Get it Right the First Time – Interviews

You know how it is. You put in all this work to get to get “The interview“. You spend countless hours updating your resume, calling contacts, browsing job search engines and dealing with recruiters. Finally the big day, all of your work pays off and you get your interview. Are you ready? Unless you are interviewing for an entry-level job (and sometimes not even then), hiring managers just don’t have the patience to sit through a “bad” interview with someone who is not prepared. Of course, there are degrees of “bad”. Like the time that I was interviewing someone and they could not stay awake. Every time I started talking, he started nodding off. Now I know I’m not the most interesting guy, but sleeping? So what’s the point? You need to put in lots of time before interviewing. Know the company, try to find out as much as you can about the interviewer, make sure you’ve studied the job description and can easily compare it to your experience. This post is about getting the information you need to “ace” the interview.

• Don’t wear pajamas for a phone interview– Telephone interviews have become more popular over the last few years and have almost become a standard “first” before the “in person” interview. The skills required for a telephone interview certainly overlap with the “in person” interview, but there are a number of things you may need to do differently. This article, published by CNN Money, provides important points on the What, When and How of telephone interviews. There are advantages to a telephone interview, you can have materials available that would not be possible in an “in person” interview. This article covers what to have and what to do.

• 9 tips to prepare for a job interview – Another great article (this one from CBSNews.com) with lots of great tips to help ensure you are ready for the job interview. Social media, conducting your own background check and even checking out your competition – all included in this article.  Definitely worth a read.

• About.com Interview Answers – This article is from the job search experts at About.com.  An interesting set of potential interview questions and the answers they recommend. There are tons of great additional information (all related to your job search) at the bottom of the article.

• 100 Interview Questions You Should Be Prepared to Answer – This  list of questions is from Insidetech.com, provides 100 of the most common interview questions.  Take the time to read through these and think about how you would respond. While it is unlikely you will be asked all 100 in an interview, you are likely to be asked these questions at some point in your job search career.

• Monster Career Advice – 100 Potential Interview Questions – Another good article with 100 potential questions and links to some of the answers.  interview questions are sorted by category, such as Basic questions, behavioral questions, salary questions and more.

We are always eager to hear from our readers. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or suggestions regarding CareerAlley content.

Good luck in your search,
Joey

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