How To Prepare For A Job Interview?

Interview preparation can seem daunting even to professionals, but the more prepared you are, the better you can give an interview. Let’s check out the key things to consider for an interview.

1. Review the Job Description

Every job will have a job description linked to it. This should be the guide to identify the skills and qualifications required for the role you have applied. Ensure you can align your responses in the interview with these skills and duties. A company would like to find an ideal candidate using the job description as a reference. So, this is the first thing one needs to look into.

2. Research the Company

Knowing about the company is highly important before attending an interview. It gives you a context in the first place for any questions or discussion in the interview. This study will help you understand what’s the company product/service, mission and culture/values. Apart from this, knowing about the role and company makes you feel more confident and prepared before an interview giving you an edge over other competent candidates.

3. Analyse your interests

You should have an understanding on why you want to get into the specific role you have applied for. What is your main motive and interests towards this job? This helps you provide better examples and references in your interview to prove you are an ideal candidate that the company is looking for.

4. Check out some common interview questions

There are 2 types of questions in an interview.

1. Questions asked by the Interviewer

Based on the role you are interviewing for; you can find some common interview questions for the role title using Google or career space like Glassdoor.

2. Questions asked by the Interviewee

At the end of every interview, there is an allocated time where a candidate can ask some questions. This is also the time you can ask some meaningful questions to make an impression and stand out from others. It can also help know more about the role and the company you are interested to be a part of

Please find some sample questions you can ask here — Questions to ask

Going through some common interview questions will help you prepare your responses and make sure they are aligned to the role’s skills and responsibilities. If you are applying for a tech role, there are lot of resources available online with sample answers as well.

5. Check the interview location

Only thing you never want to end up is being late or even miss an interview if you are new to the interview location or because of unexpected traffic. It’s a must to check the interview location in advance and put it on maps to have an estimate of the time taken to reach the venue.

Also, make use of the ‘depart time’ feature provided by Google Maps to put in the interview time and get a close view of how much times it takes on the actual day of interview to reach the venue. If the location is nearby, try to visit it someday before the interview to be clear on any unknowns like parking, entry gates etc.

6. Actual Interview Preparation

Coming to the actual interview preparation, one must prepare on how they will respond to the probable interview questions. Write some high-level notes (bullet points) for each question you are expecting in a STAR methodology. Need not be detailed but a high-level plan should work.

STAR: Situation — Task — Action — Result

STAR technique is a professional and efficient way to answer an interview question that helps you structure the answer in a better way and also enables the interviewer to understand the context and experience behind your response.

7. Give few mock interviews

Mock interviews are a way to make you more prepared and confident before giving a real interview. They will bring out any challenges you might have while answering in your actual interview and thereby enable you to correct any mistakes that would otherwise be found only in the real one.

You can either seek help from your friends to conduct a mock interview who has some knowledge in that area or opt for some online paid services. This will also help relieve some stress and any anxiety before the interview.

8. Check your CV/Resume thoroughly

The guide for any interviewer will be the CV or Resume you have submitted while applying for a position. Its importance cannot be stressed enough as you need to be thorough with every point written in your CV.

Interviewer will ask for examples citing some relevant points in your CV and other questions regarding the information on your CV. You will need to make sure you have relevant responses prepared for each experience in your CV.

Also, look out for any gaps in your CV as you might be asked about a significant gap in your career. You should be able to justify any gaps in your career.

9. Sell yourself

This is not something related to sales jobs but applies to every candidate. End of the day, any candidate will need to sell them to be able to grab a role. You might have great professional experience and skills, but it is of no help if you are unable to sell yourself highlighting all the key skills and experience you have in a comfortable yet effective manner.

There is nothing wrong in selling yourself as that’s what you put on paper as the job agreement contract agreeing to provide your skills and duties to the company and in turn receive a pay for your time. So, you are selling your time to the company. It is your responsibility to make the company understand how valuable you and your time is based on the responses you give in an interview.

We hope all the above points will add some value to your interview preparation process. Being calm and relaxed before the interview will help you deliver the interview better. So prepare well and stay calm!

All the very best for your interview and let us know how you did in the comments section below 😊

Originally published at https://www.howsitlike.com.