Ultimate Job Interview Preparation Checklist - Career Sidekick

Ultimate Job Interview Preparation Checklist - Career Sidekick Ultimate Job Interview Preparation Checklist Interview Preparation / https://www.edenscott.com/blog This pre-interview preparation checklist is going to show you exactly what to do before your interview to walk in confident, over-prepared, and ready to get hired.If you have interviews coming up, this will help you immediately.Lets get startedJob Interview Preparation Checklist:1. Research the companyMethods to research the company before your job interview:Their websiteGoogleGoogle newsLinkedInYouTubeAlso find their competitors. I like to use similarweb.com for this. (note: this works best for finding competitors of large companies).What to look for when researching (e.g. questions you should be able to answer before your interview!)Whos their CEO?When and why were they founded?Where is their headquarters?Do they have multiple locations? Where? (just get a general idea)What do they sell, how do they make money?Do they have a mission statement? What is it?How many employees do they have? (get a general idea is it less than 200? thousands? more than 1 0,000? etc. You can usually find this quickly on LinkedIn).Okay, thats how to research a company before the job interview.Lets move on to the next part of the job interview preparation checklist2. Review your own resumeIf they invited you to interview, they liked something on your resume! So theyre probably going to ask about certain pieces.Theyre also likely to ask a question like, tell me about yourself, and youll need to be ready to walk them step-by-step through your recent experience and accomplishments. So make sure youre familiar with your own resume before going into the interview.And if its a phone interview, print out your resume and have it in front of you.3. Think about facts, figures and accomplishments you can talk aboutHiring managers love this stuff. You should already have this on your resume, but either way prepare specific stories and facts/metrics you can share.Dont just say in my last job I was responsible for ___.What did you accomplish? Give exact data. Did y ou exceed your goals? By how much?Did you help the company make money, save money, save time, etc.? How can you quantify this? Thats how to impress them and get noticed.4. Find out who youre speaking withIf possible, research the people youll be speaking to. Check out their background on LinkedIn. Are they more of a technical person, or do they have a background in HR, etc.?This will help you anticipate what types of questions they will ask.If you dont know who youre going to be speaking with, ask whoever scheduled the interview for you. They might not be able to tell you, but theres no harm in asking.Ill cover more about how to prepare for the questions youre likely to face later in this interview preparation checklist.5. Prepare great questions to ask themHere are the 105 best questions to ask in an interview.You should have a mix of questions about the job, the group/team, and the company.Dont ask about things like salary, benefits, working hours, etc. Itll make you seem more con cerned about this stuff, and less concerned about the actual job.Employers want to hire someone who is focused on coming in and helping them succeed. You need to play the game if you want to get hired.Let them bring up salary, benefits, etc. (usually after a couple rounds of interviews once they know theyre interested).You might be reading this thinking I dont like this advice. I want to ask.6. Think about previous interviews and questions they askedIf this is your first interview with a company, you can skip this step.If youve had other interviews with this company think about what they asked you and seemed to emphasize. If they asked you multiple questions about a topic, its likely to be something they care a lot about.So if youre speaking to somebody new in this interview, expect similar questions. Dont assume youre safe just because someone asked you about a topic in a previous interview. You will probably be asked again.7. Review the job descriptionWhile were talking about know ing what theyre likely to ask I want to mention another place to get clues about what to expect: the job description.This is one of the most important parts of any job interview preparation checklist. Go read the job description and see what they mention most often, and what they emphasize or mention first in the bullets and requirements.Those are also things youre likely to hear a lot of questions about, so practice those topics the most!Now, The Most Important Part Of The Interview Preparation Checklist8. Prepare for the common questionsEmployers ask a lot of the same questions in every industry. Practice so that youre not caught-off guard by anything in the first 5-10 minutes.Here is a free download of the top 30 questions to know.Questions you NEED to be able to answer if you expect to get hired:What do you know about us?Why are you job searching right now?Why did you apply for this job?Why did you choose this career path?Why are you interested in this particular job?How did you hear about this job opening?Why should we hire you?What are your strengths?9. Be ready to explain any previous job changesQuestions like why did you leave your last position? are extremely common.So be ready to explain any past job changes, layoffs, promotions, or other moves youve made either within a company, or between companies.So as a final step, pretend youre the hiring manager looking at your resume, what would they ask about your work history? Thats what to be ready for!Example: Lets say you had a Manager position, and then changed companies and became an individual contributor and no longer managed anyone. Theyre probably going to ask why.Its not bad that you made this move, but its bad if you cannot explain it. Maybe it paid more. Maybe management isnt your strength and you wanted to develop other skills, etc. But be ready to explain!Final Interview Preparation Steps10. Get your outfit readyMake sure your clothes are clean, professional and wrinkle-free.Dont wear anything distracting like big earrings or bright colors/patterns.And dress a little nicer than you think you need to.If the employees at a company wear jeans, it doesnt mean you should wear jeans to the interview. The interview is not the same as a regular day at work. Dress well! If you have any doubt, wear a suit.11. Map out how youll get thereIf youre late, you will not get hired. So make sure you know how youll get there, and prepare to leave enough time.If youre taking a train, or driving a new route, or commuting some other way to get to the interview, make sure you know how youre doing it.And if this is a very important interview, you could even do a trial-run. Make the commute a few days before the interview to make sure nothing unexpected happens.What next?Using the steps above will help you feel more confident walking into your interview, and youll make fewer mistakes that could cost you the job.Use this checklist to review before each interview. One cool thing that youll notice a s you go a lot of these steps get easier, or dont need to be repeated as you go on more interviews.As a final note:If you want to gain an even bigger advantage in every interview you go on, I put together a step-by-step interview guide with ALL my best strategies and tips in one single place. You can get more details here.