How To Prepare For Interviews Mini-Course
Do you struggle to do well interviews?
Are you looking for tips and techniques that will help you ace interviews?
You have come to the right place.
I created this framework to people effectively prepare for interviews without any worries and concerns. These tips have give me and others tremendous success with interviews.
Interview Prep Checklist
Here is quick checklist of the template content for easy access:
Create a document to store your interview notes and tips
Create a great answer for “tell me about yourself” question
Do background research on company and interviewers
Create a 40-50 “Interview Questions + Answers” list for the job type
Use examples to answer your questions
Do at least 3x mock interviews before the interview (more the better)
Do your best to improve your appearance
Make list of questions to ask the interviewers
Research your salary and come up with a range
Write your interview worries and concerns down to alleviate them
Send a “Thank you” email after interview
Be good to yourself during and after the interview process
1. Create a document to store your interview notes and tips
Creating a document to store your interview journey is one of the best things you can do when preparing for your interviews.
It will help you stay organized, and keep everything you need for interviews in one place.
Create the document to store interview notes, ideas, techniques, tips and strategies.
Actively use this document to organize, and keep track of key learnings and details for your interviews.
Try it out:
Step 1: Create a Google Doc named “My Interview Success”
Step 2: Store notes based on learnings in this guide
Step 3: Continue to update the document as you prepare for interviews
2. Develop a great answer for “tell me about yourself” question
Remember that this is the most commonly and frequently asked question in interviews.
You will get this question asked virtually 99% of the time in interviews.
Spend time and effort to develop a strong answer for this question.
The answer you provide for this question essentially sets the tone and mode for the whole interview.
Create a really good script and practice it.
Research online for a great one.
Here are few questions to help you think of a great answer:
How long have you been working in the industry?
What was your responsibilities?
What problems did you solve?
What clients have you worked with?
What accomplishments did you have?
Here is an example for you to get started with:
“So Dulik, tell me a little bit about yourself”
“Sure! I have been working as a Project Manager for the last 3 years at Oracle and Lenovo.
At Oracle, I was in charge of managing and executing 14 IT projects, I managed a team of 20 people and scoped out new projects and executed them.
At Lenovo, I managed a team of 10 project managers and 30 projects in Software Development. I also managed the customer support team.
I have been recognized by several managers for providing exceptional support to my colleagues and superiors.”
3. Do Background Research On Company and Interviewers
Dedicate time to do background research on the company.
Doing background research on the company will help you develop a stronger connection with your interviewers, therefore help you get hired faster.
Here are few places to start looking:
Company website
LinkedIn company page
Also, remember to research the people who are going to interview you. Best place to start is LinkedIn. Knowing who is interviewing you will make you feel more comfortable during interviews.
If you already interviewing for a company, start with these questions:
Company name:
What are the company's culture, mission, and values?
Who are companies' key customers? ( i.e. tech companies)
Who are their key competitors?
What are their major products and services?
Are they in the news? If so, what are the recent events?
Also, make a list of your interviewers (I.e. name, title).
Write down 2-3 things that interest you about them.
4. Create a 40-50 “Interview Questions + Answers” list
Create a 40-50 “Interview Questions + Answers” list
This is one of the most important techniques you can do to help you prepare and ace your interviews. Ideally, I recommend doing this before you get the interviews.
This was practice that helped me tremendously to prepare and get a feel for the interviews.
For my interviews, I would go online and put together a question list of about 50 interview questions. Next, I would take the next few days to answer them based on my experience and further research online.
It was work, but the work paid off for me massively. Therefore, I highly recommend adding this technique to your interview prep arsenal.
Try it out: Google > “best Interview questions and answers [your job title]”
Bring in the key questions and answers that are related to you into the Interview Success Document.
Update your answers until they reflect you.
Some answers may overlap and that’s OK! Same questions can be asked in multiple ways.
Once you complete answering the question, practice answering the questions out loud. It will help you become more confident and iron out your answers.
Begin your prep with developing great answers to these most commonly asked questions:
Tell me about yourself.
Why do you want to work for us?
Tell me about your education/ experience?
What type of people do you find difficult to work with?
Who was the best boss or supervisor you ever had?
Why are you a good fit for this position?
What do you consider to be your greatest strengths?
What will previous employers tell me about you?
What is your greatest accomplishment?
What is your greatest weakness?
Do you have any questions for us?
5. Use examples to answer your questions
When answering questions, come up with examples to illustrate your points.
Use the PAR Formula to come with examples for your answers; Problem, Actions, Results
Provide an example based on your experience. Break it down based on the following:
Problem: Similar problem or challenge you faced related to the question asked
Manager wanted more sales
Wanted implement technology project to implement sales
Actions: What actions, processes, software and tools did you use to solve the problem
Used tools like Salesforce to make the Sales process more efficient
Utilised process like like Agile and Waterfall for project management
Results: What were the outcomes of your actions?
Was the boss happy? What did he say?
Improved Sales by 20%?
Project Success? Client happiness?
Use your own work and business experiences come with examples.
Try to come with at least 3 examples using this formula before your interview.
Example:
“Tell me about a time where you had to deal with a challenging customer? “
Problem: Identified specifically what the problem of the customer. The customer was upset about the email conversion rates of the last month and hearing about it from the boss.
Actions: Developed a plan to resolve the major concerns of the customer. Created a plan to improve email engagement rates. Set up weekly calls to measure progress and get feedback. Created a list of all the improvements we can make after the research.
Result: Client was super happy because we supported and worked together to solve the issue. The Email conversions gradually improved after we implemented the best practices.
6. Do at least 3x mock interviews before the interview (more the better)
Do at least 3x mock interviews before the real interview.
Repetition is the ultimate key to developing any skill. This especially applies for job interviews.
The more you practice this process, the faster you can land a job.
Remember, we all need improvement in one area or another. Don’t worry how you look or sound. Focus on getting the reps done and getting better.
Here is a pro tip: Use a camera and study yourself. If you can get yourself to do this, I can tell you that you are not too far from being successful in interviews.
Make a list on how you can improve.
Make a list of what you are doing well.
Appreciate your efforts, attempts and improvements.
Interviewing is an extremely valuable skill to learn and master.
The more you practice, the more you feel confident and less anxious you will become in the interview.
More practice and time is needed in the early stages of your career, and it will get easier as you practice and attend more interviews.
7. Focus on developing friendships with interviewers
Its always good to remember that the interviewers are human beings just like you and me. They have fears, goals, dreams, worries and just like you and me.
The interviewers are simply trying to find someone they can work together to solve problems in their company. They are looking for someone who is likeable and easy to work with.
They are interviewing you because they think you can help them with their challenges and work together. Be friendly and tell them how you solved problems in your past roles.
Feel free to talk about your responsibilities and accomplishments you have gotten so far. They want to know what you have done in the past and they can help them.
Focus on developing friendship and a relationship for the long term with interviewers.
They are interviewing you because they think you can help them. Be friendly, calm and tell them how you can help.
8. Do your best to improve your appearance
When you are getting interviewed people don't have much to measure you from, they rely on cues like how you appear and what you wear.
I know people shouldn't care how they look. But people do this in order to make sense of their world.
Don’t worry about investing in expensive things to make you look good.
Maximize and make the best use of what you already have.
Make a list what you can improve and do them:
Get haircut or style
Polish shoes
Clean and Iron your clothes
Clip or style your nails
9. Make list of questions to ask the interviewer
Remember, you are interviewing the company as much as they are interviewing you.
You are going to spend over 35+ hours with the company, so make sure to ask questions from the interviewers to see if they have what you are looking for.
Also, asking well-thought out questions is a great way to show your experience and mindset to your potential employers.
Here are my top questions to impress your interviewers while getting know the role and company:
“What are the personality traits you are looking for in an ideal candidate?”
“What problems and challenges are you facing that you are trying to solve with the role?”
“What are some of the challenges I could face in this role”
“Can you describe how a typical day would look like in this role?”
“Do you have an onboarding plan for this role? If so, how does it look?
“What are the expected 30, 60, 90-day plans for this role?”
“What are you hoping this person will accomplish in their first six months and in their first year?”
"If you were to fast forward 12 months from now, what would you like to have happened to feel like this hire has been an overwhelming success?"
10. Research your salary and come up with a range
Before you go to your interview, know how much you should be getting paid.
Many people blindly go to their interviews, without knowing how much they should be asking for their salary. They leave thousands of dollars on the table because they dole out a quick number in order to get the job.
Use these online resources to establish a salary range for yourself.
Establish a salary range based on your location, years of experience and certifications.
If you are feeling confident, you can freely ask “What sort of budget have they opened up for this position?”
Once they provide you a range, you could ask for what you really want. If the budget is lower than expected then, let them know what your expectations are. If they are higher than expected, this question will help you make thousands more each year
11. Write your interview worries and concerns down to alleviate them
You may be worried or a bit anxious about interviews. I have been there and I am pretty sure everybody who ever needed to get a job felt the exact same.
If you have worries and concerns, make a list of them. Our worries and concerns get magnified the more we keep them in our head - put them on paper.
If you are worried about not having enough skills or experience, remember that they obviously think you have what it takes to do the job. Otherwise, they will not invite you for the interview.
If they already invited you for the interview, be confident in the fact that they believe you can do the job. They want to see if you have the right personality traits that match their culture.
Try it out: If you have worries and concerns, make a list of them. Remember, our worries and concerns get magnified the more we keep them in our head - put them on paper.
12. Send a “Thank you” email after the interview
Remember to send a thank you email after your interview.
Send it on the next day but within 24 hours.
The email will help the interviewers keep you on top of their mind.
Research online for one that matches your style.
Try it out: Fill out this Thank you email template and evaluate whether it meets your needs.
Hi [Interviewer Name],
Thank you so much for meeting with me yesterday. It was such a pleasure to learn more about your team and position.
I’m very excited about the opportunity to join [Company Name] and help [what you do best: bring in new clients/develop world-class content/anything else awesome you would be doing] with your team.
I look forward to hearing from you about the next steps in the hiring process, and please do not hesitate to contact me if I can provide additional information.
Kind regards,,
[Your name]
13. Be good to yourself during and after the interview prep process
Interviews can be challenging if you are not doing them often. However, if you take care of yourself and follow a routine it can get easier and more enjoyable faster.
The key is to repeatedly apply yourself to practise it in small doses. Especially in the beginning.
Decide to improve the “Interview skill”. It is a very valuable skill to master for your future.
Remember to appreciate, celebrate and love yourself and your efforts regardless of the results.
You are already doing a lot to improve yourself. Downloading and going through this template is a sign of that. That deserves recognition and praise!
Try it out:
Meditate
Exercise
Journal
Positive self-talk (i.e. self-encouragement)
Join a community
Get a coach
