How to prepare for a job interview?
Today we're going to talk about how to give a kick-ass interview or how to prepare the best to make sure that you can crack your dream job. So let's get started. Please make sure you watch till the end because I will be giving one or two bonus tips in the end as well. And whilst you're watching it don't forget to click on the Subscribe button and press the notify button. Let's get started.
So, what's the problem we defining here? Interviews! Can you imagine that it's that one day's performance that determines, whether you get your dream job or not? Now, what are the facts that we know about interviews? Do you know, within the first seven seconds your interviewer is going to decide if they are going to like you or not?
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| How to prepare for a job interview |
I have interviewed thousands of candidates and I can share with you, what really works when I, as a CEO or even when I was a Frontline manager, interviewing candidates, what is that, that really worked for most people. So, in an interview process, we have six stages that I've separated, and I will talk about each of these six stages.
The first stage is when you're applying for a job, I want to make sure all of you remember, Please apply for Relevant jobs, do not apply for a job that is too senior for your qualifications and experience or vice versa. Recently, especially with covid, I had a lot of people with alot of experience applying for junior jobs.
Now, I told them that I cannot go further because I know that they probably want a job desperately now, but once the job market resumes, they may not stay with us. So the most important thing is matching the job requirements, or at least your ability is to go in front of the interviewer to convince them, why you are the right candidate. So make sure when you're applying, you are watching out for these things and getting an interview.
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| How to prepare for a job interview |
Now, one tip I can give you of how to get a better chance of connecting with the interviewer. I will say it in the end so please continue watching. The second thing is you've got the interview call, now what? A lot of stress, right? I mean you want to do well, you're having hundreds of questions. Now, with covid, especially it's all virtual interviews. Will a virtual interview work? Will I be able to convince the person? Where will be the location of my job? Will they give me the location that I want? A lot of these questions will come into mind.
Now, what I find many times, candidates come for interviews without preparing. They feel that they can ace any interview. They're probably a top performer, doesn't matter. I can tell you even the best of the best candidates, if they don't prepare well, they can lose a great opportunity for a job. Now, this interview preparation can also be even for a promotion interview, for example, in your own company. So you can use it for that as well.
Now, what do you have to prepare? That's the big question running in your mind. When you starting to prepare I would make down a list of the following thing. Firstly, of course, about the company and what do you prepare about the company?
Now, go online and do research about the company's core values. What are the plans the company has for future? What is their strategy? What are the recent news articles about them? Is there any trending products and services that people are talking about? What is the online feedback about them? This will give you a good idea about the company's culture. And remember, you should be using these core value keywords in your interview, please remember that to connect it back when you having the interview. So the first thing you do research is about the company.
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| How to prepare for a job interview |
The second thing you research about is, who is going to be interviewing you? Find out, ask the recruiter who's going to be interviewing you, and for their full names. If it is more than one person, if it's two or three people, research about them online, that's going to really helping you a lot. After you do the research, what are you trying to research about? About the kind of personality they are? Are they interested in people or product, or what is their core interest?
Also Like to Read:- Common Interview Questions
Now, when you're talking to them, you should use these information again to connect back to them. Remember, it's all about the hook you can give to people in that particular day and that's what matters. You have researched about the company you have researched about the people interviewing, then, of course, about the role. What is the role that you are applying for? Do your homework, about the role, especially for that company. If there is again information online or on social media, Make sure these are watertight preparation, have some technical questions possibly for your role, ready as well.
But then when it comes to the actual interview itself, one of the most common techniques that organizations use is called behavioral interview technique. There are even courses for training recruiters, how to use this technique to interview candidates. Now, what are we trying to do with the behavioral interviews? Research says that past performance is a good prediction of future behavior. And when I talk about performance, it's behavioral. Behavior.
What is the Past Behavior will be a good prediction for your future Behavior as well. So employers will ask you questions about, please give an example of when you have to show leadership in a crisis. This is an example. Now, when you get a question like, please give an example, that means they asking you a behavioral question, and to answer a behavioral question, you need to start with, what was the example?
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| How to prepare for a job interview |
What is the situation? What did you do in the situation? What was the outcome of this action you did? What worked well? And what could you do even better if you have the same situation again? This is how you should answer, structure the answer. I find lot of candidates coming and just giving theoretical answers. Blabbering! And, you know, when we are hearing answers, we can easily pick up if somebody is saying a lie or bullshitting. So don't try to do that. So prepare some good examples from your own life.
The common question here would be, give an example of when you are able to crack a sales order or give an example of how you resolve the conflict. Give an example of how you were able to lead a team, give an example of how you were able to convince your peers for a decision that you wanted. So these are some examples where you can go online and you can get hundreds of examples relevant to your role and prepare the behavioral answers for these.
This will really put you at good step. Now, this is done. You got to get ready for the interview. What are the key aspects that can really go wrong in a virtual interview? Make sure that you have excellent lighting, especially on your face, position your camera between your head and your chest. This part has to be clearly visible, your voice.
Check if people can hear your voice, maybe do a mock call with a friend or a family to check if they can hear you properly. Just recently, I did an interview where the candidate was excellent, but because of poor lighting and voice, he left a bad impression and most likely wouldn't get the job as well. And this is very disappointing. So catch, hold of these issues and fix them before. Have a plan B in terms of Internet may be a Wi-Fi and a 4G as well.
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| How to prepare for a job interview |
The other thing is background. Now, if you're sitting with your back facing a window, make sure the windows are closed and no light is coming through, because it will be glair to the person interviewing. Have the curtains put on. And if it's a dark curtains, put on light clothes, and if it is light curtains, put on dark clothes, Make sure it's not merging so you don't even, you know, become invisible otherwise. So this is very important and of course, you got to dress up properly.
You know, there's nothing wrong in overdressing, even if you have to, if you think you can wear a shirt, put on a suit jacket. Nothing Wrong. Comb your hair, dress up properly, and put on a makeup if you like to. Make sure you're presenting very well because it's like, you're respecting the people who are interviewing you. It makes a lot of difference and then the goal is to crack on the D Day. The D-Day arrives, you're sitting in the interview.
Make sure you are logged in five minutes before the interview time, position yourself properly like I mentioned. And when the panel arrives and switches on the video, always switch on the video, please don't do interviews without your videos off. Start with a big smile, show A lot of energy, especially in a virtual you have to use body language and voice tonality to showcase things. Don't keep reading from a book or a paper. It's just so robotic.
So, first of all, speak with alot of guts, a lot of energy, it makes a lot of difference. And then if there are more than one people in the interview who are interviewing you, you look at both of them having eye contact. I know it's not easy through virtual but still at least look at their face. They should be knowing that you're looking at them, to both of them, all three of them, how many other people there are and when you're giving answers, keep it succinct and brief, don't blabber, and don't make it long winding answers, just pause and ask them if they want to know more information.
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| How to prepare for a job interview |
And finally, if you struggle somewhere, if you think you don't know the answer, you just best to tell them, you don't know the answer. If they ask you for example, for weakness, tell them, a very honest weakness that you have, and what are you doing about it to improve it? So don't try to pretend like everything is fantastic with you, be honest and be open.
But if you do it with lot of energy, a lot of passion and talking from your heart, people will most likely love it. So, this is how you finish the interview. After you finish the interview, thank them for their time. Ask them one or two good questions before you log off from the call. And once that is done the last step, send them a Thank you email. Get the email addresses, relevant to what happened interview, Send them a thank you email and write down pence again your skills and qualifications of why you feel you fit this opportunity.
So that will leave a very strong positive note. The last and final bonus tip that I mentioned about is you know 85% of recruiters check your LinkedIn profile before you come for the interview. So make sure you have a clean recent updated LinkedIn profile. I hope this video helped you to prepare for your next interview.
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| How to prepare for a job interview |