Whether you’re newly graduated and headed for your first big career move or you’re taking a step forward toward your dream job, a good interview can really improve your chances of landing a new role. Here are WTI’s top 10 interview tips for landing your dream job:
Do Your Research
Be sure that you know as much about the company as you can find. This is going to help you feel calmer and more comfortable as the interviewing team talks about their goals and the role you’re interviewing for. It’s also essential that you understand the job and are prepared to identify what you have to offer. Being able to insert what you can add to their company and team will pique the interest of an interviewing team, and being able to provide specific examples to support any claims you make will go a long way in solidifying your chances.
If you can, check LinkedIn to see if you have connections employed there, and do a little research that way. A current employee is going to offer you unique insight into the company and what they’re looking for in a candidate.
Practice
Practice, practice, practice! Most likely, you’re going to be thinking about the interview anyway, so you might as well go ahead and run through scenarios in your head officially. Think about how you’ll introduce yourself as well as what stories and experiences you want to focus on.
By practicing the points that you know you want to get across to the hiring committee, you will alleviate stress by running through the scenarios, and that will help you feel more relaxed during the actual interview.
Rest Up
Physical, mental, & emotional preparedness is essential, and you’re not going to have the wherewithal to withstand the stress if you’re running on empty or getting by on caffeine fumes. Be good to yourself the evening before the interview and give yourself time to breathe and sleep.
Pay Attention To Your Body Language
Communication is 55% nonverbal, so pay attention to your body language, including your facial expressions. Whether you’re slouching, fidgeting, or sitting too rigidly, you’re communicating. Be sure that you practice how you’ll sit down and figure out a comfortable position for you to place your hands and position your legs and feet. If your hands are shaking take a moment to tense different parts of your body and then release the tension to release the overdose of adrenaline you’re feeling. This is going to help you calm yourself and appear much more relaxed even if you’re shaking on the inside.
Be Specific
When you’re asked for your strengths, weaknesses, and what you can contribute to the team, be prepared with specifics. Giving general personality traits doesn’t really resonate with a hiring team. Specific examples will.
Don’t Give In To Temptation
Your interviewer might appear to be very casual. Don’t give into temptation to match their level of comfort. They are evaluating you the entire time you’re with them. They can be casual because they’re not being interviewed. Be sure to keep your attitude and responses professional while still playing up your soft skills.
Plan How To Present Experience
If you’re breaking into a new industry, you might not have a ton of experience. That doesn’t mean you can’t have answers about experiences that have prepared you for the role. Plan to have some alternative answers for work experience questions by emphasizing your soft skills, the classes you’ve taken, and how other work experiences have paralleled the one you’re applying for.
Use Pauses
If you can’t think of an answer right away, don’t start rambling! Give yourself time to calm your nerves and think about the answers to tough or unexpected questions by pausing for a minute. A minute is not that long, and really, once you give yourself permission to take a couple of deep breaths and think, you’ll probably think of something much more quickly than that. Taking a moment to gather your thoughts is better than searching for the answer while you spew nonsense. It’s okay not to know answers to everything off the top of your head.
Be A Careful Listener
By actively listening, you’ll have an opportunity to develop intelligent questions you can ask based on what you hear when the interview team asks, “Do you have any questions for us?” Bring pen and paper with you to the interview so that you can jot down your questions and don’t have to remember them. Let’s face it; you’ll probably forget them if you don’t write them down! Additionally, listen to the entirety of each question first before you start thinking about what you’re going to say. The last bits of any question could end up changing the trajectory of your answer.
Think About Your Closing
Your closing is very important. This is your opportunity to make sure you leave the team on a positive note. Practice what you want to say at the very end of your interview. What impression do you want to leave them with? By planning ahead, you’re going to be able to leave the interviewers with your planned impression rather than a random response.
Washington Technical Institute
If you’re not ready for an interview yet, but you are ready to enroll and start working on a plan for the personal and professional benefit of working toward a new career, Washington Technical Institute’s fully online certificates can be completed in a matter of months, with daily or bi-weekly start dates. Such flexible start dates make these programs unique and much more accessible for our students. Most of our certificates can be earned as a self-paced program, meaning that you can work at your own pace to complete your work, even finishing early if you have the time and motivation to do so. An additional benefit of WTI’s programs is that we offer affordable pricing and monthly payments to help our students leave school without debt.
Although our goal is to help our students graduate their programs with little to no debt, we also recognize that some students might need to utilize a loan for their educational investment. We are excited to announce our partnerships with Climb Credit or Ascent, student lending companies focused on financing career-building programs.
If you’re ready to enroll and start working on a plan for the personal and professional benefit of professional development, you can register for your program online through our website. Still have questions about our programs? Feel free to call us at 800-371-5581 or text us at 952-465-3702. Our admissions specialists will be happy answer whatever questions you have.
