Preparing for an interview should be the most important aspect of a career. In fact it is so important that you should always prepare for an interview, no matter the stage you are in at the particular point in your career. However, it even becomes more important when you are a first timer, fresh out of college with no professional experience whatsoever to boast about. It doesn’t really matter whether you have had a lot of experience from going from one interview to the next; the following tips on an interview should help you out in that decision. At first glance, you would need to thoroughly impress your examiners in such a way that they would give you the job without further hassles and fretting.
The first thing you should note is this: an informal interview is a myth! There is nothing like that, and there is even a fatter chance of a cow being male than there is of an informal interview being actually informal. So, be wary of such words as “since it is just an informal interview, you may come just as you are no worries.” Take it from the professionals: there is nothing informal about an interview. There have been cases where interviewers have employed alcohol to single out the best person for their vacancies.
It cannot be overemphasized that adequate preparation is actually the key to achieving success in your interviews. If you want to be noticed in the crowd of job seekers, then you need to prepare so you outshine others. It is not hard these days to do your homework and come up with information about the companies you are considering. If you log on to the web sites of these large companies, you can find their data. However, if you are working on getting an interview with a small firm, then you might find that the internet would give you what you want.
Yes, the internet might be the first stop, but it is not the only stop. There are other available points to consider such as:
- You may check out the business corner of your local library
- A brochure from the company itself might be accessible. All you would need to do would be to place a call to that effect.
- You might just decide to travel incognito, come in as a customer, get a feel of the general atmosphere and pick up a few pamphlets as souvenir.
Once you have gathered these kinds of forensic data on the companies, some likely questions to be posed by the interviewers may be posed in your mind as well. So, you must ensure that you write these down. Also, write down some questions that you might want to ask your interviewers during the interview process.
Also, In a standard job interview session, your interviewers might want to know more about your person or just to have an idea about your personal skills. In this case, there are two kinds of skills; The most popular of these skills are the soft skills and the hard skills. The hard skills are those skill that are acquired through learning such as writing skills, supervisory skills and any other practical skills. On the other hand, soft skills are a little harder to discern but could also give you an edge in the interview process. Some notable of these soft skills are the listening and teaching skills. So, in all you should ensure you are well balanced and fully equipped with all necessary information regarding your personal skills as this could be the comparative advantage you might need to land that job of your dreams.
