For most people, interviewing with an employer can be a challenging experience. How do you prepare for your upcoming interview in a way that increases your chances of moving forward?
Be prepared for open ended and behavioral based questioning.
Be Confident.
Prepare Yourself.
In speaking with my clients, I prepare them for the interview in at least two fundamental ways.
After developing the perfect resume, you are now able to use it as a tool to help guide you through your conversation with the employer.
One of the most popular interview questions is “Tell me a little about yourself” or “What is your story?” Practice telling your story by utilizing the resume to provide structure. Develop a sort of “2 minute elevator speech” by summarizing the highlights and attractive features of your professional background that are in line with the opportunity at hand.
Alternatively, you could be faced with more challenging questions, such as, the behavioral based interview style. In this situation, you want to be prepared with anecdotal examples to popular behavioral based questions to deliver a high scope, detailed and well-rounded answer. One way to successfully nail the answer is to deliver a story that highlights your skillets, as close as possible to the opportunity that you are interviewing for. Your answer should contain details that allude to examples of your work ethic, camaraderie in the work place, planning, getting results, working with those above and below you and your overall strengths and approach to the job.
Behavioral based questions require you to think of examples from your past experience that you can expand upon to describe your value. These questions can be the most challenging to answer. However, preparation is KEY. You should prepare for these questions in the following ways:
Perform an internet search for the “Top 10 behavioral based questions.”
Make a list of 6 to 10 examples from your past work experience, education or life experiences to have readily available to respond to these questions with.
Construct your responses in the following manner:
Describe the situation in detail so the hiring manager understands the situation you were faced with.
What you did to handle the situation.
Who you involved to get the thing done or to help resolve the issue?
What was the result OR what did you learn to do better or differently next time?
Be sure to come prepared with 2-3 questions prepared to ask each interviewer. You can also perform a quick internet search, such as, “Top ten questions to ask the interviewer".”
DON’T FORGET: Get a Business Card before leaving the interview so you are able to send a Thank You Note and to follow up with the hiring manager throughout the hiring process.
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