When I tell my friends that interviewing is my favorite aspect of the job search, I am met with blank stares. Hopefully these tips that I share today will also help you enjoy the process. These pointers are by no means revolutionary, but they are the ones that I used to score a first job that I love!
1. The interview prep begins before you get the call. In fact, prep work for an interview starts before you even apply. To align yourself as a cream-of-the-crop candidate, you should have some knowledge about the industry you’re interviewing for. Incorporate this exercise into your daily routine – I subscribed to LinkedIn News, checked out relevant articles on CNN.com, and followed thought leaders on Twitter. Staying current shows that you are willing to dive into your industry and displays that you have a legitimate interest in the field you are pursuing. On Interview Day, not only will you be able to reference an article that you read that morning, but you will also be able to wow the interviewer!
2. Be genuine and be selective. Now this goes without saying, but make sure you’re genuinely interested in the position you’re interviewing for. When the job market is this tough, it’s too tempting to apply for every single job listing. Remember that interviewing is an investment that both parties make. It’s easy to tell when a candidate has spread him/herself thin, so be selective about which positions you do want to interview for (i.e. don’t waste anyone’s time).
3. Be yourself. This is a lesson that our parents have been teaching us since Day 1, but nothing could be more important in an interview. Nowadays, companies are looking for candidates with a good cultural fit rather than a technical fit. This is because technical abilities can be taught, whereas molding personalities is a little more difficult. Interviewing is a way to assess whether you will mesh well with the rest of the team.
One way to be yourself is to have a little fun with your answers! An interviewer once asked me what my biggest strength was, and I told him I was a Google ninja. That answer probably would’ve guaranteed a rejection in a strict environment, but my interviewer enjoyed the change of pace and invited me to the final round.
4. Be personable. As we prepare for interviews, it’s easy to memorize answers to some of the common questions. When you’re in the interview though, make sure that you don’t recite the answer like it’s a prepared speech. This holds especially true for phone interviews – being able to prepare all your answers beforehand is great, but it also makes it easy to read off paragraph after paragraph about why we want to work at Company X. Someone once told me that a good interview should flow like a friendly conversation that you have with an old neighbor – keep things flowing. Which leads me to the last tip:
5. It’s OK if things don’t go according to plan – just go with the flow. True story: I got called into the final round of interviews at Yesware and decided to grab some water (doing 6 interviews in a row can make you sound like a dying seal; make sure you always have some water handy!). Failing to recognize how the fridge distributes water, I ended up dispensing it all over the floor – only to have my interviewer mop up after me. Whoops – that’s the end of my run here! I thought. But I quickly apologized, attempted to make light of the situation, and didn’t let that episode faze me. Apparently that little fiasco wasn’t enough to completely sabotage my efforts, since I’m working at Yesware now!
Point being – don’t dwell on the things that could’ve, should’ve, or would’ve been. The people interviewing you are there to judge whether your abilities can supplement the company. If things don’t go according to plan, show them that you can be flexible!
– Christine H. Lee ’13