Looking for a job? Click here to find everything you need.
___________________________________________,

So, the call came in and you were asked to come in - what’s your job interview strategy?  Regardless of how many interviews you have done before, you should approach each one with a fresh approach and with a strategy.  Creating a strategy isn’t as difficult as it sounds.

The first step is making sure you have a solid understanding of the position you are interviewing for.  If possible, review the job board posting again to get a grasp of the qualifications and any other details about the job they discussed.   If you don’t have the posting printed out, or you can’t find it again on the web, try their corporate website (if they have one) or simply ask if there is a job description you can review prior to the interview.  While some companies won’t give this out, others are thrilled to provide it to a candidate.  Review everything carefully and start writing down what your prior experiences are as it relates to what they are looking for.  Even if you haven’t done something specifically, come up with a project or task you have completed that would give transferable skills to the one they were looking for.

The next step is to understand the company and its culture.  For smaller companies without a website, this is a bit harder to do.  Try “google” or other local sites like newspapers to see if you can find any recent news.  For larger companies, or those with a website, read through the website and see what they have on their “employment” pages.  Often, you will find information on career paths, benefits, culture, location and anything else you can think of.  You may also want to take a look at the recent news or press releases that have gone public.  This often will give you insight into what a company is looking for.

Finally, make sure you answer the questions - fully.  Ideally, you should answer a question with an example from a previous work assignment or school project.  Tell what the situation was (briefly), what exactly you did and what impact it had on the organization or project.  This is often a weakness for people since this isn’t how you usually talk.  To solve this, write down as many examples from across the board that you can think of that show you in a positive light.

Tags: Job Interview