Preparing for your job interview

By the time you get an interview call, the interviewer is already 20 per cent sold by the background, skills and training on your resume. It’s all about how effectively and convincingly you package yourself for the interview that determines if you get selected or not. You have to become the candidate the interviewer is looking for.

It’s key to keep improving your job interview strengths. First, you need to have a thorough understanding of the position. Read and re-read the job posting. If you were one of the select few who had the opportunity of a mini-phone interview before the face-to-face interview, you should have asked any questions about the position which you were unclear about. It’s handy to have a list of possible questions about the position with you when you apply just in case you do get a phone interview.

The next part is to predict questions, develop answers and practice answers. You’re probably thinking: how can I predict an interview question if an employer can ask one of many possible questions? It’s impossible. If that’s what you think, you’ve given up before even trying.

Generally, most questions are geared towards the role you will be playing, what results the employer expects to get from you, the environment in which you produce results and what characteristics the organization prizes most in their employees. In essence, you have to turn your existing experience, qualifications and attributes into proof that you match the ideal profile of the job. Instead of listing redundant attributes, it’s best to provide stories, narratives, and examples of how you displayed the characteristics and achieved proper results at your previous job. So, it’s useful to have stories and examples which will answer the interviewer’s question convincingly.

Once you have your stories or examples ready, you’ll have to learn to become proficient in telling your stories to the interviewer. You’ll have to train yourself to answer questions naturally and organically.

You may want to have a friend or family member do a mock interview with you. Ask the person to jot down your responses so that you can evaluate them later. Your goal is to tackle each interview question and turn it into a chance for an ideal career.