4 tips to ace an interview

[scoyne88]

This section of the forum seems pretty dead, but how you present your self during an interview is extremely important, here are some tips to do your best.

1. Thorough Research

Prior to going to the interview it is essential that you do plenty of background research on the company. Without this background knowledge it will make it hard to answer questions in a confident manner and this will show during the interview. Questions that come out again and again are things similar to “Why do you want to work for this company?” Having a good understanding of what the company has done in the past and what their aims are for the future are clearly valuable when answering these types of open questions. One point to make here though is do not recite your answers before you go to the interview. If you try to memories an answer your delivery will sound forced and unnatural.

2. Sell yourself to the interviewer

This might sound like a very obvious thing to aim to achieve when in an interview however a lot of people actually forget their primary goal when they get into a high pressure situation. Try to remain calm and deliver the experiences and skills you posses that will show the interviewer that you would be a good match for the position being discussed. Remaining focused on delivering only positive aspects of your previous employment career is vital if you are going to portray yourself as being a highly employable individual.


3. Have some questions prepared for them

At some point in almost every interview you will be asked; “Do you have any specific questions that you would like to ask us about the role?” Do not be tempted to pass on this opportunity because it is one of the most important aspects of any interview. Being able to respond with something that is relevant and thought provoking shows that you have the ability to think quickly and engage in with the interviewer. Try to think of a topic that you could bring up prior to the interview so that you are not put on the spot.



4. Follow up the interview with a telephone call

Leave it a few days before making this call. Quite often the organization will not have made a decision on which candidate has been successful during this period of time and so it may present you with the opportunity to further back your application. If you forgot to mention anything during the interview this phone call presents the perfect opportunity to tell them about this.If you have not got the job make sure that you ask them why this was the case and use this feedback to your advantage during the next interview you go to. If you have not got the job do not worry, use this phone call to take the opportunity to ask why exactly you didn’t get the position and how you could have improved. Use this information to your advantage in your next interview and with a little luck you will get the job.

Have any other tips, share them with the community.

[AndrewLad.com]

Solid advice Scoyne88,

I particularly agree with point number 2. People seem to almost always forget to sell themselves enough, they feel just by answering the questions well is enough. What they tend to forget is that everyone else can also answer the questions well, and you often need to stand out to be the chosen one.

You need to look your employer in the eye and tell them exactly why it is you they should hire, and not anyone else. If you can't do this, don't bother turning up for the interview.

Happy job hunting!

Andrew

[amylucia]

Point 2 is really important, especially now that companies are using video interviews to select candidates. You have to remember that if your interview in online it can be recorded and replayed by your interviewee over and over so they can decide whether you're right for the job in comparison to the other candidates. Selling yourself via webcam can be tricky, especially when you're looking into a camera and not into the eyes of a person, but if your interviewee can replay the interview it's extremely important to give a good impression. Companies are using software like video conferencing by Lifesize and it's worth researching into these types of video conferencing software to familiarise yourself with it so a video interview doesn't seem so daunting if you're invited to one.

Good luck!
Amy

[Brent Jones]

This section of the forum seems pretty dead, but how you present your self during an interview is extremely important, here are some tips to do your best.

1. Thorough Research

Prior to going to the interview it is essential that you do plenty of background research on the company. Without this background knowledge it will make it hard to answer questions in a confident manner and this will show during the interview. Questions that come out again and again are things similar to “Why do you want to work for this company?” Having a good understanding of what the company has done in the past and what their aims are for the future are clearly valuable when answering these types of open questions. One point to make here though is do not recite your answers before you go to the interview. If you try to memories an answer your delivery will sound forced and unnatural.

2. Sell yourself to the interviewer

This might sound like a very obvious thing to aim to achieve when in an interview however a lot of people actually forget their primary goal when they get into a high pressure situation. Try to remain calm and deliver the experiences and skills you posses that will show the interviewer that you would be a good match for the position being discussed. Remaining focused on delivering only positive aspects of your previous employment career is vital if you are going to portray yourself as being a highly employable individual.


3. Have some questions prepared for them

At some point in almost every interview you will be asked; “Do you have any specific questions that you would like to ask us about the role?” Do not be tempted to pass on this opportunity because it is one of the most important aspects of any interview. Being able to respond with something that is relevant and thought provoking shows that you have the ability to think quickly and engage in with the interviewer. Try to think of a topic that you could bring up prior to the interview so that you are not put on the spot.



4. Follow up the interview with a telephone call

Leave it a few days before making this call. Quite often the organization will not have made a decision on which candidate has been successful during this period of time and so it may present you with the opportunity to further back your application. If you forgot to mention anything during the interview this phone call presents the perfect opportunity to tell them about this.If you have not got the job make sure that you ask them why this was the case and use this feedback to your advantage during the next interview you go to. If you have not got the job do not worry, use this phone call to take the opportunity to ask why exactly you didn’t get the position and how you could have improved. Use this information to your advantage in your next interview and with a little luck you will get the job.

Have any other tips, share them with the community.

Hi Scoyne88,

I absolutely love these four tips.

I myself am a recruiter, and 3 out of the 4 points you mentioned I actually discuss on my blog. I've actually just put together a free report I called 7 Fatal Mistakes Made by Most Job Applicants.

You asked to share any other tips with the community, so if you or anyone else would like to check out this free report, it is available at: http://www.jobgettingtips.info

[BeJoblessNoMore]

Personally I don't have anything to add but I must say I found your list quite helpful