A job interview doesn’t have to be dreadful if you prepare them right.
Here are a few tips to nail your next interview.
Investigate
To prepare adequately for a job interview, you have to research the company as well as extract as much information from the job description.
I’m not talking about knowing the year the company was created and the name of each executive.
However, learning about its values and its mission statement will help understand the culture.
What have been their main focus in recent years and what have they been involved in?
This will help you determine if you want to work for the company at all as well as show the recruiting manager that you are actually motivated in the job.
Analysing the job description will help you understand what kind of candidate they are looking for and the function of work.
You can draw a conclusion about daily tasks and responsibilities from a job offer which will help you further prepare for the interview.
Use the STAR model
STAR stands for Situation Task Action Results.
Take each of the tasks and responsibilities you could find in the job description and apply the STAR method.
This allows you to have a concrete example of your capabilities for each action that will need to be performed.
It gives more weight to your argument if you can rely on previous experience to illustrate your point.
Also, note that the Results in your STAR example doesn’t have to be positive necessarily. Explaining a negative result and the lessons you learnt from it also makes for a good argument in your favour.
You might not use all of your STAR examples in the interview, but you can’t know in advance which questions are going to be asked. It is important to be prepared to answer any of their concerns.
This preparation helps dissipate a huge amount of pressure as it gives a feeling of being ready for anything that will be thrown at you.
Be unique
More than showing your ability to perform each task, you should be ready to explain what you have that’s different from the other candidates.
What among your set of soft and hard skills can benefit your future team that they can’t find elsewhere?
It doesn’t have to be anything crazy and unseen before.
It could also be a more unique combination of skills.
For example, you could be interviewing for a technical job. You have all the hard skills required for the job, but you are also good with people in the realm of introverts. Show what a tremendous teammate you’d be.
Do you want the job?
Something that immensely helps me during an interview is to remember that you are assessing them as much as they are assessing you.
Keep in mind that the balance of power will be as tilted as you let it be.
Obviously, you want to make a good impression. However, you are also going into the interview trying to figure out if this company and team are the right fit for you.
A job interview isn’t a one-way street. You can ask appropriate questions to show your interest and demonstrate you’re not settling for anything.
Don’t go in thinking you’d take the job no matter what.
Have boundaries and clear objectives of what you want this job and experience to be.
Once you get into that mindset, you’ll find interesting questions to ask during the job interview that will make you stand out from the other candidates.
Find what matters to you in a job, team, and company, and be sure to enquire about it.
Be proactive before the job interview
You don’t need the perfect job description to start preparing yourself to be the perfect candidate.
If you know you want a specific work or join a certain company, look for what matters as a candidate.
You can develop your soft and hard skills from there.
You can take courses or volunteer or work on a personal project to gain experience.
Shape yourself into the perfect candidate by being proactive and actively growing your skills.
Do your best to prepare for a job interview beforehand to relieve some pressure on the day.
It sounds surreal but try to enjoy it, it never lasts for too long and you should learn from it as much as you can.
