Interview Preparation Thoughts

Interview preparation is valuable time spent. People most of the time want to know how to improve their resume, write a cover letter, and the proper methods of following up so they can get an in person interview. You also need to prepare for the interview itself.

Developing your own personal set of Interview Techniques will provide you with a very valuable and unique job hunting tool. Interviews for the most part are standard formats and haven't changed much over the years. The purpose of the interview is to weigh your potential value with the employer's needs. It's a two way street as you are there to find out if the job is a good fit for you and the employer is there to find out if you are a good fit for them. Many times interviews are usually conducted in 1 of 2 ways. You will either meet with several people individually or, you will meet in a room with several people at once in a panel configuration. You will be asked the usual "tell us about yourself" followed by more detailed questions and probably will be followed by a classic question such as "What is your greatest weakness?" As mentioned the overall interview process can be fairly standard.

This standardization provides you with a wonderful opportunity to be advantageous by developing your own technique to how you approach your interviews. Sit back and imagine your looking at yourself sitting in an interview. How do you look? Do you look confident? Do you look comfortable? If you don't adjust this picture so that to you, you are perceived to be optimal at taking part in the interview you are in. Then with this image in your head go sit in front of the mirror and attempt to mimic that imagine in reality. Once you got a "look" that you like practice it until it's natural for you to be that way in a formal interview setting.

Another important technique is to develop your approach to answering questions. Browse the Internet and compile a list of interview questions. List as many as you can find. In fact make this list with at least 100. Then go through the list and by just noticing, mark the ones that to you would be the most difficult to answer. Take these difficult questions and formulate answers for each one. Take your time doing this but don't get too complex. This is a job interview process, not brain surgery. Take good notes and whittle the list of questions down to about 30. Continue to practice answering these difficult questions until a reasonable level of comfort is obtained. This is a powerful technique to develop as you are building comfort with answering questions that are most uncomfortable to you. This will allow you to approach future interviews with confidence and, you also will be armed with answers that will show you as someone who is not afraid of tough questions. Someone who knows what they want!

Good luck with your next interview!