Preparing for an interview: what you may not have thought of
Interviews can be so incredibly nerve wracking, especially if you’re applying for a job that you really want! Preparing for an interview is just as important as writing your resume was. There are so many intimidating factors that come into play when in an interview. Let’s go over a few ways to prepare for your interview that may not have crossed your mind yet.
The first thing you need to do is to look up the place you are interviewing for: review their website and social medias. See if you can find a common theme of posts or a motto. This could be a direct quote or even a common theme on a thread of posts pertaining to a certain campaign or religious perspective. You want to make sure that you know what you are walking into. If your employer is super big on religion or politics, you need to know this before you walk into the interview. You don't want to fight about whether you voted for a confused old fart or a boujee orange before you even make it to their payroll so you need to think ahead about how you will navigate that conversation if it were to come up.
Another, more obvious way to prepare for an interview is to come up with strong answers to basic questions. Your employer will likely hear 20 versions of on the spot generic answers to the same question. Come up with real, meaningful answers and be ready to defend your future position in their company.
Ask yourself the following questions and come up with ways you can respond:
-Why should I hire you?
-What do you bring to my company that I don’t already have?
-Where do you see yourself in five years?
-Why are you the right person to fill this position?
While interview questions are important, it is more common nowadays for interviews to be relaxed, often over lunch or dinner. This means that you are going to have to keep the conversation going unlike in a normal, structured interview. Go in with one thing in mind that makes you unique and an idea of how you plan to sneak it into the conversation. For example, I am a ballet teacher, but I stay fit by taking boxing classes. I will often bring this up if I happen to yawn as an excuse for my tiredness or if one of my joints make a loud popping noise (which if you can’t tell happens way too often considering I have a conversation topic prepared to dilute the awkwardness that follows the sounds of my joints moving). The contrast that these two things present though is always an intriguing topic of conversation when I’m looking to ease any lull in conversation. It’s important to have something in mind in to move along the conversation when things get dull.
Here are some more examples of this:
I was on my college’s (Enter Sport Here) team.
Being on a sports team in college may not seem relevant to a particular job interview, but it is! Being a student athlete is a big deal. College is hard whether you think so or not and being able to handle school work and a demanding sports schedule is a huge accomplishment.
I was on __ committee in college and we __ for charity.
(Now don’t say this if you actually didn’t but most frats and sororities have quite a few of these opportunities and employers like to see that the person they are hiring is versatile. A great example of this is when someone can handle being in multiple organizations while in school.)
I love formula one racing because I enjoy the intensity and incredible engineering.
I would not put any sport interests on my resume, but this is a fun talking point. Interviews begin to feel repetitive and boring so make sure to slip your personality in there if you want to be remembered. For this bullet, you can say any sport really, just make sure that the reason you love it is applicable to the conversation or the place you’re applying for. I work at a car dealership so the engineering of race cars being why I enjoy it relevant enough to slip into the conversation.
I have a husband/wife and/or children.
Family environment is so important to most employers. Bringing up that you have a family (without spending the entire time talking about them.. Remember they are trying to meet you!) is a great way to show that you are a moral and driven individual. It takes a lot of work to keep up a family, let alone to support one, if they know you are working to give your family a better life then they know you are self motivated which makes you even more appealing.
Another tip I would like to offer is to double check that your phone is on do not disturb and put away before you walk in. Nothing looks more unprofessional than a person who hides in their cell phone or gets a loud phone alert mid interview. This presents the idea to your interviewer that you have somewhere else you would like to be or someone else you would rather be talking to.
Furthermore, watching how you speak. If you wouldn't talk to your mama the way you usually hold a conversation, I would think about that. Your employer will be paying your bills, they deserve the same respect if not more. I don't think that any respectable interviewer would care to ask a second question if they heard "lol f**** B****** ****** *****" or if you referred to them as "bruh, bro, girl, babe, baby.." The list goes on..
Overall though, don't forget to just be yourself. As cheesy as it sounds, nothing looks more like a red flag to an employer than someone who seems like they are lying, uncomfortable, or deceitful. Be proud of who you are as a person, after all that's who landed the interview not whatever facade may try to takeover on the day of. If you made it that far, let your accomplishments speak for themselves and let your potential future employer get to know who you are as a person. From your values to what drives you as an individual, this is what they really want to know so let them hear it! Now go crush your interview and if you have any other interview tips & tricks feel free to let me know!
