Preparing for the Interview
The interview is your only chance to make a favourable personal impression with the employer. You have already made a favourable written impression with your resume and now you have been selected to come in and meet with them in person.
Basic Interview Tips
- Arrive 15 minutes early. Plan ahead & allow lots of time for traffic, finding the address, a parking place, the correct office in the building. Better yet, check out the location the day before to discover these details.
- Dress appropriately. This is a formal business meeting. Dress for the meeting, not how you think people might dress to do the job. If you want the job, dress conservatively in business attire, a suit (skirt or pant suit for women); wear clean, neat shoes, a moderate hair style, day makeup (not nightclub makeup); with a minimum of jewellery. You don't want your clothes, hair, jewellery or makeup to distract the employers from what you are saying about yourself.
- Take a folder containing pen, paper, 4 or 5 copies of resume, 4 or 5 copies of References page. It's a good idea to have questions written down beforehand, and it is okay to jot down notes during the interview. If appropriate, take examples of relevant work. (See Portfolio information.)
- Know something about the company before you get there. Look them up on the web, in Scott's Business Directory, or even the telephone book to have at least some information about their business, service, products, market area, size, competition, etc.
- Shake hands with the interviewer(s) and maintain eye contact throughout the interview. This is not always comfortable with strangers, but keep your head up, and look at the interviewer(s) while answering questions.
- Be prepared to answer questions about yourself. This isn't as easy as you might think. You know everything there is to know about your education and experience, but have you practiced answering questions in a coherent and positive way? You will be asked questions that might lead to a negative sounding answer. Don't dwell on the negative, but practice turning any answer into a positive by telling what you learned from... or the skill you developed through... or the understanding you acquired from... a certain experience. Everything in your resume is material for questions. Practice saying the answers out loud so the words are ready and the answer is smooth. Think about the skills required for the job, and think of at least 2 examples of how you have used those skills in real life. This way, you will be prepared for any question.
