So you want to interview with me

Awesome! There are a couple of things that will help you prepare.

Over the years, I've interviewed countless people. I've interviewed MBA students and undergraduates. I've interviewed entry-level to late career people. I've interviewed VPs and Senior Directors and interns. I've interviewed candidates across job functions.

I say all this to say—I've interviewed a lot of people and there's a few things that I've learned. The #1 thing that I've learned is that interviewing is a skill. It is something that you can learn and develop, and it is painfully obvious when you haven't.

So I want to give some advice to those who are interviewing.

Warning: Bluntness ahead

You may find yourself as you read this post thinking, "This guy's a jerk."

Here's the thing, though. I want you to do well. I want you to get the job of your dreams. I want you to show up and impress the interviewers and impress me. I want you to be the obvious choice. And to do that, you need to learn the skill of how to interview.

So I share this advice not to be critical, but to give you guidance and a roadmap on how to prepare yourself to get the job.

#1 Don't waste your time (or mine)

I know that might sound harsh, but if we have only 30 minutes together, it's important that you help me get through the questions that I have so I can understand whether or not you are a qualified candidate. And if you spend time sharing all kinds of extraneous information that doesn't have to do with what I've asked you about, you are wasting time, and I'm not going to get the information that I need to pass you to the next stage.

You don't need to tell me everything possible. Prioritize the most important information that relates to the question I asked. If you aren't sure what I'm looking for, ask a clarifying question.

Put differently, don't put the work on me to figure out if you answered my question or not somewhere in the vast forest of a wandering answer.

#2 Tell me about you, not your team

I'm not interviewing and hiring your team. I'm interviewing and hiring you. So, it is very difficult to distinguish between what you did and they did if you continuously use phrases such as, "We did this. We did that."

Tell me what you did. Don't tell me what the team did. I want to hear, "I did this. I did that."

If it was a team project, great. Tell me, though, what your role was on the team, how you succeeded at your role, and how that elevated the team and the results that the team had.

#3 Follow the instructions

If you are presenting a craft demo or presentation, read the provided instructions, then read them again, and for good measure, read them for a third time. After you have prepared your material, read the instructions yet again and then compare them to what you prepared. Make sure that you are delivering what is being asked. Get a second opinion from a friend or family member if you need to!

If you aren't sure about any of the instructions, email the recruiter with clarifying questions. I appreciate a candidate who is invested enough to make sure they understand the instructions.

#4 Document your accomplishments

Do not leave a job without having written down specific projects that you worked on, specific results that you drove, and accomplishments that you could then speak to later, either on your resume or in an interview. Maintain a Google Doc with a running list of all the projects and outcomes from your roles.

Prior to interviewing, review that list. And if it's a virtual interview, have the list pulled up in front of you!

#5 Be specific and avoid generalizations

I understand that sometimes there are reasons you need to keep some details confidential. But a high-level, generalized answer doesn't tell me anything about your skills and how you will perform in the role.

Please provide details. A great way to ensure you are telling a great story is to practice responding to interview questions.

Here's a simple way that you can do that:

• Based on your role, you can probably guess the topics you'll be asked about—write those down
• Map projects (from the prior tip) to those topics
• Write out the talking points for each project
• Practice telling the story out loud (record yourself and then watch or borrow a friend so that you can get feedback)

Here's an example of what it will look like for a marketer:

• Topic: Analytics
• Project: Website homepage optimization
• Talking points: See the next tip for how to structure these ??

#6 Learn the STAR method

And use it to answer behavioral questions, which you'll recognize when you're asked to provide an example of a time or situation.

The STAR method gives you a structured way to concisely answer the question while providing all of the information that the interviewer needs. Here's how it works:

• Situation: Take 30 - 60 seconds at most to describe the situation.
• Task: Take 30 seconds to state the task that you had to fulfill or complete.
• Actions: What were the actions that you took? This should be the meat of your response.
• Results: What were the results that you drove? This should be brief but pack a punch and include quantifiable outcomes whenever possible.

Here's an example.

Let's say I'm interviewing an Account Executive candidate and ask, "Tell me about a time when you surpassed your quota and how you did that?"

• Situation: "My company launched a new product."
• Task: "I was given a quota of $X that I needed to deliver in the first 90 days post launch."
• Actions: "I created an account plan for the top 10 accounts in my territory. I prospected another 20 accounts. I tailored the provided sales presentation to meet the needs of my customers based on discovery questions. For example, customer A really cared about thing Y. So, I customized the demo to go deep in that area and help show them how we would better enable the outcomes they wanted than the competitors."
• Results: "I surpassed my quota by 10%."

You'd want to flush out the Actions section with some more detail, but this hopefully gives you an idea of how to use STAR.

#7 Use the tools in front of you

If this is a virtual interview and you're telling me about something that you're able to show me, then share your screen.

It always amazes me when I'm interviewing somebody and they're talking about work they did on a website or some project, and they don't share their screen and walk me through it. In fact, at times, I'll go to the website myself, pull it up, and then share my screen and say, "Is this what you're talking about?"

You can even have some examples pulled up (or linked to from the project doc mentioned earlier) that you can share if need be.

Use all of the tools at your disposal. You'll stand out and be memorable.

Can we still be friends?

As I said at the beginning, my goal is to provide some guidance on how to best equip yourself with the skills of a great interviewee so that you get the job!

If you have any questions, please reach out. I'm here to help.