3 Tips to Ace the Interview
1. Smile
Wait what? Smile? That is the leading advice I am going to give you. You did come here to find tips to ace your interview. Hear me out, don’t stop reading just yet. Yes, smile! Be overly cognizant of it. Practice smiling the week before an interview. When you catch yourself not doing it, do it! Driving in the car, walking down the street, watching TV… when you make a conscious effort to smile your whole face lights up and your demeanor changes, you soften. In turn, you become more approachable and warmer towards others when you do it. A simple reminder to smile has the opportunity to change the vibes around you and smiling really works in an interview.
**My follow up advice…take this tip with you on phone screens, into the workplace, and into your personal life daily as well!
2. Be Self-Aware
Have someone who knows you well ask you about your strengths and weakness. Make sure this person doesn’t mind calling you out if your answers sound canned and cliché. If and when they call you out, take their advice and put your ego aside. The interviewer isn’t going to call you out and give you a second or third chance but they will see through a canned response that doesn’t give depth to who you are. The benefit of this exercise allows you to have a candid conversation about areas you need to improve and what you can do to improve them (Interviewers enjoy hearing about this) while also really assessing our strengths and remembering the positive impacts you have had on others in the past.
3. Do A Little Homework
Don’t forget to do your homework. I feel like this shouldn’t need to be mentioned but I also feel that with the job market heavily in the candidates favor, some candidates are getting lazy about this. I don’t totally fault you, but if you want to stand out and impress your interviewers, spend time understanding the business and understanding the role you’re interviewing for. Take time to mention what you’ve learned and then ask pointed question about the company and role. This really paints a picture for the interviewers that includes you in the role and don’t you want to paint that picture for the interviewers? I will secretly share that interviewers DO take notice about who has and hasn’t done their homework.
I could go on and on but I think these are three useful tips and some low-hanging fruit to help you ace your interview and stand out from the crowd. If you have any other questions, contact me directly!
Amanda, thanks for sharing!
My question is, if you are being self aware, and there is no second, third or forth attempt to impress once the interviewer sees through the normal weakness/strength cliche’, how do you salvage the interview? What can a self aware person do to bring the interviewee back to them and save the interview?
Bring the kennel with you on the interview
On addition to doing your homework let the interviewer know that you did your homework. On a recent interview I told the interviewer " I hope you don't mind but I looked you up on linked in" and then made a flattering comment or parallel on his career. If my memory serves me right it was that we both went to the same college. I ultimately didn't take (or further pursue ) the job but was called in for a second interview.
I haven't read the article, but I assume that the tips must be about bringing a super cute dog that'll make everyone like you better by association ;)