3 Things You Must Do Prior To The Job Interview

What 3 Things You Must Do Prior To The Job Interview

As an Online Interview Coach, I’m always surprised by the lack of job interview preparation that most interviewees undertake.

If you only prepare for a job interview for 45 minutes or under then this is the reason why you fail a job interview. Successful interviewees, from my research, on average spend around 4-5 hours on interview preparation.

But even the interviewees who spend a longer duration on job interview preparation often prepare badly. This article will give you a few tips to advance your job interview techniques.

Set Up Your Own Coaching Business

Pre-Job Interview Preparation 1

Clarify your selling points.

The job interview is a 45-minute sales pitch. As with all sales techniques, the key strategy to sell anything is to give a solution to a problem. What does the employer require from you? What is the essential criteria for this position? What unique value can you add to the team?

The first preparation task you should always undertake prior to the job interview is clarifying what your sales point is? This sales point has to be something the employer requires, needs or can’t do without.

In addition to having sales points, you need to create real examples of how you have used this skill, quality or experience.

Pre-Job Interview Preparation 2

Anticipate the Interviewers concerns.

Even if you had a list of key selling points, you will only be employed if the employer 100% feels that you will fit in with the team and if they believe you will make a real impact within the organisation.

If the employer has any doubts, you are likely to miss out on the exciting opportunity. Think about your application; your work history, qualifications and skills. Also, review your prepared job interview answers. On reflection put yourself in the shoes of the interviewer – what concerns would they have about hiring you?

Maybe you have a gap in your CV, maybe you lack essential qualifications or experiences. You need to prepare answers to any potential question or doubt the employer may have. In the 73 rules for influencing the interview, we use techniques such as re-framing the interviewer’s negative opinion.

It doesn’t matter how you change the interviewer’s mind as long as you leave the interview with the interviewer being full of desire instead of doubt.

FREE With Every Purchase of The 73 Rules for Influencing the Interview

Pre-Job Interview Preparation 3

Create a powerful induction.

When you met anyone the human mind will within milliseconds create an impression about the stranger in front of them. In a job interview, this impression can be the reason for the successful or unsuccessful interview outcome.

You need to prepare for this first encounter. Prepare your body language, posture, clothes, stance, smile, your opening induction including the words, tone and volume of your key communication.

Even go one step further, plan your small talk and prepare everything to help increase likability.

Employment King offer;

Interview Coaching in Manchester
Career Advice in Manchester
Online Interview Coaching
Interview Confidence Sessions in Manchester
Interview and Presentation Sessions in Manchester
Mock Interview Sessions in Manchester

October 15, 2015November 29, 2020

How to Prepare for Your First Job Interview

Many graduates every year make a beeline for the campus placements.

While not all of them end up getting a job, most lose out during the selection process. One of the common causes are lack of preparation for the job interviews. Fresh graduates are not aware of what goes into a successful job interview preparation process and end up either relying too much on academic credentials or their raw intellect.

Let’s break down the elements of the interview preparation step by step.

Learn about the company:

Before anything else you should try to know more about the company you are applying to. Knowing organizational philosophies, details of the work culture and other contributions to the society helps a lot in interviews. It’s likely you will be asked questions like ‘Why should we hire you?’ or ‘Why do you want to work with us?’ You should also understand what company is looking for and what skills and personality you have. If you are those who do not get so well with others but you have strong technical skills and have a strong academic profiles, a software engineering job might be a good fit. Also a product job is better suited for such a profile than IT services job.

Find a practice partner:

Interviews need to be practiced thoroughly and you need to be able to get comfortable with the interview setting. Find someone who is willing to help you and practice with him – be it a friend, teacher or your parents.

The best partners are your friends from your college or university who studies the same course. There are plenty of resources that can point you to questions that are likely to be asked and you should develop answers for them and let your practice partner evaluate your performance.

You should try to improve your answers and iron out the kinks every subsequent practice session. If possible you should record these mock interview sessions and evaluate your own performance yourself as well. If you are not able to find a partner despite your best efforts, practice your answers in front of the mirror. That way you can observe your body language and get comfortable with yourself.

Get appropriate attire:

While we all know we should not judge books by their cover, looks matter nonetheless in interviews. Choosing the right dress for the interview requires you to know about the organization. If the environment of the organization is casual then you can be a bit more casual but if there are strict dress codes in the workplace then you need to dress in formals. Many traditional organizations have color codes as well and you should try to fit in with the dress code as much as possible. Talking to current employees is best way to know about the culture of the company.

Creating the right impression:

You need to be prepared for not only the questions that are likely to be asked at the interview but also the right approach. Get your soft skills polished and speak confidently and clearly. Do remember to greet the interviewer and always maintain eye contact. You should practice these little things in your mock interviews as well.

Other than these courtesies you should also know how to present yourself to the interviewer. Self-confidence is the key to cracking any interview and you need to ensure that you present yourself as a skillful individual with the right mindset that matches the wavelength of the organizational policies.

Most importantly, you need to be yourself. Any experienced HR professional will be able to identify if you are giving a false representation of yourself or not. Ensure that you are honest in your approach and you will be able to sail through the interview.

Mention references:

We often think of references as means of getting an unfair advantage over others in an interview but it’s not so. If you know someone who works in the organization you are applying to, do not shy away from taking their names. If you have taken any degree course recently include your professors or teachers from these courses for references.

Those who have taken part-time courses, can include the reference of their batch-mates if they are from same organization. These courses generally attract experienced candidates and you will find many of them have worked in your target jobs before taking up the course. But do not fake it – it’s more than likely that the interviewer will contact your references and ask about your skills and capabilities.

Mind your body language:

Your body language is as important as your knowledge. You should not be too aggressive or too passive when it comes to communicating. You need to have the right balance in your approach. While being too relaxed during the interview and cozying up in the chair might make the interviewer feel you are being too casual in your approach, being too rigid and uptight will make the interviewer feel you are nervous. Your body language should be friendly and it will allow both you and the interviewer be comfortable while conversing.

Arriving for the interview:

Now that you know how to prepare for the interview, it’s time to take care of punctuality. You need to ensure that you arrive at least 15 minutes in advance even if you know the interviewer is someone who tends to be late. You should have sufficient time in hand when leaving your home and on the off chance that you end up getting stuck in major transportation problems you should inform the HR personnel or the organization ahead of the allotted time. If you feel that you will not be able to attend the interview you should let the respective people know and request a reschedule.

Exiting the interview:

Once the interview is complete you should shake hands with the interviewer and also thank everyone who was responsible for conducting the interview. Ideally you want to make a lasting impression without being too aggressive. After you leave the interview you should leave a thank you note via email as well as snail mail. Simply put in a few words of appreciation for the opportunity provided and wait for the interview results!

Author Bio –

Paresh – I have been writing online for last 4 years now and I have written extensively about career options for graduates and experienced professionals. Beyond that I enjoy reading about latest tech advances. I also enjoy building new products using the latest technologies.

June 18, 2013November 24, 2020

Five Failsafe Ways to be Prepared for your Job Interview

Be Prepared for your Job Interview

This Months Guest post comes from Simply Marketing Jobs

The golden rule of being interviewed is BE PREPARED! It sounds obvious but so many well-qualified job seekers make the mistake of arriving for interviews without planning properly in advance, hoping their experience and personality will carry them through. So what can you do before the big day to ensure you impress the interview panel and land that job?

How to Prepare for a Job Interview.

Carry out extensive research on the organisation

It’s vital to do all the research on the company that you can.

Spend time going through the company website and if the post you’re applying for is senior, get a copy of their latest published accounts (normally these are available to download from a company’s corporate website).

Google is of course a fantastic tool for finding out some interesting facts about the organisation you’re hoping to work for.

“What do you know about our company?” is one of the most commonly asked interview questions, so having to scrape around for something to say instantly looks bad. If the information is on their website, there is no excuse for not knowing about it, and having pre-prepared opinions about recent business activities and marketing campaigns will demonstrate your interest. It’s best to keep any negative opinions to yourself of course.

Areas of the business you must research:

· What does the company do?

· What’s the company culture?

· Which products and services does it sell?

· Growth plans for the future

· Main competitors

· Financial performance

· Recent published trade news

· Who will be interviewing you and what is their role?

Presentation

First impressions really do count so don’t risk everything by looking scruffy or inappropriately dressed.

Always overdress rather than risk being under-dressed. Studies show that often the average length of time between a candidate entering the interview room and a decision being made is less than four minutes.

After this time, recruiters are often looking for evidence to support the decision that – perhaps subconsciously – they have already made.

If you are at all unsure about the dress code ask the recruiter well in advance. Remember to think about your body language too – smiling often, sitting upright rather than slouching, and making plenty of eye contact will all show you in a good light.

Punctuality

As a professional, you don’t need to be told to arrive on time, but if you have interviewed extensively yourself you’ll know just how many job seekers still arrive late.

Make sure you find out where you are going and plan how you are going to get there. If you are unsure of the exact location of the interview print out a map.

Allow plenty of extra time in case of travel delays, particularly if you are heading into central London, or any other major city for the job interview. If you arrive very early find a nearby café and collect your thoughts and make any final preparations e.g. ensuring you have your mobile phone turned off before you go into the interview.

Prepare for the likely questions

Many people fall down here, simply because they haven’t spent sufficient time thinking through answers to fairly straightforward questions. Here are a few classics that will remind you of what to expect at an interview and what kinds of answers to give.

Why do you want to work for us?

The interviewers want to know you are genuinely interested in the company and the opportunities this job provides.

So you must demonstrate that you understand what makes this company different from its competitors, and what you think will be the interesting/challenging/rewarding things about working there.

Think carefully about what really appeals to you about this job and company and how you can stand out from the other people who are applying for this job, and come up with at least three points – e.g. the brands are powerful and widely admired in the marketplace; it’s an award-winning company; you’ve read fantastic client testimonials on the company website.

How would you describe yourself?

Whatever you say it’s important to be honest and genuine.

You want the interviewer to feel confident that they are seeing your true personality rather than telling them what you think they want to hear.

Remember to give plenty of evidence to back up statements or claims about yourself. Rather than telling the interviewer you are ‘target driven’, give live examples of when you have hit or exceeded targets and describe the steps you took to ensure targets were never missed.

What are your strengths?

The interviewer wants to know what your key strengths are in relation to this particular job. Make sure you choose examples that are relevant to this role but also examples that set you apart from other applicants.

Try to have four or five strengths available in case the interviewer asks for some further examples. Remember that for most jobs you will want to include an example of working well as part of a team, and fitting in well with others.

What is your greatest weakness?

Of course, be careful not to say anything too negative about yourself – such as you struggle to concentrate, or are badly organised.

Prepare an example of a weakness that you have overcome – for instance, your time management skills have improved in recent years because you now use a certain system. “I used to accept too much work in an effort to please everybody, but soon discovered that I was diluting my focus and not performing as I should…. Today I try not to be superwoman, but explain carefully to colleagues why I must prioritise my workload.”

Where do you see yourself three years from now?

Don’t overstate your ambitions here. The company really just wants reassurance that you’ll stick with the company and stay motivated over time. So it’s best to say something like: “I envisage myself enjoying my work in a progressive company like this one, and being valued as an asset to the organisation. I hope I would have performed well enough to have earned a promotion, having proved I am worthy of such a position.”

Have questions prepared too

‘Do you have any questions?’ is actually a very important part of the interview process, so don’t say ‘no’, whatever you do.

Asking insightful, pre-prepared questions when given the opportunity is as important as any of the answers you will have already given during the interview, this is well worth remembering.

Not having relevant questions or squirming uncomfortably as you try to think up an intelligent question on the spot will make you look badly prepared and disorganised.

Have 10 questions prepared before you go into the sales job interview. As the interview progresses several of these will no doubt be answered as part of the general interview dialogue. However, when it is your turn to ask questions, pick the 3 to 5 questions that seem most relevant at the time.

Good questions to ask might include:

• What is the company’s approach to training and development?

• How would you describe the company culture?

• What is the biggest challenge facing your company currently?

• How will my success in this role be measured over the next 12 months?

• What kind of person does really well in this division?

Being fully prepared in these ways should set you off on the right track. The more prepared you are, the more confident you will appear on the day, which should also help reduce nervousness. So put in the time, and the rewards really are within reach!

This article was provided by Simply Marketing Jobs, a leading marketing recruitment board.