Ace the Interview, Part 1: Preparation

Congratulations: you have secured an interview!  In order to ensure that you maintain the most professional demeanor and ace the interview, you will wish to heed the following interview tips:

Give yourself a little pep talk.  Among the myriad applicants from which to choose, your prospective employer has selected you as one of the most qualified candidates for the open position.   If you have been unemployed for a while due solely to the lackluster economy, you may have allowed yourself to become disheartened and perhaps even cynical.  One of our most effective interview tips is to force those feelings aside as you prepare for this interview, and literally look yourself in the mirror.  Tell yourself that you are exactly what the company is looking for, and why.  After you have completed your self-motivating speech, make a list of all the traits and competencies that you possess that are valuable to the potential employer.  Display that list in a place of prominence, so that you will see it easily and repeatedly.  Thus prepared, you will sail into your meeting with genuine confidence.  Never underestimate the draw of confidence on an interview!  Conversely, studiously avoid verbal and non-verbal communication that may paint you as anything other than self-possessed, knowledgeable, and skilled.

Organize your thought processes.   Before meeting with the hiring manager, our next most vital of interview tips is to review your resume once again.  If you have described accomplishments, as we have strongly urged you to do in previous articles, prepare to be asked about some of those achievements in greater detail.  Understand that the interviewer may phrase things a bit differently than you are expecting, such as “Who opposed this project (or recommendation or new system) and why?  How did you get around that?”  You may also be thrown a curve ball with, “You got angry at least once at your job.  Why, and what did you do about it?”  While the old adage states that honesty is the best policy, prudence is always the better policy.  Denigrating (“slamming”) your former employer and/or colleagues, even by inference, will be received as a negative on your part.  If you are expecting such questions in advance, you will know best how to frame your answer to portray yourself as a professional.