Best Interview Practices

By Teri Grimes

We all know that interviews can be intimidating for the average person. What really helps to calm you nerves is having a solid plan in place for exactly what you’re going to do before, during, and after the interview. Most plans should look something like this:

BEFORE: Arrive about 10 minutes early. Don’t be any earlier than that, and don’t get there really early and sit in your car until you can go inside. People will probably see you in the parking lot and think you’re really creepy. When you do go inside, greet the receptionist and let them know the person that you’re interviewing with. If you have an email correspondence or something from the interviewer, it may be a good idea to print it out so you know their name and title exactly before you accidentally make yourself look unprepared. When the secretary asks you to take a seat, make sure you have good posture when you’re sitting down and you aren’t acting like the waiting room is your own living room. You can sit quietly and review your resume or portfolio, but occasionally look up and notice your surroundings. When you’re waiting in the lobby, you’re still saying something about who you are as a brand.

DURING: Once the interviewer arrives, make sure you have a firm and confident handshake. You don’t want to be giving a ‘princess-kiss-my-hand’ hand shake, that creeps people out too. Keep in mind that a good interview should sound like a conversation and not be so one sided. Make sure you do your research so you can ask good questions, and constantly prepare yourself for what they might ask you. Be prepared for how you may react if they ask you any ‘illegal questions’ such as your health, religion, politics, etc. and know how you want to answer them. Come up with about five points ahead of time that tell stories that highlight skills relevant to the job description. You can even write these all out so you really have it memorized by the time you get there. Practice active listening by rephrasing the question in the answer. If you don’t know the answer, admit is, but then try to connect it to some other relevant skill that you have.

AFTER: Thank them for their time, shake hands again, and ask about the timeline or next steps before you hear back from them. DO NOT ask about how much the job pays unless they offer that information already. Follow up the interview with a thank you note or a thank you email within 48 hours, and try to be specific and mention something that you and the interviewer connected over. Anything that you had a good conversation about, bring it up again and help them to remember which candidate you were. Don’t be afraid to follow up with them again if they haven’t reached out to you and the deadline has already passed. If you hear back from them and you didn’t get the job, be polite and feel free to ask suggested areas of improvement.

Hopefully with this plan in place, you can enter your interviews confident and ready!