There is a ton of information out there on interviewing, so do some homework to find out what works best for you. However, I will give a few tips that I think make people stand out the most from my experience interviewing people for the last decade.?
- Do your homework. You should know everyone who will be a part of the interview and research each of them. It will warm up the interview because you will understand their background more and be able to ask each person specific questions rather than the standard boilerplate questions hiring managers always have heard. In addition, if you are looking at them on LinkedIn, you might be able to see shared connections that you could reference and other similar interests
- Study the website, social pages, search articles and find all the relevant information to your role to see how you can impact their company if hired.
- Make sure you have prepared questions. Fair or unfair, I would not hire someone if they didn’t have questions for me in the interview
- If you know anyone who works there or has worked there in the past, reach out to them to get additional insight into the company and what they are looking for
- If you are using a recruiter, they should have a lot of information on the company and hiring manager. Make sure they are giving you a ton of insight
- Lots of interviews right now are phone or virtual but should be treated no differently than if in person (Research best practice for a virtual interview)
- Use the “STAR” format to answer questions
- Tell people what you have done instead of what you will do. People trust past experiences over a promise of future commitments
- If you have some red flags, I think it is important not to hide them but to address them
- If you have material online that displays your skills; send it beforehand, be able to display in real-time or let them know to look at it after the interview for reference
- Ask for the job at the end of the interview! Ask if there is anything else you could address that gave them hesitation on hiring you
- Ask what the next steps are to make sure you have a solid follow up plan
- Write a handwritten thank you note to everyone in the interview- The most crucial task in this whole section. People who do not write a thank you note or write a stock email with everyone on it put themselves at such a disadvantage. If the people in your interview work remotely, I would suggest sending a video or voicemail through LinkedIn Messenger. If you do write an email, look at the link below for the best approach.?
- If you think you fell short anywhere, use your thank you note to reinforce a point you didn’t get to make
- Finally, do not wait on them. Follow up based on the next steps they outlined. If you haven’t heard back, use the business cards you were given to follow up with.
- If you didn’t get the job, ask for feedback to help you for your next interview
