Jennifer Tardy: Hey job seekers.
Jennifer Tardy here on the Career Success Channel.
I am your career success coach, and today I'm going to teach you all about your interview
preparation checklist.
Follow these tips and learn exactly how to slay your interview.
Stick around through the very end, because I am going to share with you my favorite segment,
which is the career success bonus tip for UPs.
If you don't know what UPs are, it's for underrepresented groups.
Check it out.
You don't want to miss it.
Step number one: Gain an overview of the hiring process.
I tell this to my clients all the time.
When the recruiter or the manager contacts you to say, "We'd like to invite you in for
an on-site interview," it is completely acceptable for you to ask questions like who you will
be interviewed by.
You can even ask the interviewers' names and job titles.
Sometimes they'll tell you.
Sometimes they won't.
How long will the interview last?
What type of interview will you have?
Is it going to be a one on one interview?
Will it be a panel interview?
Is it going to be a behavioral interview?
What type of interview is it going to be?
The more you know, the more prepared you can be.
This is also a good time to be able to ask, "What are the steps after this interview?
Are there any other on-site interviews, or is this the absolute only one?"
Step number two: Research your interview team.
Did you get the name and the job title of the person who is going to be interviewing
you?
If you did, this is an excellent time to go to LinkedIn and to see if they have a LinkedIn
profile.
You can go and Google to see if they have a bio somewhere.
This gives you a way to get to know the people who are interviewing you so maybe you can
find some sort of common ground.
Now, maybe they only gave you a job title.
Job titles are still good.
Job titles can tell you at what level someone's coming in to interview you, and so you can
prepare for how complex that interview may be.
Another way to use the job title as well is again to go to LinkedIn.
You can look at that employer's company page.
Any employee that they have that has a profile will be listed under that employer's page.
Look for that job title.
Step number three of your interview preparation checklist.
In order to slay your interview, always, always, always research the company.
What is their mission?
What is their vision?
What are their values, objectives?
Do they have a diversity statement?
It's looking at websites like Glassdoor to see what other job seekers are saying about
the organization to see what former employees are saying about the organization, to see
what current employees are saying about the organization too.
Glassdoor is a valuable tool.
By researching the organization, you come in prepared and equipped to answer questions
like, "Well, why did you decide to work here?"
You're able to say, "Oh, well, I found great things or great reviews on Glassdoor," or,
"I am very aligned to the mission."
Now you're coming in equipped, and some interviewers, because I know that I used to do this, will
ask you what you already know about the organization.
Be prepared.
Do some research on the organization.
You need to.
Now, side question.
What if you went out to Glassdoor, and you saw some negative reviews on the organization
that you're interviewing with?
What would you do?
Tell me in the comments section below.
Now we're moving onto step number four.
In order to prepare for this interview, you need to get your resume narrative down packed
which means that you need to study your own resume.
You need to be able to answer questions like, "Why did you decide to pick the degree that
you have?", or, "Why did you leave this one organization and go to the next organization?",
or, "What did you do in this job?", or, "What did you accomplish?
Did you get any recognition for something on the job?"
You need to be able to practice your resume narrative so that if anyone asks you anything
about that experience that you have, you're able to easily answer that.
Now, wait.
Are you starting to feel a little nervous?
Please don't.
There's nothing to be nervous about.
As a matter of fact, I have a video that can help you to relieve your nervousness.
Just you see that?
You see that little card at the top?
Go ahead and click on it.
It's a video that I created in the past on how to let go of interview nervousness.
You need to check it out.
It's a good video.
Don't be nervous.
You're too awesome.
Now we're onto step number five.
Practice answering common interview questions.
It's questions like, "Why should we hire you into this position?", or, "What are your strengths?",
or, "What are your weaknesses?"
You know many managers that's a go-to or default question for them.
If you already know this, why not go ahead and practice those questions right now?
Another way that you can practice those questions besides just looking in the mirror is practice
with some of your friends and family.
That's a very informal way of practicing, which is still fine.
They can give you feedback, but also there are loads of people in organizations that
do mock interviews.
Do some mock interviews.
That's a more formal way of practicing, especially if you're in college and on college campus.
Go to your career services center, because you can do some mock interviews there.
I forgot to tell you something.
I have a free downloadable pdf for you in you want to know 25 of the most common interview
questions and answer.
You're going to see some tips in there specifically targeted toward underrepresented populations.
Check it out.
It's in the details section.
Click on the link.
Go get your copy so you can practice this step.
I have another side note for you.
Do you want to know how you can have a more conversational, natural flowing interview?
Check out this video.
I have a video on this already.
Go look there.
I said that at the end of this video I was going to share with you a career success tip
for UPs.
Here goes.
Look for proof of diversity while you're prepping for this interview.
You want to make sure that the company you're going to believes in inclusion.
Companies can show proof of diversity on their website with a diversity mission statement.
They can show proof through affinity groups or employee resources groups created for employees
by employees.
They can show proof of diversity by looking ... This is something that I personally look
at myself.
I look at their most senior leadership team.
The chiefs and even the board of directors.
I want to see how diverse the leadership team is.
Now that you have your interview preparation checklist so you can slay your interview,
now you need to start prepping by answering some of those common interview questions that
I'm giving you.
Again, go down to the details section.
Click on the link to get your own free pdf copy of these common interview questions and
answers.
Let me leave you with one other question.
How do you prepare for your interviews?
If you have a unique way that you prepare for your interviews, I want to know.
Talk to me in the comments section.
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Tell some friends, and as always we appreciate you.
Jennifer Tardy, your career success coach.
I will see you in the next video.