I Got An Interview! - Now What?

If you’re reading this, there’s a strong chance that you’ve interviewed for jobs in the past. You’ve probably even gotten an offer for one or more of those jobs. So you may have some familiarity with the interview process. But do you remember how you felt during your last interview?

For many of us, interviewing is a source of anxiety. When you’re worried about saying or doing the wrong thing, it can be difficult to let your personality shine. And if you’re up against tough competition for a job, the winner is often the one who can build the strongest rapport with the interviewer. It’s tough to accomplish this with sweaty palms.

Benjamin Franklin said “by failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”. In the case of interviewing, we think some or all of the anxiety can be alleviated by simple preparation. Below are some tips you can implement before your next interview in order to put your best foot forward.

Many hiring managers will coordinate interviews via email, so the first time you will get to speak with somebody will be over a phone call. Hiring processes are different for each company, but in most cases, the first phone interview is merely an introduction. They like your profile/résumé, and they want to know more about you.

This doesn’t mean you’re off the hook for doing some homework. Depending on the industry and job you’re interviewing for, you can win some major bonus points by doing some research on the company and its competitors. Find out how long they’ve been in business, study their mission statement, and simply be able to explain what they do. Find other companies in their industry, and get an understanding of their size and influence (LinkedIn can be helpful for this).

It’s also very important that you know your own résumé. Being able to speak articulately about your own experience is a major strength. For the same reason, it’s very important that you are 100% honest about your background while in the interview process. If you try to embellish (or just plain lie) about your experience, it will almost certainly put you in a tough spot at some point.

If you are contacted by a specific person at the interviewing company, you have an exciting opportunity to do some digging before you speak with them. LinkedIn has grown into a terrific resource for doing background research on professionals. If you search for the person’s name and the name of the company, it should provide you with a manageable list of profiles to review. If the person has a LinkedIn profile, there’s a good chance you’ll find them. Most profiles are able to be viewed in some capacity, even if you’re not “connected” with them.

If you find a public profile for your interviewer, on LinkedIn or elsewhere, you can gain useful information to help you build rapport during an interview. For example, maybe they went to Florida State and you’re a die hard ‘Noles fan. It’s not uncommon to tell somebody you looked them up, as an excuse for telling them something interesting that they will remember about you. In fact, it can mean the difference between you being hired or not.

As the interview process progresses, conversations will become deeper and will center around discovering if you’re a good fit for the organization. It’s very important at this stage for you to make sure you understand the position you’re interviewing for, inside and out. You need to know:

• the size and structure of the team you’ll be working on.

• the management structure/hierarchy.

• whether there are advancement opportunities.

• their realistic expectations about time off, flexibility to leave work in an emergency, etc.

• about deadlines, whether you’re required to make presentations, etc.

• whom you’ll be required to communicate with (internal stakeholders, customers, the Board, etc.).

You may be asked some tough questions! We will cover many of these in a later blog post, but here’s one of the most common tough interview questions, and how to answer it:

“What is your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness?”

Greatest strength: Feel free to humblebrag. You can say that you’re excellent in a given skill, but have something else to say about it. Maybe your manager recognized you for it, or maybe you earned a promotion because you did it well. It’s hard to mess this one up - just don’t sound cocky or arrogant. Nobody’s perfect and you want to be somebody they want to work with.

Greatest weakness: It’s a trap! Don’t tell them that you spend too much time scrolling through your social media accounts while you’re supposed to be talking to customers. Definitely don’t tell them about the time you left an important email in drafts, and missed a deadline because you’re not well-organized. Instead, make this a positive. You can say something like: “I’ve worked hard to be a balanced professional and I’m not perfect, but I don’t think I have any major weaknesses that have impacted my work so far. I’ll say that an area of focus for me lately has been improving my (insert skill here). I have done (X,Y,Z) so far, and I plan on continuing to work on it as I move forward.” This shows that you’re self-aware and proactive, and will make you a stronger candidate.

We hope this serves as a helpful “Interview 101” for you as you move along through the process.

If you’re looking for more interview opportunities, CareerPulse would love to help you. This starts with working with a certified expert to improve your résumé. For more details, please click the button below: