Your work has paid off, you have a job interview – what now? Be prepared for your job interview, many people think they can “wing it” but very few people can pull this off. There are 10′s of thousands of articles on this topic (a Google search comes up with over 6 million results), but the basic points are generally the same. There are several types of interviews: initial interviews with recruiters, telephone interviews and “in-person” interviews. I’ve listed several links to several interview articles/tips. The basics are:
- Be prepared – research the company before the interview
- Know your resume – make sure you know everything on your resume (you’d be surprised about the points you may forget)
- Review potential interviewer questions – look at the most common (and not so common) questions asked by interviewers and know how to answer the questions
- Have your own questions – be prepared to ask a range of questions during the interview. Have a comprehensive list in case the interviewer answers some of your questions before you’ve asked
- Study the job description and be prepared to convince the interviewer why you are the perfect person for the job
- Strengths and weaknesses – Know yours and be prepared to discuss them
- Dress properly – generally speaking, you can’t go wrong with proper business attire. This may not be the case all of the time, so use your judgement based on the industry, position and company
Some links:
- About.com Interview Answers - Another great article from About.com. An interesting set of potential interview questions and the answers they recommend.
- MSN Careers – Interview Tips – MSN, in conjunction with Careerbuilder, have compiled a very impressive list of interview questions, what to do, what not to do and the list goes on. Definitely worth a review, although leave yourself plenty of time.
- Monster Career Advice – Interviews - Another good article (rated 4.5 stars out of 5). The article gives advice on how to approach the interview. A very interesting read and approach.
Good luck in your search.
Related posts:
Another resource to consider in anticipation of a series of interviews with a company is http://www.glassdoor.com. Actual employees and former employes may have comments that help you ask the right questions.
The Job Coach
http://www.jobsearchdebugged.com
Another good site is WikiJob, which lets interviewees get in touch with each other and find out what interviews are like at specific employers – http://www.wikijob.co.uk