Congratulations, you got an interview
This is fantastic. You’ve passed initial scrutiny. At this point, the company thinks you are qualified for their job.
Why are you interviewing if you are qualified?
You are interviewing because dozens of other people are also qualified. It is now your job to sell yourself as the best candidate to hire out of dozens of other candidates.
How can you prepare for your interview?
Read “101 Great Answers to The Toughest Interview Questions” by Ron Fry.
This book covers all the bases in an easy to read format. From what to wear to an interview to what non-verbal cues you need to watch out for to what question you should ask your interviewer. This book is so good that I should delete this section of the website, but I’ll keep the previously written content.
Prepare good answers to common questions asked by recruiters
Note that recruiters are the Human Resources person whose job is to attract candidates to job openings and filter them out as quickly as possible. If you don’t know what an interviewer’s job title or operational responsibilities lie, feel free to ask them what they do. You’re not meeting recruiters to impress them on interview day, you just need to NOT get filtered out and to get interviewed by your future co-workers and hiring manager.
Therefore, answer clearly and honestly but reserve your big sales pitches until you actually meet your future co-workers or hiring managers. Prepare for these questions by reading the book above or use Google to search for common interview questions.
Prepare good answers to common questions asked by future peers and your hiring manager
While it’s possible that common questions would be asked by your future co-workers and hiring managers, candidates for highly specialized positions would likely be asked very specialized questions, for example, looking for a software engineer position at Google would likely be asked “coding questions” where you will be asked to solve a problem by writing a solution in a computer language.
Prepare yourself by:
- doing Google searches for that kind of interview (e.g. “coding interview questions for Google”)
- perhaps even take a course to learn how to solve the problem, a coding interview bootcamp
Once you have figured out a good answer to questions, always create elevator pitches with your answers.