Preparing For a Job Interview

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interview-1018333_1920Good morning. Imagine that you’ve been unemployed for a few months now. You’ve applied for hundreds of jobs, and it finally happens, you get called in for an interview. That is a good thing, but are you ready? If not, then this post is for you today. Here are some ideas to help you prepare for the job interview.

Research the Company

The first thing that you should do is research the company that you’re interviewing for. Prospective employers are more impressed by candidates who know something about their business. Find out what you can about the business, including a little history. Get some info about the company’s leaders. A few more things that you can find out about the company is their mission statement and their goals.

Practice

The saying is practice makes perfect. Practicing before an interview is vital. Look for possible interview questions. Think about how you’re going to answer them. These days’ interviewers are taking a more behavioral approach to job interviews. They are looking for examples of your ability to engage in certain behaviors that would benefit the company. They tend to ask you for examples and present scenarios rather than just asking you to describe what you’re good at. I’ve noticed that I’ve done better when I practiced before the interview. Everybody should take the time to practice before their interview.

Answer questions truthfully

The third thing that you should do is respond to questions honestly. It’s not good to lie your way through an interview. You may get caught in the middle of your lie. Besides that being embarrassing, you will probably lose your chance at that job. To me, it’s a no-brainer that you should tell the truth during your interview. In most cases, interviewers know if you’re lying or not. They’d rather hear the truth from you.

Be on time

One of the most important things that you can do is to be on time for your interview. If you don’t take being on time serious, do you think an interviewer would believe that you would be on time for your job? Make sure that you leave your house early enough to arrive on time and get yourself settled before the interview. I try to get to interviews at least 30 minutes early. I may not always get to the office 30 minutes early, but I’m at least outside of the building at the time. Another reason to leave early for your interview is that you can’t predict the traffic. Traffic is unpredictable. There could be road work going on, or a traffic accident could have just happened. One of the worst things that you can do is be late for an interview because of traffic.

Turn your cell off

This should be common sense, but it’s not. Turn off your cell phone before the interview. Better yet, leave it in the car. Do you know how tacky it would be if your phone went off during the middle of the interview? Don’t be that person.

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