Impress at your job interviews with these simple steps!

So you got a job interview?

An interview can either make or break a career opportunity.

Here are some tips on how to prepare yourself for the job interivew and leave a great first time impression with the recruiters, and hiring managers sitting across the table while being in the hot spot! So from my experiences here are some tips to conquer your interview and leave a great mark with your pontential new employer from start to finish!

Being a recruiter and interviewer myself I have come across some amazing candidates who gave away some great first time interviews, and landed their dream jobs. I also practice these job interviewing skills myself when it comes to learning on how to interview with my potentital managers for future opportunities. Now everyone has a different styles of interviewing candidates but majority of the time it is important for the candidate to come fully prepared to a tell a story of their career journey so far or where they want to go with their professional life. This is why when employers start asking you questions, it is important to walk them through your resume and your experiences including your transferrable skills. Another strong tip I advise everyone is to learn more about their role and job description prior to going in for the interview.

1. Know your Resume and Yourself!

Best way to a conquer an interview is walking in with confidence, knowing yourself and what you bring to the table is very important. Secondly, knowing your resume by heart is also really helpful. Understand and ask yourself why do you make the best candidate for this role? Because the recruiters will ask you this question! Make sure to come preprared with your portfolio, with extra print outs of resumes, cover letters, references, credentials, schools documents such as degrees or certificates and licenses if your employer requires proof. Always make sure to send your employer an electronic file of all your documents prior to starting the interview as well. Another important fact to know about yourself is your strengenths and weaknesses. Talk about your strengths and acknowledge the hiring managers that this is the reason why you would make the best candidate for the role. With your weaknesses indicate how you have been working on them and what you have done so far to help improve your weaknesses.

Additionally, share your passion with the recruiters! Ask yourself what motivates you? Why did you apply to this particular job? Why this company? These questions will pop-up in the start of the interview, if you can answer them even before interviewing that's a plus!

Moreso, practice your 30 second elevator pitch during the introduction of the interview, if the interviewer does ask you the question "tell me about yourself?" or "what brings your here, and why are you interested in this job or company?". Make sure to include your top selling points in the pitch, while staying natural, spontaneous and maintaing your energy levels. This will help you make the best possible impression. It should be a quick and a concise introduction about yourself, but make sure to leave a strong impression. Recruiters will notice on how you present yourself when they put you on the spot! All of these questions are asked by interviewers to gain a better understanding of the candidates level of confidence and why they applied to their company. Prepare yourself for questions like "where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?", "what are your long term goals?" all these questions will help the recruiters determine if your a fit into their team or their potential long term growth plans they may have planned out for their organization.

2. Research!

First and foremost, before even attend the interview, do your research! Yes, research about the company, and your potential counterpart employers or interviewers. In a era of technology, go ahead and learn about the company's history, where the organization is headed towards business, and the pontential competitors or challenges the company may be facing. Gain a good understanding of the company culture, work environment and values. This will not only allow you to get a better understanding, but you will learn if this is a company where you see yourself investing your skills in, and growing with the organization on the long term basis. If you get hit by the question "so what do you know about our company?" be sure that how you answer this question will make a difference in how the interviewers view you. If you have done your research they will get an impression that you have done your homework, and that you are invested with high level interest.

3. Make Connections!

Additionally, if you can connect with your recruiters on LinkedIn and learn about their position it will help you get a better understanding of their position and experience level. This knowledge will automatically help feel more insightful and at ease; knowing you have done your research. Likewise, connecting with your interviewers prior, will give you the ability to easily engage during the interview. During the interview, be at ease and make personable connections with the managers! Afterall, these are the potential partners you may end up working with in the near future, so be comfortable and get to know them as well. For example, if there is a chance to the start talking about your passions outside of professional work such as hobbies, extracrriculars, and volunteer work this will not only give an impression to the employer that you are a well rounded invidividual, but that you can be someone easy to get along with, be adaptable to the environment and be flexible.

4. Prepare for Behaviourval and Situational Questions! Practice Practice Practice!

Based on your profession you are most likely going to be asked behavioural or situational questions. The difference between behavioural and situational questions is that behavioural questions target the candidate to provide examples from their past work experiences, such as "describe a time when you were in a stressful situation at work and what actions did you take?" This enables the interviewers to get a better understanding of what actions you took and how you generally behave. Best way to answer these questions is to demonstrate how you took the action to resolve a problem, or how you intiated a task with a positive outcome and indicate what you learned from this situation at the end of the result. The best way to answer behavioural questions in an interview, is like story telling by using the STAR method. On the other hand, situational questions are asked to put candidates on the spot during the interview to get a better understanding on how an individual would work when presented in a particular case or scenario in a work setting. Situational questions are asked to identify how a particular person would take intiation to challenges and any problems that occur at work, during hard circumstances. Based on the candidates response this enables the hiring managers to make a good analysis on making the hiring decision later on, and whether if they would like to move forward or not.

Use the STAR method to answer the questions with examples!

Situation - describe the situation, (problem) or a potential task

Task - the task, duties initiated to solve the problem

Action - actions, taken that helped resolve the problem

Results - what was the outcome of solving the problem, and lessons learned

As a summary, always practice your job interview questions before you go into the interview. Know your job inside and out, to help you answer the questions easily. For an example, if your are going in for an IT Analyst or Electrician job make sure to know all of the credentials, and possibly even research about the particular job related questions.

5. Presentation, Body Lanuage, Timing and Tone of Voice!

Be aware and stay present throughout the whole interview! Body language and maintaining a good posture when you enter a new employers building is as important as when you are interviewing in the boardroom. How you present yourself when you first walk into the building, to the way you shake your hand with the manager and to the way you greet the receptionist all leave a strong impression. Believe it or not, your probably being observed that whole time! Make sure to greet everyone with a smile and a positive attitude. On the day of the interview be on time! Arrive atleast 15 minutes early before the interview, not too early or late. Make sure you have your schedule prepared, or even the commute time prepared so you do not arrive late, incase of traffic or other reasons.

During the interview, avoid any kind of distractions, or any fidgety movements. Keep your hands on the table to ensure that alertness levels stay up, sit up straight, use clear and concise wordings and be present in the moment. Please make sure to turn off your cell phone during the time of the interview, and do not make the mistake of chewing gum during an interview. Give your full attention to the interviewers! Lastly, do not wear any heavily scented prefumes because someone in the room can have allergies. Additionally, use proper grammer, and pronunciations avoid any negative words, or slang. Also avoid badmouthing your previous employers, instead demonstrate what great experiences you might have gained from your last position. Moreover, steer clear of any current controversial topcis such as, news or politics because everyone has their own views, opinions and bias. Lastly, dress to impress, make sure to dress professionally and maintain a presentable look on the day of the interview with your clothes, groomed look and hair.

6. Ending Questions!

"What makes you stand out from the rest of the candidates?" This is a general ending question, employers want to know if you do get this position, what do you bring to the table and if you can fit into the company culture/values. Companies will also look for how an individual will help drive their business to a larger scale. Whether that is financially or creatively via marketing. So do research on the company, inregards to their outsourcing clients, competitors, current business deals, potential future plans and how you align with the organizations future goals! We live in a time where companies want knowledgeable dedicated engaging team players, so be open to sharing your insights!

7. Now Ask your Questions!

At the end of the interview, your off the hot seat! Now it's your turn to ask questions! Asking job related and insightful questions shows the employers that you are indeed interested and want to invest your time for a potential second interview or next steps to the job application itself! It also displays how much you know about your job and potentially how you can contribute with your skills.

Here are some great examples of questions you should be asking at the end of the interview to get a better understanding of the role itself.

1. What are you looking for in an ideal candidate, that would make a new hire successful in this role?
2. What are the day to day responsibilites? Ask about the potential new projects you may get to work on.
3. What does the training timeline look like upon being hired into this role? How fast would they like the new employee to pick up in this role? Potentially in a 30 or 60 day mark?
4. What are some challenges in this role? What can the new hire do to help ease these hurdles?
5. Where do you see this company going in the next couple of years or potentially how is this company expanding?
6. How would my role in this company help the organization grow and develop?
7. What are the company's values? What characteristics do you look for a in a new hire?
8. What are the potential growth opportunities in this company?
9. Why is this new role open in the first place?
10. Ask about if there are any groups or committees at the workplace, you can get involved in!
11. What would my team comprise of, and who would I be working closely with?
12. What is the management style of the direct manager I would be working under?
13. Please explain your experience so far with the company and what has made you successfull in your role? Ask about their insights to the company.
14. Are there anymore further questions you have for me? If not, what are the next follow-up steps?

*DO add any job related questions as well at the end, to help expand your knowledge!

8. Ending Remarks!

Before leaving the interview make sure you have another hand shake, and say "thank you" to everyone for their time and for giving you the opportunity to interview. Also make sure that you walk out the same way walked in; with a positive attitude! Including when your signing out of the building at the reception and even to the security guard; leave with courtesy! Leave a positive impression!

After the interview, make sure to follow-up by sending a Thank you email or a Thank you card!