ALUM-TO-ALUM CAREERCENTER EVENTS STAYCONNECTED ALUMNICOUNCIL NEWS MEMBERBENEFITS

FIND A JOB - Interviewing

PREPARE | Schedule | The Interview | Follow-up

Anyone who's been there can tell you - it's a bad idea to go to an interview unprepared. It's just not enough to have a perfect resume and striking qualifications. You've got to be ready to talk confidently about your skills, to ask interesting questions, and to speak intelligently with your interviewer about the company.

Getting ready requires a bit of time and work, but when you're sitting face-to-face with your potential employer, you'll be able to hold up your end of the conversation - and you'll be much more likely to get the job. Further, by learning about the company, you'll find out whether or not you actually want to work there!

Know Your Resume Your interviewer will ask you all about the work, school, and life experiences you list on your resume. Make sure you know and can remember the following things

• All of your job titles, the start and end date of each job, and the duties you performed for each.
• The start and end dates for organizational, volunteer, and academic experiences. The requirements or responsibilities for each.
• What you did during "gaps" in your resume. If you took some time away from work or school, think about what you did during that time off. Were you traveling? Spending quality time with your family? Whatever you were doing, be sure you remember and can talk positively about the experience.

Your potential employer will also ask you specific questions like "Tell me about a time when you acted as a leader," or "What are your greatest strengths?" You don't have to be stumped by questions like these. You can draw from job, school, and life experiences to come up with interesting and detailed answers. Here's how:

• First, take a look at all of your resume entries, including jobs, volunteer experiences, professional activities and advanced degrees or certifications.
• For each entry, try to think of a time (or times) when you accomplished something that made you proud. Perhaps you settled an argument between your peers? Maybe you worked long hours to finish an important project, helped train a new coworker, or came up with a great new way of doing something.
• Write down each story - even the ones that don't seem very important at first - and include as many details as possible. Think about the kinds of skills and strengths your stories demonstrate. Did you act as a leader? Did you take initiative, show creativity, or exceed your boss's expectations?
• Keep these stories in your memory bank. When your interviewer asks you to describe your skills and your strengths, you'll be ready!

What about other tough questions, like "Tell me about your weaknesses?" You can learn how to answer more interview questions below:

Answering Those Questions It's essential to prepare yourself for interview questions before you even get there. When you've thought through and rehearsed your answers, you'll have a lot more to say during the interview. You'll also ease some of your own tension and avoid rambling on and on. Show your potential boss that you can handle a tough question or two!

• First, find out the most commonly asked interview questions.
• Next, learn how to answer the tough ones. When an interviewer asks you to talk about your strengths, for example, you can use well-thought-out stories based on job, life, and school experiences to answer intelligently and honestly. For many interview questions, think PAR:
• Problem: Talk about a time when you were faced with a problem, like a deadline, a hard project, or a difficult situation with a classmate or co-worker.
• Action: Tell the interviewer all the actions you took to solve your problem. Did you work overtime, come up with an imaginative way to get things done? Did you keep the peace and get everyone to work together? Tell them exactly how you did it, and tell them which of your strengths you used (like people, communication, time management, or creative thinking skills).
• Results: Describe the positive outcome of your situation. Maybe you met your deadline against all odds, or ended up bringing your classmates or co-workers closer together. Maybe you and your peers got a terrific grade on a very difficult project

Want to know how to answer when they ask you about your weaknesses? You can find out how to answer other tough interview questions by checking out our list of common questions.

• Learn how to answer questions concisely. Think through possible questions and answers, and rehearse your responses so that you won't have to go fishing for them during an interview. If you ramble, interviewers figure that you don't really have a good point to make. Have your own honest answer, and get to the point quickly.
• Watch out for words like "um," "like" and "you know." These are space fillers, and they tend to sound unprofessional.
• Practice, practice, practice answering those questions! By doing practice interviews with a partner, you can only get better at answering the hard ones.

Do Your Research Before you go to your interview, you must find out everything you can about the company. Your interviewer will expect you to know exactly what the company does, makes, buys, or sells. You should also know about the company's mission statement and goals, who its competitors are, and any current news about the company. Knowing this information shows your interviewer that you've worked hard to prepare for the meeting, and that you're truly interested in working for their company. Not knowing it makes a candidate look unmotivated and unprofessional.

First, look on the company's website. You should be able to find the company's mission statement, usually located in an "About Us" section. Read that whole section and learn as much as you can about the company's purpose and its future goals.

• Also check the website for any recent news about the company's accomplishments.
• Go online and find your local newspaper's website. Go to the site's "search" box and type in the company name to find recent newspaper articles. Check the article dates to make sure the news is current.
• Join a trade organization in your field. By becoming a member, you can get access to lots of current literature and news about your company and its competitors.
• Talk to professionals in your chosen industry. These can be employees of the company or its competitors, or perhaps former professors. They might also be the industry professionals that attend Johnson &Wales University job fairs and career conferences, so be sure to attend those!

When you find an interesting piece of information, write it down. Keep all your company facts and details in one place, like a spiral notebook, and use it to come up with questions to ask your interviewer.

What else should you know before going into an interview? Find out the average salary of someone in your target job, the hours and days that they usually work, and the kinds of jobs you could be promoted to if you do well.

Prepare Questions for Your Interviewer What's the best way to show your interviewer that you really want the job? Come with questions! What's one of the fastest ways to blow your chances? Tell the interviewer you don't have any.

Preparing good questions shows that you've really researched the company and want to work there. It also demonstrates that you'll be a curious, self-motivated and hardworking employee - just the kind they want to hire.

What kind of questions should you ask? Show interest in the company itself by asking questions based on your research. Try these, for example:

• I read in the Times that your company accomplished x. Can you tell me a little more about that? =
• I read on the website that your company wants to do x in the next year. Can you tell me about the steps the company is taking to accomplish that?
• How was your company affected by the recent recession?

Find out about the job itself with questions like these:

• How will my role in the company contribute to your team?
• Tell me about the kinds of projects I'd be working on.
• Will I be working mostly with a team or on my own?
• Tell me about the typical relationship between a supervisor and an employee.

Finally, there are certain types of questions you shouldn't ask:

• Any questions that your interviewer has already answered. For example, if they have already told you all about your potential job duties, don't ask what you'll be doing every day.
• Questions about salary, benefits, or vacation time. The questions you ask an interviewer should give them the impression that you care very much about the work, not the pay or benefits, and certainly not the time off.

Practice Your Interviewing Skills When you're sitting across from a potential employer, it's easy to freeze if you're unprepared. But you can avoid that by getting lots of practice. Here's how:

• Identify the kinds of questions an interviewer will ask you. You can go to the Answering Those Questions section for help with that.
• Outline your answers to the questions you think you might hear. Think you might be asked about a certain job you've held? Maybe they'll want to know if you're a creative thinker? You can answer those questions by thinking about what you've done during your life, work, and school experiences.
• Think about how to answer problem-solving questions. Some employers will ask a candidate how they would handle a certain difficult situation. It's fine if you don't know the answer off the top of your head. What's important is that you give yourself time to think, repeat the problem, and give an answer that's to the point. This is the kind of question that really takes practice.
• Ask a partner to sit down and ask you the questions you're expecting to hear. Practice answering these, along with a few "problem-solving" questions your partner thinks up on their own. You can also get practice on your own, but it's helpful to get feedback from another person.

When you feel comfortable with your ability to answer interview questions, start focusing on the way you want to present yourself.

• Don't try to memorize your answers beforehand -- try to answer them as naturally as possible with the knowledge you've gained about yourself.
• Ask your practice partner if they notice anything positive or negative about your communication skills or body language. Did you look at the ceiling too often? Did you fidget a lot or say the word "um" all the time?
• Make a note of any problems and work on them as you practice some more. It's a good idea to do several practice interviews with a few different partners, if possible.
• Practice your small-talk skills. Think of a few things you might say while walking with your potential employer to the interview room. Traffic, the weather, or local sports news are all safe bets. Make an effort to practice small talk with several people before the big day.

The more you practice, the more relaxed you'll feel during the actual interview! The point isn't to memorize your answers, but to get comfortable with the situation.

© 2002 Johnson & Wales University. All rights reserved.