5??tips to nail your next interview

As someone who has been interviewed several times, arranged thousands of interviews and interviewed dozens of people myself, I thought about sharing some tips that may be of some help.

Preparation

Interviewer: "So what do you know about our company?"

Interviewee: "Oh I haven't had time to look, I'm so busy with work and other interviews".

Me: ??

It blows my mind how many times I hear this. Yes, we're all super busy, but a simple 2/3 line answer about the company you're interviewing for isn't exactly playing Monopoly.

Think of this way, if you started your own company from a passion and needed people to come and help you scale, would you hire someone who showed absolutely no sign of passion or interest in what you do? No! You'd get annoyed that they don't see your vision and wasted your time. As much as candidates need to feel the love, hiring managers and Founders do too. They want to know that you're going to represent their brand with integrity, and if you can't spend 20 mins researching them then they're not going to invest time/money on you.

And it never hurts to reference something from their LinkedIn feed.

Did you even write your CV?

I get it - you can't put everything you've ever done on your CV because it'd end up being 17 pages. But, honestly, this is a bit of a cop out. If you're sending a document out to people that is supposed to represent your best self, you better be sure you can recite that thing back to front.

If you're applying a scatter gun approach to finding a job, then chances are you will get caught out with questions about your CV, because an employer will see something of relevance to them and want to know more.

What I've found works well is keeping things relatively simple; list accomplishments and projects, list technology you're good with, list processes you implemented or other things you had an impact on, and put just enough information to intrigue the reader. Then, when it comes to the interview, you can elaborate on the points and not be held to something that was written word for word. Because if you write "platform engineer" on your CV, and then say "infrastructure engineer" in the interview, I'm coming for you!

Have you been living under a rock?

Knowing what's the latest in your industry is always a fantastic sign, this should not be underestimated.

Are you in the cloud-native space - so what's the latest news from the CNCF?

Are you a UI Dev - what new, cool tools have you recently been playing with?

Do you work in finance - did you see the latest post from Monzo's marketing guys ??

While this one is never a deal breaker, it will certainly help you to stand out. It'll show you're connected, it'll show your engaged and importantly, it'll show you're someone who is on the ball. And employers today want people who instil trust and calmness.

Move the clothes horse, seriously.

You wouldn't air your dirty laundry in public, so don't hang your clean stuff behind you on an interview.

When did it become OK to let appearances slip? First impressions still matter.

As much as possible, you want an uncluttered background with some good light shining through. No point having a video interview if we can't see you ?????

And if you're using 2 screens, let the interviewer know so they don't get weirded out by you staring to the left for 45 mins. It could come across like you're distracted and disengaged.

Follow up

I very rarely hear of this happening, but I think it's very powerful. By dropping your interviewer an follow up email, thanking them for their time, referencing something from the conversation that has sparked something in you, or even sending some links/docs to further demonstrate your work can all leave a lasting impression and make all the difference.

I can count on one hand how many candidates have asked me if it's OK to send the hiring manager an email, and I will always encourage it. But I won't offer it as a suggestion, it's up to you to have the wherewithal.

That's it, those are some of my tips which I hope will help you nail your next interview.