Interview Preparation: A Few Things To Keep In Mind

Do you know how to be prepared and confident about an interview session? The difference between procuring your dream job and bombing your interview round very often depends on the important key element - how well you have prepared.

This is not possible to predict every single question that might be asked. But this is advisable and possible to admit in the interview room with a solid sense of approaching every question which is expected!

Above all, that is the entire reason why we built the bellwether ‘The interview preparation’ – we know there is a demonstrated set of steps to take.

There are some important things to be done as a portion of your preparation which will help to make you confident and leave your interview room with a worthy feeling that you have presented your 100% potentiality in front of the interviewers.

HOW TO BE PREPARED FOR AN INTERVIEW:

Step 1: Research about the company

Doing thorough research about the company for which you are applying and putting head and shoulders above this competition. When you go for the interview with very firm knowledge about the company and your potential job role which you will fill, you will be capable of answering all questions in a much targeted and tailored way.

Before walking into your interview, you have to know a few particular required things include:

1.    The Product

Know the products which your company promotes. Here, you need not to understand every aspect which the company is making. But distinctly you need to have a basic idea about the primary objects of this company like sells, and values.

If possible for you, get a few samples of the products to comprehend how it is valuable from the viewpoint of a consumer or customer. The more knowledge you have, the more would help you to serve at the time of interview.

2.    The Role

Read the job description heedfully, being very sure about understanding those duties that will be presumed from your side. While you understand your job role perfectly, this will help you to ask thoughtful questions during your interview session and give the idea of how your work day will be relating to the given tasks.

Be pretty sure to catechize for any type of clarification. So that, you can be much confident to have all the information needed at the time you will be given a job offer.

3.    The Personality

At present all companies use social media platforms to keep updated which focuses on the industry culture. Be aware of those materials as the way of researching the tone and personality of that company. It gives you an accurate idea about the workplace culture. If you have questions about the workplace, you need to jot down them to be asked in the interview session.

Step 2: Make Self Awareness

Self-awareness is one of the significant competencies to have in your workplace. Spending the few time in thoughtful self-analysis about career choice will held up you important aspects which you give value in your working life. With this, you should know that your values have to be aligned with your corresponding employer to bring a pleasant work life for you.

Step 3: Be ready with answers to common questions

Though it has been seeing that many interviews consist of ill-reputed awesome questions like, “Greatest weakness?” with little preparation, there is nothing to be frightened. It is pivotal to be specific, honest and succinct with your replies, but not to over think it.

There are some of the job interview questions that undoubtedly come across in your job interview – regardless of your expertise level, your industry as well as job type.

At the zenith of this list, the most harrowing typical and universal question is; “Tell me about yourself”. And this question will give you the chance to make the first impression on the interviewer.  

After greeting and shaking hands, you all have faced this question already. This might be easy for you but they do not want to hear the monotonous statement with every little detail of your life. Only they want to know about your job role and career growth. It will be better not to use any type of slang or informal word also at this point.

Many of the candidates hate this question as they try to decipher the right answer but they fail to satisfy the interviewer with their reply. This question is a nice opportunity to like you. Instead of reciting your resume, try an enthusiastic concise response that put the interviewer in the picture.

The second common question is “what is your strength” or rather “why will we hire you?” While they ask this question, they really want to know how much positivity you have. You need to inform them about your positive quality. Before heading towards the interview, you have to introspect if you are new for this round. It will give you the opportunity to advertise yourself. You may tell also some of the attributes which we are listing following:

·       Punctual

·       Diligent

·       Team-leadership ability

·       Ambitious

·       Focused and Confident

Please be serious on this case otherwise your words sound like fake and confusing. It may also be like that you are memorizing something which will put a question mark about your character.

If they ask you about your weakness, you should not say "what! I don't have any weakness". We all are a human being. So we definitely have weakness but you have to represent your weakness as a positive attitude as you can say, “aggressiveness”. This quality sounds bad but really needed for team building quality. Sometimes it will also show your consciousness about yourself.

The other most common question of this round for the experienced candidate is: “why did you leave your last job?” Answer of this question should be little offbeat. This time your body language should be perfect and you should not tell something like problems with your higher authority or any negative quality of yours because it can turn down all the hope.

Your answer for all such questions will always be from the viewpoint of your career, skill and personality growth as it has already been said earlier.

Above all, it is recommended that you have to rehearse all these types of questions regularly. It will bring confidence in you so that, at the time of interview you do not feel nervous or confused.

Step 4: Location of Interview

Although an interview is not nerved cracking enough, yet you will keep in mind that you have not gone before to interview place. So, this makes you nervous easily. To avoid anxiety and becoming harried due to shuttling before the interview place, you need to take some precautions before you travel – leave early and keep time in hand to avoid unexpected events on your way. With this, you need to take required contact information, so that you might contact them having not found the perfect location of interview. It would be much better to look up at that location before one day of the interview.

Step 5: Keep all required documents

After all this, the most important thing, not to forget, is to collect all the materials like copies of resume, photocopy of all other documents, pen along with the most valuable, enough cash. Always keep one copy of resume for discussing your work experience. If your CV or resume has any kind of oddities, you should be prepared for this with perfect explanation in an unbiased way. In this case, you have to be honest but diplomatic. So, you need do much practice as well as planning which can assist you.

Step 6: Jot down important questions you may ask

Whenever they ask you whether you have any question about the organization or not, your answer should be always yes. This manifests your inquisitiveness about your work and workplace. It will also motivate them and grow up interest in you. You may also ask some questions like –

·       What are the next steps during the interview process?

·       What have you found best while working for this company?

·       What are the biggest challenges/opportunities in front of the company right now?

·       Day to day responsibilities etc.

Apart from all, you should be professional, calm as well as polite from the time you are entering. Before entering the interview room, you can do deep breathing exercise which will keep you confident, relax and calm. It is all enough! 

Job interviews need not be scary. Just keep in mind first impressions count, consider before your address, and illustrate your immense English skills and furnish awesome answers to win that job. GOOD LUCK!