How to Prepare for a Job Interview
What Does Your Employer Expect from You?5 Steps to a Successful Job Interview1. Research the Company and Examine the Job Description Closely2. Consider Which Information You Want to Convey About Yourself3. Practice with Common Questions to Be Prepared for an Interview4. Determine What to Prepare for an Interview and Which Items to Bring with You5. Prepare Your Travel ArrangementsAdditional Interview Preparation Tips: The Do's and Don'tsYour Job Interview: Practice Makes Perfect
Making a good first impression during a job interview is just as important as a well-structured resume. For customer-facing jobs, it's arguably even more important. Job interviews help recruiters understand what you bring to the table, so you should always practice beforehand.
If this is your first time preparing for a job interview, or if it's been a while since you were last interviewed by a recruiter, it's helpful to keep one thing in mind throughout preparation:
Your recruiter wants to know what you can do for their company, not what the company can do for you.
That doesn't mean your motivations for applying or your personal story are any less relevant to the recruiter. However, they will always choose a candidate who can benefit the company over a candidate whose contributions are unclear.
So, when you're asked, “Why did you choose to apply to our company?", it's okay to explain your fascination with their work from a young age. But you should also drive home the point that this fascination has given you early insights into their work that can benefit the company's performance. When engaged in job interview practice, make sure to take the recruiter's perspective to understand what it is they're looking for.
One way to understand what your recruiter is looking for is the 5 C's of job interviews. These highlight the abstract qualities you will need to demonstrate:
Recruiters may put emphasis on some of these 5 C's of interviewing, depending on the role for which you're applying. If you're applying as a sales representative, for example, communications skills are vital and demonstrating them should be a vital part of how you prepare for a job interview. An engineering position, on the other hand, will require you to demonstrate professional skills first and foremost.
When determining how to prepare for a job interview, many job seekers concentrate on communication strategies. However, Chemistry and Confidence, in particular, are significantly affected by the outfit you choose to wear and your body language during the interview. Choose what to wear based on the industry and the specific company where you're applying for a job. Avoid overdressing or underdressing, as both can create a poor first impression during the interview.
If you're actively looking for a job, it pays to be prepared for an interview. When applying for a job, consider the following 5 interview preparation tips. You should practice for every job you're applying to, even if you haven't received an invitation yet. This ensures that you can accept the invitation, even on short notice, without feeling unprepared.
When coming face-to-face with a recruiter, it's important that you don't come across as disrespectful or uninformed. You should be familiar with the most important pieces of information about the company you're applying to and the position you're applying for. The best way to prepare for an interview is to ensure you conduct some research in advance.
Researching the company may seem straightforward, but it can be a complicated task. You can read about the company, its history and culture on their website—but so can any other applicant. Try to stand out from the crowd by also looking up employees on professional social media sites like LinkedIn or Xing. Pay attention to how they present themselves and their work, as well as any professional topics that particularly interest them.
Also take a close look at the industry in which the company operates, as well as any trends or challenges currently facing this industry. Reading the company website is the bare minimum of how to prepare for a job interview, while understanding its place in the industry is going that additional mile that'll make your recruiter remember you.
Reviewing the job description can help you determine which qualities the company is looking for in an employee. Take note of the explicit requirements they mention, as well as any implicit requirements. If the company is looking for someone to work as part of a team, they may also appreciate your language skills for effective communication with people of different backgrounds. Make sure you internalize the requirements outlined in the job description, so you can showcase these exact qualities during the job interview.
Don't be afraid to pick up the phone and call the company for more information. Perhaps you know someone who works there, or in the same industry? While no one expects you to know sensitive internal details about the company you're applying to, consider other avenues of research beyond just googling the company.
It can be helpful to identify specific words or phrases that are repeated multiple times in the job description (including synonyms). They indicate that a specific skill or characteristic is particularly important for the job. During job interview practice, try to find ways in which you can use these important terms in conversation. Make sure it sounds natural and is relevant to the topic of conversation, though.
This next step requires you to go beyond the job description:
When applying for a job in the service sector, for example, your openness and kind manner can be an advantage. You can easily demonstrate these qualities through your behavior during the interview. Make sure you don't explicitly point out basic attributes that any employer expects their employees to have. "I arrive at work on time" should be an assumed, as far as your employer is concerned.
You may also want to identify specific examples from your previous work or personal life that support the image of yourself you'd like to present. If you're applying for a position as a team leader, try to remember some previous experiences you've had in efficiently organizing a team or resolving disputes between team members.
Also note that interviewers will typically ask you questions about your weaknesses or how you think you can improve your performance in the future. The main goal of these questions is to see how you respond and how open you are about your shortcomings. Trying to wrap positive attributes in a negative wrapper such as "I just work too diligently sometimes" will be an immediate red flag on your application, as recruiters understand precisely what you're trying to do here.
Instead, the best way to prepare for an interview question about your weaknesses is to identify your actual weaknesses beforehand and think of ways in which you can try to overcome them. During the interview, you can then mention genuine weaknesses while also demonstrating that you're working on them. Make sure you mention weaknesses that actually apply to some aspect of the job, though. If you're applying for a job in retail sales and you say you're not good at working with power tools, that will come off as an attempt at distraction.
Practice makes perfect, so be sure to practice your demeanor in a mock job interview. Ideally, you'll want to practice with another person as the mock recruiter. With a friend or family member in the recruiter's chair, you can get a second opinion on how you come across during interviews. They can also assess whether the answers you provide to their questions feel genuine and whether you can convey your points clearly and concisely. They should pay particular attention to your demeanor: Are you holding eye contact? Are you standing and sitting upright? Do you speak clearly? Do you appear friendly, open and approachable overall?
It's also a good job interview practice to let your friends or family members come up with their own questions in addition to asking some common interview questions you are likely to encounter. The goal is to gauge your reaction to both standard questions as well as questions you may not have anticipated. Recruiters often like to throw curve balls, not necessarily to hear your answer, but because they want to see how you respond to challenging and unexpected questions. These are often referred to as "behavioral interview questions".
If you can't practice with another person, you could use modern generative AI systems to come up with questions for you to answer. Make sure you provide the information from the job description as well as any other relevant information (such as the "about us" section from the company's website). Then ask the AI chatbot to take the role of an interviewer and to give you some questions extrapolated from the information you've provided. A sample prompt could look like this:
"Imagine you're a recruiter for company X, trying to fill the position as described in the following job description. Provide questions that you would ask a job applicant to determine their suitability for the position. Do not explain what you're doing. Job Description: INSERT JOB DESCRIPTION HERE"
Keep in mind, though, that generative AI cannot feel, intuit or think autonomously. It cannot assess your responses to these questions the same way a human being could. It also cannot determine the impression you make with your body language. So, relying solely on AI is not an ideal method to enhance your interview skills.
When faced with behavioral interview questions, you can follow the STAR system to structure your responses. This system is specifically designed to give concise answers by following this structure:
For example, your recruiter may ask you: "What would you do if one person in your team isn't carrying their weight?" You can then respond like this:
In this example, you're following the STAR system to give a concise answer which follows a logical progression from a premise to a result. When practicing the STAR system, make sure you learn to use just one or two sentences each for situation, task, action and result. This makes sure you don't start going into unnecessary details, which is one of the main advantages of the STAR system.
Note that you're usually able to choose which situation to describe and what aspect to focus on. You can use this to demonstrate different strengths (and weaknesses) you have. In the example above, you used an extra sentence to explain why you took the action you did. This helps you demonstrate your empathy with a team member who might have just been very introverted in social situations, as well as your ability to navigate this situation without creating friction in the team. Such social skills are important to many employers who value friendly social relationships with their employees. On the other hand, you might have mentioned a situation in which a team member's behavior was so bad that you had to fire them—which can impress recruiters looking for team leader who aren't afraid to make tough decisions.
You can score points with your interviewer by asking insightful questions that show your enthusiasm and demonstrate you've spent some time researching the company. For example, you could ask about how the company is planning to face upcoming challenges or paradigm shifts in its industry sector. Try to come up with such questions in preparation for the interview.
Remember that your recruiter is interested in what you can do for the company. So, unless you're an absolute expert in your field that the company would do anything to headhunt, it’s best not to ask questions about your expected salary or about the chances of being promoted quickly.
Choosing an appropriate outfit for the interview and bringing all the materials you need is very important for a first impression, since it demonstrates that you're considerate and respectful towards others. While there is much to consider regarding your choice of outfit, the general rule is:
Choose an outfit for the job interview that you would also find appropriate to wear during work.
If you're applying for a job in a trendy young marketing start-up, for instance, you can generally get away with wearing sneakers and a monochromatic t-shirt or blouse with a nice jacket. If you're applying for a job in a more conservative industry, business formal attire is a must. That means suits and ties for men and formal suits with conservative skirts or pants for women.
If you're unsure what the dress code is, you can always look up employee photos on the company's website or employee's accounts on professional social media sites to get an impression of how they present themselves.
As a last resort, you could call the company and ask them directly what their dress code is. But think about the message you're sending by asking. A more laid-back company might think you're being very considerate, while recruiters from more conservative companies might regard you less favorably for not knowing what's expected in a formal business situation.
It's always advisable to bring multiple copies of your resume with you to the interview. You can usually expect the recruiter to have a copy for themselves, but you'll also need one for yourself. And being able to provide copies for everyone at the table just in case, demonstrates your thoughtfulness.
Last but not least: Make sure you know exactly where to go for your interview and how to get there. That might sound like a no-brainer, but being late for your interview sends a very negative message, regardless of the reason.
Ask your recruiter exactly where you're supposed to meet and use online maps to get an idea of where that place is. When multiple companies are located in the same building or on the same industrial campus, simply knowing the street address may not be enough to quickly find your way to their offices on the day of the interview.
If you have the time, you might want to make a trip to the location a day or two before the interview to make sure you know how to get there. This also helps you identify things that may delay you on the day, such as the typical volume of traffic in the area.
If possible, schedule your arrival for the interview earlier than necessary, especially when travelling by plane or using public transportation. This limits the impact of delays, and you can always spend any extra time in a nearby cafe if you're too early. When travelling to another city or country for an interview, it's advisable to arrive on the day before and book a hotel room for the night, so you can approach the interview fresh and energized.
In addition to the 5 steps for job interview preparation, be sure to check these common mistakes and best practices of how to prepare for a job interview. They can help you avoid developing bad habits that might create a negative impression.
Do's
Don'ts
Performing well in a job interview isn't something that comes naturally to most people. So, practice, practice, practice!
Make sure you research information about the company, its employees and the industry in which it operates beforehand. Think about what to wear, how to get to the interview and what items to bring ahead of time. And above all, go through mock interviews to get some practical experience, especially if you've never been invited to a job interview or if it's been a while. It's perfectly normal to feel nervous, knowing how to prepare for a job interview can alleviate some of that anxiety.
Just remember: Your resume may be the thing that catches your recruiter's attention, but the job interview is what seals the deal.
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