long way away, you need to go and perhaps do what I would call a dry run. So do your due diligence. Know how long it’s going to take to get to that particular area. And then what you do is you add another 20 minutes or 30 minutes because you cannot afford to be late. One, if you’re late, that’s a black mark against you, and you’re probably gone out of that talent pool. So make sure you do a dry run. You do your due diligence and check how long it’s going to take to get to that particular location. So look sharp, arrive early, plan that journey.
Next one is number five, an interview.
Many people don’t understand this, an interview is a two-way street. It’s not a one-way conversation. It’s a two-way conversation, two-way dialogue. So make sure you come prepared with questions to ask the interviewer. Put the interviewer in the interviewee’s position and ask them some probing questions, make them think because the more you make them think, the more that you will be building rapport. So ask questions, come prepared with some questions, put them in the back of your mind, in your memory, and then bring them out when you’re going to ask those questions. Ask questions.
Number six, emphasize your accomplishments.
Give them many reasons throughout the whole of the interview why they should employ you.
- What is your value?
- What is your differentiator?
- What is your competitive edge?
- What are your performance statistics, which should be outlined on your resume quite succinctly in the STAR method, situation, task, action, result?
So emphasize your performance. You can make the money, you can save the money, you can streamline operations.
The list goes on. Show them your accomplishments or show them your projects, which hopefully will have some accomplishments in them. So emphasize your accomplishments. Be open, be honest, be energetic.
Really shine above everybody else. Show that you really want that job. Get excited. I know an interview can be nerve-wracking. Yes, it’s human nature that we get nerves, but try and put those nerves at the back and think about the value you can bring and your job offer that will hopefully come as a result of that particular interview.
So let’s run through those six again.
Number one is research the company. Number two is practice, practice, practice. Number three is look sharp, dress appropriately, stand appropriately. So make sure you are looking the part. Number four is arrive early. Do your due diligence. Find out how far and how long it’s going to take to get to that particular location. Number five is ask questions.
As I said, it’s a two-way street. It’s not just a one-way street. Ask pertinent questions, put them on the spot. Number six, emphasize your accomplishments, show your value. And here’s a bonus that is going to make you stand out from everybody else. Have you or do you remember snail mail when we actually walked to the post box, the mailbox, and we actually post a letter? Well, why don’t you go to a local store and buy some really good thank-you cards and then on Amazon, do some great thank-you cards and then send them, hand-write a thank-you message to that particular interview. Because you should have got their business card at the end.
If you haven’t got it, go look them up on LinkedIn and various other platforms. You can look where it is. But go and send a thank-you note, a hand-written thank-you note, not by email because everybody else is going to do that. I can tell you that will sharpen your competitive edge. So the bonus is go and get some thank-you cards, some good thank-you cards. And every interview you attend, send them a thank-you note. Thank them for the time. If it’s a panel interview, send all of the panel a separate thank-you note. So that’s my bonus.
