Preparing for a job interview is essential to ensure everything goes well per your plan during the interview. However, there are many effective guidelines helpful to make your conversation with recruiters and human resources specialists more fruitful and straight to the point.
In this article, we put together the top five rules of thumb for job interview preparations.
Rule of Thumb #1: Know Your Own CV
Always and forever, your resume is your portal that shows your potential in the business world, so you have to keep it updated and worthy of reviewing. Not only does the content and style of your CV matter, but you also have to consider choosing an appealing CV template that will attract the interviewer’s attention and reflect your perspicacity.
Before the interview, take time to familiarize yourself with your resume and review your application. Your interviewer might ask you to walk them through your resume. Certainly, you don’t want to be caught unarmed.
What you need to do is read your resume, keep in mind the most important headlines, and prepare for questions and answers related to your CV. It might contain some time gaps the interviewer will ask about, so prepare to explain them in a way that doesn’t make you look like a risk to the company.
Also, prepare answers to the questions related to your duties in a certain role, how you helped the company you formerly worked with to achieve its goals, and why you left your last job. Be cautious not to gossip about your former colleagues and bosses, and remember that your answers reveal a lot about your motivations.
Rule of Thumb #2: Do Your Homework
Dedicate time to thoroughly researching the company’s culture, values, goals, vision, mission, and challenges. Nowadays, you can access a company’s details from its blog or social media accounts. Besides, research the position and the skills needed to perform that role efficiently.
The research will enable you to know the day-to-day activities, which will give you a better understanding of what your future job will look like. After this, if you already know who your interviewers are, look them up on LinkedIn and other social media platforms so that you get to know their qualifications, achievements, and interests. This will allow you to make the first move with your interviewer by establishing a common ground to build rapport.
At last, you will also need to go through the job description as a guide to get a grip on how to correlate your research with the company’s needs.
Rule of Thumb #3: Conduct Mock Interviews
You have to do interviews with friends or professional people who would evaluate your answers, body language, and tone of voice. To be well prepared for this, search for common interview questions, and write your answers before the interview. Replace stilted or general statements with achievements stories that you can link with questions like “why would we hire you?” or “what are your strengths?”
Rule of Thumb 4: Demonstrate Uniqueness
Now, we will uncover some techniques that will set you apart from other applicants.
Generate issues the company is frustrated with, and help solve them by writing your ideas on how to overcome them. Send a copy of your research to the interviewer and propose it to them by saying that you have discovered that the company is suffering from XYZ.
Continue by telling them you have researched those problems and come up with some solutions; hopefully, they will do good. By doing this, you will get their appreciation and succeed in staying in their memory for a longer time.
Another way of excelling in job interviews is by preparing creative assets. It can be a PowerPoint presentation in which you discuss your work plan if you have been selected and the goals you aim to achieve if you get that position.
Rule of Thumb #5: Sell Yourself
Remind the interviewer of your competencies and the value you will add to the workplace. You can show how your skills match the position by introducing yourself creatively and conversing with the interviewer to keep them engaged. Focus on the most outstanding experiences and make well-crafted success stories out of them.
Finally, proving oneself in a job interview might sound scary, but it is a matter of a few preparations and procedures to take into account and dash for success.
