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Six Steps to a Successful Interview
Know Yourself Knowing yourself means understanding your skills, interests and values and being able to communicate those qualities to employers. There are several ways you can begin to have a better understanding of yourself:
- Use Career Inventories with the help of a career counselor in the Career Development Center.
- Myers Briggs Type Indicator
- Strong Interest Inventory
- Skill Scan
- Pick up a resume handout in the CDC and use the verb list to identify skills you have developed.
- Think about what you have liked best and least about each of your jobs. What projects did you most / least enjoy?
- Browse through job openings and find patterns of interest. What words jump out at you in the advertisements? What could you picture sustaining your interest in a work environment?
Identifying the qualities you want to communicate to an employer is only the first part. The second is actually conveying this information.
Know Your Organization A frequent complaint among campus recruiters is lack of knowledge about either the position or the organization. The good news is that researching organizations is easier than ever, thanks to the WWW. Here is some of the information you may want to get.
| Products / Services Size Ownership Profits / Losses Private / Public |
Stated Mission Training Benefits Competitors Client base |
Reputation Potential for advancement Recent mergers / acquisitions Market stability |
Look for this information in annual reports, organization web pages, faculty, career center staff, information interviews, chambers of commerce, and periodicals.
Anticipate Questions Part Two of this handout gives multiple lists of questions that may be asked in interviews. In addition to reviewing these lists, you can:
- Analyze the job description for clues to skills and behaviors required
- You can be sure that these are the qualities that the employer will want to hear about in an interview. Prepare for questions that target the skills and values desired in that job.
- Scrutinize your background for weaknesses
- If you notice a weakness in your resume, chances are that the employer will also and he or she will ask about it. Don't hope it won't come up. Spend time working out answers regarding your weaknesses.
- Talk to people in the same industry, company or job and ask what is likely to come up in the interview.
- The lists in this handout and in most interview books are quite general. Those people already working in the industry will have the best ideas of the technical questions that may be posed.
Prepare Your Wardrobe There are thick books written on the topic of dressing for success, so this handout will do no more than point you in the right direction. Besides making sure you have bathed, shaved, pressed your clothes, and scrubbed your fingernails, here are three basic steps to preparing your wardrobe:
- Consider Your Industry: The more conservative your industry, the more conservative your dress should be.
- Conservative industries are banking, finance, accounting insurance
- Average industries are social work, education, psychology, sciences, retail
- Less conservative industries include advertising, graphic design, theatre.
- Consider the Employer: Choose interview attire that is one or two notches above what people wear at that organization day to day. Learn what that is by:
- Talking to people who know the culture of the organization
- Looking at pictures in company literature or on web pages
- Anonymously hanging out in the lobby of the organization and watching what people are wearing.
- Consider Your Personality: If you wear something that you feel uncomfortable or unattractive in, you will not make a positive impression in the interview.
- Choose clothes that fit your body type
- Look for the best quality you can afford
- Focus on unusual tailoring, shoes, fabric to match your personality
- Use accessories to personalize suits
Rehearse Rehearse does not mean memorize answers. It means putting yourself in interview situations in order to get comfortable with the process. There are many ways to rehearse.
- Get friends to role play with you. Hand them the list of questions in part two and have them randomly ask you questions.
- Tape record / videotape yourself answering questions. This is invaluable for picking up on verbal and nonverbal quirks in your presentation. You may cringe at the number of "y'knows" that you hear, but at least you know what to work on.
- Conduct a videotaped mock interview with a member of the Career Development Staff. These mock interviews will not only allow you to see yourself on tape, but also have a critique by someone who has a great deal of experience with interviewing.
- Wear your interview attire for a few hours before the day of the interview. Get comfortable in it. Sit, stand, walk around, practice unbuttoning the jacket.
Follow Up Once the interview is over, you may be tempted to breathe a sigh of relief and be ready to move on to the next opportunity. Resist the temptation, and conduct an appropriate follow up to the interview.
- Ask when you can expect to hear from the organization and/ or next steps in the process
- Write a thank you note within 24-48 hours, which could include information about yourself that you may have omitted during the interview.
- If you don't hear from the organization within the time indicated, follow up with a phone call to inquire about the process and to reiterate your interest and availability.
- If you are not offered the position, or the process is terminated after the first interview, politely and without rancor, ask the interviewer for feedback about your performance. For example: "Thanks for the opportunity to interview with your organization. I am disappointed that you offered the position to someone else. Since I am committed to pursuing jobs similar to this one, is there any feedback you could give me about areas for improvement?"
BibliographyAvailable in the Career Development Center
Interviewing
Student's Guide to On-Campus Job Recruitment, Elizabeth Phythian.
101 Smart Questions to ASK on your Interview, Ron Fry.
Preparing for the Behavior-Based Interview, Terry L. Fitzwater.
The Everything Job Interview Book, Bob Adams.
The Everything Practice Interview Book, Dawn Rosenberg McKay.
Perfect Phrases for the Perfect Interview, Carole Martin.
201 Best Questions to Ask on Your Interview, John Kador.
Your Job Interview, Cynthia Ingols and Mary Shapiro.
Dress
Dressing Smart for Women, JoAnna Nicholson.
Dressing Smart for Men, JoAnna Nicholson.
Business Etiquette for Dummies, Sue Fox and Perrin Cunningham.
5 Steps to Professional Presence, Susan Bixler and Lisa Scherrer Dugan.
Beyond Business Casual: What to Wear to Work if You Want to Get Ahead, Ann Marie Sabath.
The New Professional Image, Susan Bixler and Nancy Nix-Rice.
Salary Negotiation
Insider Guide to Negotiating you Salary and Perks, Robert Fisher Ph.D
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