INTERVIEW 911
By: Lida Kianoury
Tags: Interviewing, Interview Questions, Interview, Interview Tips

So you have an interview coming up soon and you want to make sure that you make a good impression. Now this interview can be for anything ranging from a college admissions interview to an interview for an internship or a job. So how do you make sure you have a good interview?

You need to PREPARE, PREPARE, PREPARE! How do you prepare? You prepare by doing research, practicing answering questions, and putting your personal information together into an outline for easy reference.

First, you should make sure that you have a list of your related experience and accomplishments. Obviously, if you are a high school student, your experience is going to be mostly limited to your extracurricular activities and any part-time jobs you may have had during the summer. It can also include your interests in certain subjects, like English Literature or Calculus. If you are a college student or graduate, then, you may have some internships or other job experience under your belt to help round out some skills related to the job for which you are interviewing. Either way, you should have them listed in a resume or outline. This is something that you can easily refer to if needed during the interview, although you should familiarize yourself with it PRIOR to the interview so that you can keep good eye contact with your interviewer.

Part of the preparation also includes doing some research. Research could be looking at a college website or an organization’s website to find out as much as you can about the college or company. In addition, you want to show confidence by projecting your voice (not shouting), but not speaking too softly so as to make it difficult to hear what you are saying. So, you want to give good eye contact (not staring!) and you want to show confidence by projecting your voice. At the same time, it’s important to remember that it’s okay to be nervous. Actually, being nervous can help you in an interview. It’s been my experience that being nervous tends to keep you on your toes during the interview. It’s much better to come across as nervous than come across as arrogant! Often times, people complain that they didn’t get an internship or a job even though their qualifications were great. Now, even if your qualifications are great, if you didn’t have a good interview, then, that could torpedo your candidacy for a position. Likability goes a long way. By likability, I mean DON’T be a dud or arrogant!!!

Lastly, if you want to improve your performance during an interview, you should practice answering a variety of questions. The more questions that you answer, the more comfortable you can be in a Q and A format. For example, write out some sample questions and then, have someone ask you the questions and answer them out loud. Don’t use ‘um’ or ‘like’. It’s better to pause if you are thinking about something than to use these filler words that mean nothing. What are some helpful practice questions? Here are some: Why are you applying to this college, internship, job? Tell me something about yourself that I can’t see from your application? What skills do you have that make you a good candidate for this college, internship, job? Have you ever had a conflict with another student or co-worker and if so, please explain how you handled it. Now, these are just some random questions and I’m sure that you can think up others. It’s not the actual question that is so important, as your ability to think on your feet and answer the questions. It’s good to start out with easy ones, such as: Where did you go to school? What’s your favorite subject? How do you spend your free time? Hobbies? For a college interview, unless you are rude to the interviewer or say something inappropriate, it’s unlikely to have a huge affect on your admission decision. But, how you do in an interview for an internship or a job can have a very big impact on whether or not you are selected. And, of course, dress appropriately for the interview. That doesn’t mean that you have to wear a suit, but you should make sure that you look professional, which could also be casual attire.

So, bottom line: Don’t go in cold to an interview! You will not regret taking the extra time to prepare for an interview, and that preparation can make all the difference! And as always, if you would like to practice your interviewing skills, just send me an e-mail, and we can talk about that…

Questions? Send me an e-mail at LidaLTP@gmail.com