Nice work! You got the interview! Your resume did a good job of showcasing your experiences and skills and they think you might have what it takes for the role you applied for. Now you need to prove it in an interview or multiple interviews. To have a successful interview, preparation is key. One part is planning what you will wear. See the post ‘How to Dress for an Interview’ for more information on that piece. The other ways that you need to prep are company research, role research, question preparation, response practice, and mental preparation.
Company Research
You might have already looked into the company when you applied for the job, or maybe you are somewhat familiar with the company from exposure to their service or product. However, before the interview, thoroughly researching the company is a good idea. You really want to dig in here. When I have prepared for interviews, I would start with the company website and look for some sort of “About Us” page. What is the company about, how do they describe the service or product that they provide? What are their mission statement and vision? What are their values? What is their history, and how did they come to be? Are they a non-profit, a large public corporate corporation, or a small family-run business? Are they a local company, national, or international? Explore their entire website and review as much as you can. What services or products are they offering? How are they marketing them? Are they sharing customer satisfaction comments or reviews? What do those say? Try to find their ‘Careers’ or ‘Work for Us’ page. This might simply contain a list of open positions, but it might provide additional information such as high-level benefit information or other perks they offer to employees. After you have thoroughly reviewed their website, check out any social media sites they have. What are they posting? How are customers responding? Can you determine what audience they are targeting? Are they a public company? How are they doing on the stock market? Trending up? Trending down? Keep in mind this fluctuates so best to look at long-term trending. Lastly, do an internet search, has the company been in the news lately? Can you find any external articles about them?
At this point you might be asking, why does all of this matter? Well, honestly it is just good to know everything you can about the company you are considering working for. After your research do you still want to work for them? If not, then save your time and cancel the interview. If you still want to work for them, great! What resonated with you when you were doing your research? Did something inspire you? Why do you want to be a part of that work? You can use this to craft responses to common interview questions, such as “Why do you want to work for our company?” (More on crafting question responses later). During the interview, the interviewer may provide you with some information about the company, such as “Last year we launched a new software product that has been very successful.” If you have already learned about this, you can add to the conversation, “Yes, I saw that on your website, your customers really seem to value its ease.” This will show the interviewer that you are prepared and that you are interested in not just the job, but the company too. This will give you an edge that other interviewees may not have.
Role Research
You should have already read the job description of the role you applied for but read, read, and read it again. Know that job description inside and out. What are the job duties? What are the requirements for the job and what are the additional bonus qualifications that are listed (if listed)? Make note if there is anything you are rusty at or inexperienced with. If you have time to do so prior to the interview, you can start freshening up those skills. For example, maybe it states that being proficient in Excel is a bonus qualification and you don’t use Excel often or haven’t used it in some time. Open up Excel, and start re-familiarizing yourself. Watch some YouTube videos to shake the dust off. This way you can more comfortably speak to your experience with Excel if it comes up at the interview. Being able to say, “I am comfortable with data entry into Excel, formatting, doing basic calculations, creating pivot tables, and graphs.” Is more convincing than, “I’ve used it in the past” for example. Next, spend a bit of time researching this type of role in general. What do sites like Indeed or other job posting sites say about this type of role? Can you find the median salary for this role in your area? This will help you know if your skills are transferable across the industry and help you negotiate a fair salary if you are offered the job.
Question Preparation
This is an interview. There will be questions. It is in your best interest to prepare for questions that you might be asked. There are some common interview questions that you definitely want to have a polished response to and there are more specific questions that are more role dependent you will want to plan for. So get out a pen and a notebook or open up a doc on your computer, tablet, or phone so that you can write down a list of questions and write down a response to the questions. I will get you started with a few questions to think about here but it would be beneficial to do some additional searching. There are tons of sites that list many interview questions.
Introductory Questions
There are often several common questions that get asked early in an interview to open things up and to learn about you and why you are there. The wording may vary some but they will be along these lines.
1. Tell me about yourself? or Walk me through your resume.
This question or some similar type of question is the first question you should prepare a response to. This should be your elevator pitch that highlights your experience and skills. It should be specific to your work experience or education if you don’t have much experience. I’ve had interviewees who responded to this question with information about their kids or where they are from. This is not the time to talk about your personal life. This is the time to concisely sell why you are a good fit for this position and the company. Your pitch could be something like, “I have 5 years of experience in the marketing industry, working on and leading medium to large-scale projects. In my current role as a Customer Success Manager, I partner with clients and the marketing team throughout the project to ensure customer satisfaction.” Depending on your years of experience or varying types of experiences, you might have more to say which is fine but the response shouldn’t take you more than a minute to get through.
2. Why do you want to work for [company name]?
This is where all that research that you did on the company comes into play. What resonated with you about the company? What do they do that would make you proud to call them your employer? The mission statement is a great place to start but just saying something like “I agree with your mission statement” isn’t enough to impress. That is the classic go-to and it just isn’t enough anymore. Now if there is something in their mission statement that you are truly passionate about then elaborating on specifics on how you believe in their mission statement is fine but you will need to explain why it is so important to you. Other ways of responding to this question could be discussing some of the recent work the company has been doing and how it is impacting the industry, the state, the world, etc., and how you want to be a part of that. This is not where you say that you want to work for them because you have heard they pay well or have good benefits. Maybe this is true but keep that piece to yourself. They ultimately will want someone who is invested in the company and not just a paycheck.
3. Why are you interested in this position?
To respond to this question, focus on the duties of the position and how you would be a good fit for it. Also, is there anything about this position that will help you grow and learn in your field? Talk about those things. It is an opportunity to state why you would be a good fit for this position based on the duties and is also a good way to show that you are the type of person with a growth mindset if you can explain how this position will help you grow in your career. Do not say something like “I know this type of position pays well”, “The hours are good” or “Because it is a position where I can work from home.” These might be contributing factors as to why you applied for the position but you need to dig deeper to draft a response that will wow the interviewer. However, if you are applying for basically the same position but in another location or another company then you may need to speak to that. If you are applying for the same type of position but at another company then you can speak to why you want to work for their company. If you are applying for the same position either within the same company or a different company but it is in a different location, why the new location? Is it closer to home? More convenient for commuting? If so, you can explain how you enjoy the work you do and provide a few examples about what you enjoy about that work, and then explain that you are applying to this location for an easier commute or whatever the reason for the location change is.
4. Why do you want to leave your current company/position?
It is really important not to speak negatively about your current company, department, manager, or position. You might be dealing with some very negative things at work or are in a toxic environment but now is not the time to vent about those things. Focus more on why you are interested in the new position or company. The interviewer really doesn’t care much about your company, they just want to make sure you are the right fit for their company. Are you looking to expand your skillset or take on more responsibility? Talk about these sorts of things and how you think the new company or role will help you with that. If you are applying for a new role within the same company, again don’t talk negatively about your current department. Focus on how the new position will help you grow in your career. If you are stepping down for some reason, maybe going from a full-time position to a part-time position, then you can speak a little more honestly about that. Explain how you like the work you do, but you need to reduce hours to improve your work-life balance currently, or because you are returning to school, or whatever the reason is. You don’t need to share all the details of why. It is ok to keep the response when it comes to those sorts of things pretty high-level.
Role Specific Questions
The company will likely ask you at least a few questions that are more role-based. These could be very straightforward questions such as “What Microsoft products are you comfortable using?” to behavioral-based or scenario-based questions such as “Tell me about a PowerPoint presentation you put together recently.” With role-specific questions, they will ask questions that help them determine if you are the right person for the job based on your knowledge, skills, and previous experience. To prepare for these types of questions, thoroughly review the job description. What type of skills and experiences are required? If they are looking for someone with experience managing large projects, chances are they will ask you about your project management experience. For this example, you could plan for this by thinking about some successful projects that you led so that you can comfortably and confidently speak about them when asked a question related to projects you’ve led in the past. If you are applying for a healthcare position such as a nursing or therapist-type role, they will likely ask you questions related to your experiences working with patients. Think about previous scenarios where you overcame a difficult situation and helped one of your patients. The more examples you can think of, the more prepared you will be. You can use your previous experience to answer or elaborate when providing answers to questions.
What questions do you have?
After you have answered all of the questions that the interviewer has, they will likely ask you if you have any questions. This is your turn to make sure the position is the right fit for you. Often by this time in the interview, there isn’t much time left so you will probably only have the chance to ask a couple of questions or so. This isn’t the time to ask just any question. Remember, you are still being considered and the questions you ask can make or break their decision to hire you. If you ask how many sick days you get or how often you can call in before getting fired, you will send off big red flags. You also don’t want to ask questions that you can easily find on their website such as “How long have you been in business?” This will let them know that you didn’t do your research on the company and that you may not be that serious about working for this company. You want to ask questions that will help you determine if this is the right fit for you but also questions that make it appear that you are genuinely interested in working for the company. Questions such as “What type of training and education do you offer to employees who are interested in advancement within the company?” will let them know that you are not only interested in the current position but also in having a future with the company. A question like “How would you describe a successful employee in this role?” will let them know that you strive to do a good job versus getting the job simply for a paycheck. A good final question is to ask about the next steps or when you can expect to hear from them on their decision. Think about all the questions you want to know and then pick the ones that will help you confirm that this is the right job or company for you and will also help you stand out. Write the questions down and bring them with to the interview in a professional-looking notebook.
How else have you prepared for an interview? Leave a comment!
What inspired this post?
I’ve been working for over 20 years at this point in my life so I’ve had my fair share of interviews. I’ve learned a lot about the process throughout the years and have been successful with acquiring just about every job that I’ve interviewed for and wanted. It does take a lot of preparation and time but it is worth it when you land a job that you want. I’ve also been a hiring supervisor before and have been an interviewer. Through that experience, I’ve seen people who are… well… pretty bad at interviewing. I’ve often wondered if they just didn’t really care or if no one ever explained to them that an interview is something you need to put some effort into and how to prepare. Either way, I thought I’d write a couple of interview-related posts to help those who care about getting a certain job and just need a little help to get started on the right foot. If you’ve read this far, I sincerely wish you all the best in your upcoming interview(s)!