Interviews are prepared for

"He will win who, prepared himself..." - Sun Tzu, The Art of War

A quote by Sun Tzu always sets the tone to the highest level. The Art of War is such an unusual piece of classic literature, it's almost comical how it fits any situation.

Of course, Sun Tzu's quote continues "...waits to take the enemy unprepared", which can be rather grim. In our case, I choose to define the enemy as ourselves. We are the one thing that blocks us from success in an interview and by preparing in advance we become invincible.

Victory here will mean we got a Yes. Defeat will mean we will have to try again. So really, not so bad after all. I think old 'Tzu would have liked those odds better than the risks he had to endure.

What do interviewers want?

Good interviewers look for an answer that demonstrates a certain behavior - a quality of character, a way of thinking, a signal of some specific knowledge or skill. They want us to demonstrate to them that we have what they need, that we tick the items on their checklist. As we approach an interview, armed with the why of our how, we must be able to deliver answers. It goes without saying that we must answer truthfully.

Our goal, as with CVs, is to make it easy for your interviewer to say "Yes - this one has the skills I'm looking for". For most people this means hard work. Let us assume you are most people and not some Public Speaking master (if you are, go ahead and skip, you know all of this already).

Most 1st and 2nd interviews for the same positions are very similar . The best answers are delivered confidently and the best professionals go into details as needed and on demand. You must prepare and rehearse or you will burn out on your first few interviews and that's a waste of time; remember you want to gain as many offers as possible.

Whatever questions you will be asked, the method is the same:

1. Write down and rehearse your answers
2. Do a little homework. Depending on the expected question, you may need to dig into old projects, recover presentations, read design documents, etc.
3. Write down your answer. When you write you take time to plan, structure, and phrase your answer correctly. You can also free-style it the first time but make sure you record your answer so you can write it down (or speech-to-text it...).
4. Rehearse your answer with people that are willing to listen to you and not laugh. Record yourself on video and watch the result, or do it in front of a mirror. As you do this you will probably want to make corrections to what you wrote (that's why it's important you do). Your answer will improve greatly with these repetitions.
5. Get feedback about your answer to improve it, either by watching your recordings, or by sharing with others whom you trust.
6. Eventually, after many many rehearsals you will be sailing so smoothly through these answers you won't even need your notes. You will sound confident, cohesive, and professional - everything you need for your audience to easily say Yes.

A note about notes: those stick around and can always be used at a later date for other purposes.

Adapt your answers in advance to the company or interviewer

Rehearsed answers will be good for most cases. However, you will probably meet someone unusual who will take you off the beaten path with a quick unexpected question about some minor detail. Usually, that question will be something like, "yes, yes, very impressive, but why did you pitch your idea to the CFO instead of the CEO?", accompanied by a knowing smile and an expectation to see you stumble.

Don't panic; adapt. Change your answer to include the necessary details that explain the context of this choice and instead of your original plan of digging deep into the idea itself, now dig into the political structure that led to this being the best choice. Your answer remained the same, you adapted its focus so that it answers a new question. This smooth change was made possible because you prepared and rehearsed.

This can be done in advance, too. If you are going to interview in a Cyber Security firm, best you arrive with a cyber-relevant project to discuss. If you don't have that, best you adapt your answer to emphasize things that cyberists would care about: application security, huge scales of streaming data, staying up to date on latest attacks, encryption ... Your answer will be generally the same, it will just emphasize different parts that are more interesting to your audience. This will make it easier for them to say Yes, as well.

Remember that in some cases you may be required to interview in English rather than your primary language. Make sure to ask before the interview what will the expectation be. It's worth it to at least do a couple of dry runs anyway.

Your answers must demonstrate a few key points in the position description

When considering how to adapt your answer, make sure you take a peek into the job description. Most of the answers will be there. You want your answer to highlight or touch on a few of the key requirements for the position. It's good to repeat these demonstrations in different answers to reinforce your skill and capability for that requirement.

The most powerful way of demonstrating a key requirement is by showing a result. When you describe a project emphasize its impact and what your personal contribution was. Describe what you did that affected the company, your team and any other metric the interviewer cares about.

In summary, focus your efforts in preparations so your interviews go easier. Practice and prepare so that adaptation on the fly is made easier. Recall that it's not the interviewer we're fighting here - we are fighting ourselves and our limitations, like most other things in life.

My next post will dig into specific questions, how I answered them and adapted them to maximum effect.