Job Interview Preparation 101: From How to Prepare to What to Do
Job interview preparations could be a nightmare for many. After all, the interview itself is really stressful and your stress levels rise to the top when the time for the interview comes really close, as when you are doing your final preparations. But don’t worry, we have got some interview tips and tips on job interview preparation so that you can be more confident in yourself the next time you take a job interview.
Job Interview Preparation: Before the Interview
Our first step involves the stages before the interview happens. As we have talked about, the moments leading up to the interview itself are the most stressful ones for many. That’s why it needs to be taken care of detailedly and should be sorted out for one to have a piece of mind about the interview itself and be confident in the meeting. Our first tip is picking proper clothes that you can wear in the interview. Job interviews are all about presenting yourself as nicely as possible without steering too much from the reality of yourself. That’s why you should present your appearance at its best. Usually, more classical outfits like suits for men and a nicely decorated shirt and skirt combo for women can do the job just fine. The only thing you should be caring about will be not going over the top or going too sloppy. It’s an easy hit-or-miss scenario where you don’t want to steer too much away from the general consensus on how one should dress up for the occasion. But job interview preparation doesn’t end with clothing only. The more important part comes in your speech and overall communication. That’s why you should check what kinds of things companies like the one you apply to ask their candidates in these interviews. You should be ready for all sorts of questions that can be about your experience, your capabilities or your CV, so you should consider all of these areas as homeworks for you to study so that you don’t swallow your tongue when the interview starts. In a sense, you should study yourself like a topic so that you can present it, it being you, the best way possible. Also, one last pro interview tip is speaking with people before you enter the interview room. Speaking and interacting, just like many other things, needs to be warmed-up. That’s why talking with a janitor in the building or other interviewees before you enter can help you warm-up and set your tone to be more confident there.
During The Interview: Body Language
Our next interview tips are going to be about body language. We decided to divide the ‘during the interview’ part as physical communication and spoken communication are two different things. And because of this reason, what both types of communications you convey matters a lot. Firstly, both of these communication mediums should convey the same message. If your body language fails to be as confident as your words, you can be sure that you will miss your opportunity to present yourself the best way possible. So, having just touched on confidence, let’s start from there. As you might have guessed, you need to be confident in the room. But there is a nuance to this. See, most people confuse confidence with overconfidence and as a result of this, they fail. Being confident doesn’t mean being cocky or too over-the-top. You just need to be calm and assured. That’s it. Your body shouldn’t be stiff, it should be in a pose where it is relaxed but not too much that it can look irritating, and your bodily manners, namely your hand movements and gestures, should be present but not too much. And effective body language communication is one where you are in control of all parts of your body and you use them when needed. In your job interview preparation, we suggest you check some body language tips so that you know what to avoid and do. Also, a pro interview tip that we can give is mirroring the interviewer’s body language. Most people, when their physical actions are mirrored, feel a connection with the person that is in front of them. Our subconscious brains are perfect in picking up clues like these, so you can take advantage of them with tips like these.
During the Interviewer: What and How You Speak
Lastly, we want to touch on what and how you speak. Most interview tips give you meaningless sentences to utter without caring about the contexts, but here we are not going to do that because, to be honest, nobody knows what can be spoken in that room. No matter how much info you have on the types of questions that can be asked, you will still be answering spontaneously, so stop worrying about what to say. What you can improve on is how you say what you say. Like we have mentioned, you have to be calm and collected in order to show your confidence. You can do this by speaking in a clear, audible way that is not too fast or slow. Also, you don’t want to stutter or say things that you didn’t mean to, so that’s why you should always take a brief moment to think about your answer before speaking it out loud. If you follow all of these steps we have mentioned, we believe that you can do the best job possible in the interview. Good luck!