How to thrive in a job interview

Throughout my career, I have hired hundreds of people and seen all sorts of candidates showing up in front of me. But today I don't want to write from the hiring manager standpoint, but from the candidate instead.

I had been a candidate myself dozens of times, learned a thing or two over the years that I want to share here. But to be clear, this is based on my own experience. Interviewing and being interviewed. There's no magic formula, we can and should learn from others. From experts in the industry - recruiters and senior leaders - to peers. But it is also key to learn from your own experiences and form your own way of doing it.

Luck favors the prepared mind.

This is my mantra. It can sound obvious, but you should dedicate time to prepare yourself for the interview. The way a do it follows a basic structure:

1. Learn about the company
2. Get to know the Product
3. Deep dive into the role
4. Study your interviewers
5. Self-awareness

Let me expand a little bit on each topic.

Learn about the company - to me as a hiring manager one of the worst things was to have candidates that knew nothing about the company they applied for. You don't have to be an expert, but at least demonstrate that you spent a few minutes navigating their website.

If you want to really do well, you'll have to go beyond that. I will read the company quarterly statements and check on their stock news (if it's a public listed company); do a search for recent news about them (product launches, acquisitions, key hires); check who are the senior leaders: what's their background? are their founders still at the company? And I will spend a good portion of time learning about the company values.

The latter is especially important for you to know if you fit into their culture. What they look for in the people they hire, how to be successful in that company, what they value, and how they do business (their core principles). But this due diligence also serves for you to know how the company is doing. Get hints about the directions they are taking, understand if they are in a good financial moment, the perspective of the market on them, etc. It can serve for you to decide to continue pursuing that opportunity or not. I have dropped an interview process for not filling aligned with the company's core values.

Get to know the product - try to get your hands into the product, if they offer it for free - or a free trial - signup for it. If it's a paid-only solution or offered for large enterprises, try to find demos on their website or on youtube. Read reviews, check their engineering blog if available, try to understand how the product works. How it compares with their main competitors. If you know someone on your network that uses it, talk to them, get their feedback. What do they like? What they don't like? Most SaaS businesses - at least the ones I'm interested in - are Product Led companies- knowing their product first-hand is a must-have for your interviews.

Deep dive into the role - it all starts with the job description. I will usually print it and read it carefully. There's always subtle information in between the lines, in the words used to describe the job, that can help you know what they expect from the person in that role. Regardless of whether I had a similar title in the past or not, job descriptions will vary from one company to the other. Don't underestimate studying the JD.

From there I will think as if I'm holding that position. What are the main challenges, who are the competitors? Now is the time to dive deep into that particular industry. Mainly if you don't come from the same segment. Let's say I'm interviewing for a fintech. I'll have to study what are the dynamics of that industry, who are the main players, what clients consider differentiators, how well positioned is the company I'm talking to. I'll look for contacts in my network that can give some advice on their perspective of the market.

Study your interviewers - if you are in sales or business development you did several times stakeholder mapping, right? Here is quite the same. I try to get to know my interviewers before talking to them. Start with Linkedin, check on their profile, what's their background, where did they work before, what's their nationality (critical to avoid cultural embarrassment). Take a look at their publications, what are the topics they are interested in. It's gold if you can find an article or public speaking recording they did. With that, you'll learn their speaking style and how they organize their thoughts.

It will make you much more comfortable for the interview, the person will not sound like a complete stranger to you and you will have a chance to find common interests more quickly creating a good impression. Remember, people want to work with people they enjoy spending time with.

Be self-aware - now it's time to look at yourself and your resume. Think more carefully about how your experience fits into the role and company you applied for. Now that you know their values, challenges, what the role is about, think about the things you have done in the past that they should know. Think about concrete examples of things you did that are aligned with their values. So you can bring those naturally into the conversation.

Also, know your weaknesses. We all have something to work on. Remember, be authentic. If asked about things that went wrong, or areas of development on yourself, be honest. Being hard-working, detail-oriented, obsessive to get the job done, are not examples of weaknesses. I use to bring examples of things that I had as an area of development, what I did to change that. What I'm working on myself right now.

With all of that ready, prepare your setup for the interview. Here's a picture of my desk getting ready for an interview - doing it only online these days has its advantages. I'll keep on the whiteboard main talking points, interesting things I've learned from the company, about the interviewer, about myself. Always have a notebook ready to take notes about the new things I'm learning during the interview.

(*) Image blurred to do not share unintended information.

Usually, the hiring process has multiple phases, with 4 or more interviews. Use every interview to learn more about the role and the company. Ask questions. Interviews are a two-way street, it also serves for you to know if you want that job or not.

Hope it might be helpful for you. What are your hacks for doing well in interviews?

Be prepared, good luck!

Author note - also published on Medium.