hey what's up guys so today we are gonna
be focusing in on how to ace a job
interview and I'm gonna be giving you 10
tips that you can use to make sure that
you're on the hiring managers shortlist
by the time you walk out of the room but
before we get started I do want to
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to five hundred five hundred to get
started first up on our list is to do
practice interviews and you actually
have a lot of opportunity to do these
when I was a college student at Iowa
State University throughout my four
years every single year when the career
fair would roll into town there will be
actual recruiters that would come to the
Career Center and offer up their time to
do practice interviews with any student
that signed up for one now these
interviews weren't real interviews but
they were real conversations with people
who were hiring managers or HR people at
companies who are going to be at the
career fairs so in addition to being
good practice for future real interviews
they're actually good networking
experience with people who might be
making decisions in the future but the
main benefit of these types of
interviews is that they are great
practice for the real thing because an
interview is inherently a nerve-wracking
experience so if you have some time to
go in and do practice interviews where
the stakes aren't so high you're gonna
be able to come into the real thing with
a lot more confidence and a lot more
polish
tip number two is to be as friendly and
engaged as you can with everyone you
interact at the company now I don't
think people are going into companies
and being downright rude to the
secretary or telling people that they
don't want to talk to them but a lot of
students will go into a company and if
there's a little bit of time to wait
before the interview they'll just kind
of sit in the waiting room and stare at
their phones and I can tell you from
experience that people who aren't the
hiring manager still do observe the
behavior of potential candidates and
then they talk to those hiring managers
and a lot of companies the hiring
decisions don't come down to just the
people that you interview with a lot of
times they're going to ask anybody who
talked with the potential candidate if
they have any objections so if you come
into a company and you have a few
minutes before the interview spend some
time talking to the person at the front
desk or if they're busy at least be
really polite greet them ask how their
day is going and then sit down and do
your waiting also don't walk into the
building wearing headphones just don't
tip number three on our list come
prepared with questions for your
interviewer now you might think that an
interview is just a situation where
you're supposed to answer the
interviewers questions because they're
figuring out if you're the best
candidate for the job but don't forget
that you're trying to figure out if the
job is right for you as well
additionally come into the interview
prepared with your own questions tells
the interviewer that you are engaged
you're interested in the position and
that you put in a little bit of
preparation well you might think that
having no questions makes you seem like
you know everything and maybe that's a
good thing what it actually does is it
makes the interviewer wonder if you're
apathetic about the position and if
maybe you're just doing it for the money
one question you should definitely keep
in your back pocket is what
opportunities for advancement or
additional duties am I going to have at
this company the great thing about this
kind of a question is it tells your
interviewer that you are willing to be
adaptable and flexible and you're
willing to learn new things and that is
a great quality to have in somebody that
you are employing if you're a business
owner
related to my third tip on asking
questions during the interview tip
number four is to research the company
before you walk into that interview room
once again this shows a level of
preparation and dedication that a lot of
other candidates aren't going to have
and it's gonna help you stand apart now
I know what you thinking what kind of
research am I supposed to do Tom well
you can do a little bit of preliminary
research on the history of the company
and its business but you really want to
understand what the culture is like what
people tend to do there and what your
intended position usually entails now on
the general position and duty side there
are tons of websites in the internet so
I recommend just googling what does a
network engineer do for example but for
the individual company you can use sites
like glass door and vault to get reviews
from actual employees and get a little
bit of a feel for what the company's
culture is like alright we are on to tip
number five which is to bring a notebook
and a pen to the interview with you
doing this is yet another signal that
you are dedicated and detail-oriented
because you're able to actually take
notes on the details of the position
during the interview but it also allows
you to come prepared with some
pre-written notes about the company's
history or any questions that you might
have you should also bring a couple of
copies of your resume just in case it
becomes useful during the course of the
conversation and if you happen to be
applying for a position where examples
of your work would be useful bring those
along as well during my last couple of
years of college before I became a
full-time entrepreneur what I would
bring to an interview is this leather
pad folio which had some resume copies
in it it had some notebook paper and a
pen in it and I also brought an iPad
that I would keep inside of it which had
screenshots of my web development work
and a little bit of a side note here I
made sure that had screenshots on my web
dev work because in case the company
didn't have Wi-Fi I wouldn't have been
able to load the actual websites
tip number six that's seven six send
thank-you notes or thank you emails
within 24 hours of your interview I
would say thank you nodes or thank you
emails because in my mind time is of the
essence here and in a lot of cases it's
pretty difficult to get an actual
physical handwritten note to your
interviewer especially if the building
that you went to the interview in is far
away from where you are so in those
cases that thank you email works pretty
well but if you happen to have the
ability to give an actual handwritten
thank-you note and it's within 24 hours
or maybe within 48 hours at the very
latest then that can actually add a nice
touch it should also be noted and yes
that was a pun that you shouldn't limit
your thank-you note to thank you emails
just to the interviewer if you
interacted with a secretary during your
time at the building or you actually got
to go tour the building and talk to
somebody doing a job that you would be
doing send those people thank you emails
as well it really goes a long way tip
number seven on our list is to wear a
well tailored suit to your interview
assuming that you need to wear business
formal attire now I do have to make a
slight admission here ever since I
bought myself a suit that actually fits
well unlike the one that I had in
college which definitely didn't fit me
like a tarp I've leaned towards
recommending an actual suit to go into
interviews rather than just regular
business formal attire but if you don't
happen to have a suit and you can't
afford one you can definitely wear a
button-down shirt with a nice tie and a
nice pair of slacks if you're a girl
there are definitely dresses that fit
that business formal requirement or you
can do something like a dress skirt but
in general you want to make sure that
you are dressed for success in this
situation now one exception to this
recommendation is if you are
specifically told not to wear a suit or
if they tell you what to wear to the
interview if you're going to a company
that has a really casual dress culture
and they say hey just show up in a
t-shirt and jeans man don't show up in a
suit because you're gonna look like you
won't fit into that company's culture
now in the case you don't quite know how
a suit should fit or you're looking for
some additional tips on how to dress
well for an interview I definitely have
some recommendations for you guys as a
guy I learned a huge amount of what I
know personally about how to dress well
from my friends Aaron Marino an alpha M
and Antonio Centeno over at real men
real style and I do also have to give a
shout out to a guy named Sven Raphael
Schneider who has a channel called
gentleman's Gazette and that is much
more focused on formal business attire
and how to do it correctly so that is
also a great resource for women I am
definitely a lot less knowledge
but I did find a youtuber by the name of
El Florence who has a lot of videos and
had a dress for work and interviews so
definitely check out her channel and if
you are a woman or you know of great
resources for women definitely leave
them in the comments down below
tip number eight is to be prepared for
behavioral interview questions these are
the kind of questions to ask you to tell
a story about your previous work
experience that demonstrates how you
handle the situation and what you
learned and improved on some examples of
these kind of questions include tell me
about a time when you're in a
high-pressure situation and how you
responded or give me an example of a
time when you didn't meet a goal that
you had set and how you dealt with it or
tell me about a time when hordes of the
undead attacked your workplace and what
items from the breakroom you fashioned
into makeshift weapons okay maybe not
that one though
Martin make a note to ask the next
person we interview that question
so the best way to handle these kinds of
questions is look at examples of them
beforehand and to think of stories from
your past working life that would fit
them and crucially the stories you pick
should be crafted in a way that
demonstrates how you've learned or
improved in some way that's relevant to
the job now keep in mind that you don't
need a specific story for every possible
interview question that could come out
because one that is impossible and two
when you have a few stories and you've
practiced them they're going to be
pretty adaptable and you're gonna be
able to apply them to a wide range of
different questions all right we are on
to tip number nine which is actually my
personal favorite view the interview for
exactly what it is a conversation
between two parties who have things to
exchange the reason this tip is on the
list is because a lot of students go
into interviews feeling like they're
going into like an audience with king
louis xiv or something and they're gonna
be granted a job because of the mercy
and benevolence of the almighty king
that's sitting across the table from
them and that's not the case remember
companies put a lot of time and effort
and money into attracting the best
possible talent that's they live and die
by so believe that you are the best
possible person for the job and let that
be communicated in the interview don't
be arrogant or cocky but be confident
finally our last tip on lists is that 15
minutes early is on time and on time is
late here's the thing you want to been a
buffer time when you walk into the
company's doors just in case they happen
to be ready for you right now you don't
want to be coming in 30 seconds late
because you got stuck in traffic plus
showing up a little bit early makes a
really good first impression and it
gives you an opportunity to potentially
network with the person running the
front desk or some other people at the
company before you go into the interview
so those are my top 10 tips for helping
you to ace your next interview though
the interview is only half the battle
the best way to ensure the year that
hiring managers number one pick is to do
everything you can to be building skills
and experience that set you apart from
the competition and if you want to learn
more about why that's so important and
how you can use an experience based
mindset to eventually find work that you
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