Clean up, dress traditionally, get there extra early so you have time to familiarize yourself with the location and decompress (breathing, stretching in the parking lot, etc.), and get into the building early to wait ~10-15 minutes before your interview is set to start. Do not bad mouth ANYTHING, be optimistic and portray yourself as an obedient worker but a free thinker. Make sure you drink lots of water the day before and eat before you go, try not to overcaffeinate. You can message me if you need hyping up or more information :>
Seriously though, you're interviewing the company as much as they are interviewing you. Find interview questions examples to ask during the interview. You'll want to find out if you like the work culture, if it looks like the interviewers like their job, how frequent overtime is required, etc.
Whether they give you a job offer or not, don't sweat it. There is a lot going on at the company outside of your control that will affect them giving a job offer or not regardless of how well you did in the interview. I recommend taking the interview as a learning experience and practice with a friend beforehand. Doing well in interviews is a skill especially for technical interviews where folks can ask a range of questions while all eyes are on you.
Great job scoring an interview! Having worked in HR plus had a couple jobs, here’s my advice:
look at the tasks you’ll be completing if you get the job and think about any experience you have that would help demonstrate that you’re experienced and able to do that thing. Think outside the box! Your examples don’t need to come from the workplace if you use clear reasoning. Interviewers love examples.
Pull a sample interview of common questions offline and write down how you’d respond to each question.
Don’t take things personally if things don’t go well. There are SO many reasons that you might not get a position that have absolutely nothing to do with you. One big one is that companies often already have someone internal in mind but have to meet certain job posting requirements. Just keep trekking and the chips will fall your way eventually.
Congrats! Scope our the website for the company, sometimes they will ask if you've looked them up/made an effort to do research on them. Scoping out your interviewer on social media too, like linked in. Can make conversations flow more naturally if you know them a bit.
Finally, dress a bit nicer than normal, fresh clothes, iron them the night before so that you are ready to go. Probably goes without saying, but being showered, clean, and smelling great goes a long way in a first impression too. Finally, a firm handshake when meeting them. Good luck ^^
I'm in IT, and I haven't had to interview for a long time (knock on wood), but when I did:
My approach has always been "Your company has a need, I have a certain set of skills. Let's talk, so that I can understand more clearly what your need is, you can understand more clearly what my skills are, and we can decide together whether I would be a good person to fill that need." Think of yourself as a consultant going in for a first meeting with a potential long-term client.
Assuming this is a corporate job, come up with a couple questions for your interviewer. Get them talking about the company and they'll remember you as a good listener. My usual go-to questions are:
"What's the company culture like?"
"What aspect of the company do you see as the most enjoyable?"
"Why did you chose to work for the company, and what's made you stay?"
Questions like that. Try to make it personal and specific, since it's usually the hiring manager that you're interviewing with. You can write them down and bring them with you; as long as you're bringing multiple copies of your resume, you can stash the questions at the bottom of the stack.
If it isn't a corporate position, then it depends. I can't answer for those since I've only done labor and corporate, so I don't now how to interview for technical or artistic positions. I would assume make sure you have your portfolio on hand, though be careful about doing on-site consultations since you would be giving them designs for free and they have no obligation to hire you after that. If they try to do that to you, do not continue the interview with them. Just thank them for their time and leave.
I agree with your premise and approach to personalization, 100%...... but not those exact questions.
I run a lot of software engineering teams and I interview people every week. I get those three exact questions from almost every single candidate. Frankly, those questions do not show any particular interest in your company - they are generic questions and kind of have a negative framing to them. The company culture one is especially annoying for a lot of reasons. If company culture is important to you, there are much better ways to tease it out from the interviewer.
Try to actually show real interest in the job, try some of these ideas:
Ask questions about the responsibilities of the role, and tell them you love doing whatever they are.
Ask about the kinds of projects you'll get to work on. Relate them to any experience you have, if you're lucky enough.
Ask about the latest press releases you've seen for the company.
Ask about the tools/software/training that is required or available for the role.
Ask about how much autonomy you'll have in bringing new ideas in for improving things (I love this one, it shows they might be a self-starter and have curiosity and agency).
Ask about what kind of fun things the workers do together. Do you have a memes channel in your slack? Do you ever go for team lunches? Do they bring their dogs to the office?
Ask about the roadmap for the department where the potential role is. What's the vision?
All of these kinds of questions actually show genuine interest in getting involved. Remember that a company is just a bunch of people working together. I will take an engaged, friendly, curious and smart candidate with barely any experience over a distant, disengaged, looking-for-the-least-bad-option AAA software dev any day of the week.
Look up popular interview questions ahead of time and think of ways to answer them, then practice giving the answers! You really can't practice enough- the more you do it, the more confident and prepared you'll be in the moment. Bring a copy or two of your resume, and paper to write notes on. At the top of your paper, list some of your accomplishments (to remind yourself if you blank in the moment).
When answering questions, be direct and give concrete examples whenever possible. Try not to ramble on or talk around the question.
If it's in person, get there a little early so you're not rushing in with sweat dripping down your brow lol. If it's online, login 5 minutes early to make sure the technology is working. Wear something professional (what this looks like will vary by job, but generally nothing too revealing or casual, like a t shirt and sneakers).
Remember that you are there to evaluate them just as much as they are evaluating you! Show that you're interested by looking into the company a bit beforehand, mentioning what you appreciate about their company values (or whatever), and having questions at the ready for the interviewers.
Read www.askamanager.org! SO many amazing tips on not only interviewing but lots of other work related stuff!
It really depends on your field of work, but if it touches customer service (or even is just a job that will involve socializing with peers) at all then I think my biggest advice is to just be very friendly and approachable. Practice your regular conversational skills.
Be nice to everyone, from the receptionist upwards, and if you're offered a cup of coffee/tea, offer to wash the cup yourself afterwards. Little things that show you're thoughtful.
I came to give some advice but I see all the bases are covered! Part of my job is career counselling a d helping with stuff like this. I see all the good tips here so it looks like you came to the right place to ask your question.
Be confident and know your worth. Don't accept the job without getting explicit details on the salary. Surprisingly often, jobs will try to hire people before ever actually showing them, on paper, what they are willing to pay. Or worse, they might lowball you in the interview when the job posting was for a higher wage. Don't get exploited by a company just because they make the first offer to hire you, there are more opportunities than this one.
Someone on here previously advised to load the job description in chatgpt, tell it to do a job interview based on the job description. I thought that was a great idea. Be early for your interview. You don’t have to enter right away so you can be 30 minutes early but enter 10-15 minutes before your appointment, no earlier. Make sure you have a backup plan in case of traffic or transportation delays. Dress in business professional even in their dress code is business casual. Good luck!
So, one of my favorite questions for interviews is something like this:
"What are the top 3 things you would want any new person walking in the door to know?"
If they ask you to elaborate, you can explain this is a deliberately broad question meant to catch the kinds of important, organization specific things someone might not think to ask. It could be anything from "When the boss has his door closed it means he's working on a key project, don't knock just come back later" or "Never drink the coffee on Monday mornings." It could also be: "A,B, and C are serious priorities for Management eventually."
This sometimes catches people off guard (which is not a bad sign), but it can often yield good information.
Being nervous is super super normal, I was downright terrified for some of my first interviews. The good news is that they tend to get easier over time as you practice! If you can get a fake practice interview in before the real one, even better. Recruit someone trusted who can ‘pretend’ to be a stranger and really grill you so you’re ready for the real deal. This is a good time to try out your prepared responses to the most typical interview questions.
Ahead of any interview, you should do research on the company/industry and come with some specific, meaningful questions. Some all-purpose questions I really like include asking about what your training period will look like, what success metrics/performance indicators look like for the position at 3/6/12 months. That tells the employer you’re forward thinking, goal-oriented, and want to be successful.
As far as dealing with pre-interview jitters, if I can I like to do as many push-ups as I can. This may or may not work depending on where the interview is (easier at home for a remote call) or your physical ability. Just try do something that requires all of your bodily will and mental concentration as a nice hard-reset. Plus, endorphins feel great!
No matter how well the interview goes, take it as a learning experience and be proud of yourself for getting it done. If I’m job hunting, I’ll even take interviews for positions I know I don’t want just to be able to get practice. Good luck!
Have a glass of water at the ready. It always helps to soothe my nerves and if I get stuck on answering a question, taking a sip gives me time to think things through. It’s also practical because if you’re doing most of the talking you’ll end up with a dry mouth and no one wants to croak during an interview.
All this applies for both video call interviews or on site, in which case ask for a glass of water before you start the interview.
A lot of companies are going towards what's called "behavior based interviewing", where they ask you about specific scenarios that demonstrate qualities they're looking for. Questions like "Tell me about a time you had to deal with a difficult customer", "Tell me about a time you had a disagreement with your manager, and how you resolved it", etc. Think of some stories you could tell for questions like these (keep in mind a story about how you did do something will be better received than a story about how you would do something), and practice telling these to yourself in a simple and understandable way. I've found that having an arsenal of these stories is very helpful even with a company that does more traditional job interviews, as they can let you drive the conversation and showcase a quality that they'll find appealing.
Something else to keep in mind is that they're not just interviewing you. You are also interviewing them. Ask questions about how they run their business. Direct questions about compensation are generally frowned upon (which is some BS, but I don't make the rules), but asking about the company culture, what the job is like on an average day, etc. are certainly fair game, and will not only help you show your interest in the job, but will also help you gain valuable information if you should be offered the job so you can decide if this is really what you want to do.
Finally, remember that there are plenty of fish in the sea. If you don't get this job, don't get discouraged. You will find something else soon enough if you keep looking.
I interview a lot of people with behavior based questions. Please spend some time before thinking of stories before. Try to have 8 ready, plan on using 5, and remembering 5 more in the interview. Do no reuse stories between interviewers even though the questions will be very similar between interviewers. If you come off bad, using a different story with the other interviewer can bring you up, but if you repeat the same story that hurts you.
Make sure this is about what you did. If you didn't do something then it doesn't count.
If you don't know how to answer a question (don't understand), feel free to ask me for a different question. I won't count it against you, and I have 3 to choose from. (not everyone will not count it against you, but I won't)
Don't ask me about compensation. I am not the person hiring you and so I only have a small clue, better to ask when an offer is made (though most likely you cannot get more yearly dollars, but you can get vacation time and/or a hiring bonus). All I can tell you is we give good bonuses every year (where I work is unusual, most places a bonus never happened, or it did but it wasn't enough to do anything with)
It's perfectly fine to be nervous. Try to think of ways to break the ice. Even 30 seconds of small talk while entering the room will do a lot to comfort you. You might even say something along the lines of "Sorry if I seem a bit nervous, I'm just really excited about the job" (see point #2 below)
A job interview is really only about :
Is this person qualified for the job
Will this person like the job (to be engaged and stay s long time)
Will this person fit well in the team
#1 and #2 require preparation. Read the job description thoroughly, browse around at the company's web page, Google recent news articles, etc. and formulate good answers to common questions and write down examples that prove your point (see some of the other posts).
#3 can be a bit tricky to research, but can be done. Look at social media posts to get a feel for the culture to understand dresscode (both over dressing and under dressing can be problematic), understand industry jargon (and avoid controversial jargon/statements), etc. Understand this, but be true to yourself. Don't wear flip flops for McKinsey interview and don't wear a tuxedo for a handyman job.