We were all new grad’s once. We all had to say goodbye to nap time (all the time) and three day “work weeks” aka. class for two hours a day with a hard stop on Wednesday afternoons, when we called it quits for the weekend. Our four years of undergrad are over and it’s time for the real world. It’s time to kick start our career and make something of ourselves. Having gone to Bentley University, a business school located just outside of Boston which immediately started teaching me about the power of networking and how important it is to gain real work experience while still in school, I felt like I was prepared for work and life post-college graduation.
As an undergraduate, I, like many of my peers took on internships, campus jobs, and went on many, many interviews. I quickly learned that interviewing is not only very time-consuming but also quite nerve racking especially during the early stages of our career. I easily interviewed thirty times over those four years, some started as phone or skype interviews and led to in-person’s while some were group interviews right off the bat with three or four executives working hard to weed the “weak” candidates out and fast. Whichever form they take, interviews are stressful but the one and only opportunity we have to shine in front of a prospective employer.
After experiencing my fair share of interviews, attending workshops, and meeting with my career counselor once a month for roughly 36 of the 48 months of my college career, I learned a great deal about interviewing. Becoming a good interviewee takes a lot of practice which means we must be coach-able. We must be coach-able, open to feedback and increasingly self-aware and committed to our personal development.
Best Tips I have ever received and continue to implement in interviews:
1.) When discussing your previous work experience, align those experiences and the skills you have gained with what the job description requests from its future employee. There is a reason why you applied to THAT job. You knew you had prior experience that would enable you to complete the day to day responsibilities of this open position. However, too often when asked about our work experience, we just ramble on and on about what our day to day were at previous companies without tying it back to why we are so perfect for this particular job. Of course, the interviewer probably knows what the job description says but they will be more impressed if you make the direct connection yourself. Just like how you would re-write a few words of your resume to match the key words found in the job description to increase the likelihood that your Resume is tagged as a potential match in the company’s system (how it works with some electronic submissions), YOU MUST SPEAK KEY WORDS. Speaking key words will just make you sound that much more qualified.
2.) Think before you speak. Pause, Breathe and collect your thoughts. Why do we feel as if we have to answer the interviewer’s question within milliseconds of them finishing the sentence? We don’t get extra points for coming up with a response and answering in a minute or less. Rushing to respond can be catastrophic and more often than not, it leads to word vomit. You may start talking and a minute or so later forget what the question even was and how you are going to tie what you are saying now (what am I saying?) back to that question (what did you ask me again?). Take a moment to really listen to the question. Then, take 5-20 seconds to gather your thoughts before responding in a clear and concise way.
3.) Have good questions. It’s important to brainstorm questions before the interview to not only show that you have done your homework but to show that you are invested in learning more about the organization and all that it has to offer YOU. Employers like candidates who are curious and want to hear more about the organization- the culture, the day to day responsibilities, where can the company improve, is their room for growth, is the company growing? etc. because they want you to make sure that you have bought into the idea of working there just as much as they have (if they see you as a fit, of course).
4.) Always ask about next steps. Be a closer. This has always been hard for me, especially early on in my career. I feel like entry-level candidates and those of us who are 1-3 years out of school have trouble with this because we feel as if we don’t have enough experience or leverage to ask if and what the next steps are. It’s as if we are SO incredibly grateful for the interview opportunity and the chance to lock down a big person JOB, that we forget about what matters most at the end of the day: our time. It is important to know what to expect. No one likes sitting in their own head filled with doubts and unanswered questions. We waste time replaying the interview over and over again and asking ourselves what we should or shouldn’t have said or done. The great thing is we never have to. As the interview is coming to an end, end with any one of these one-liner “what should I expect for next steps in the hiring process?” “what is the next step for consideration?” or a less direct way of putting it “where do we go from here?”
5.) Make outside connections, personalize it. This also relates back to “Doing your homework.” If you are given the names of the people you will be meeting with beforehand, look them up! Go to Linkedin and see not only what they do at their current firm (the firm you will be interviewing at) but see where else they have been. What other organizations have they worked for? Have they worked in any other states or countries? How about clubs, activities, language skills, certifications, and boards they may be a part of. Where did they go to school? What did they study? These are all good pieces of information to use for the interview and in your follow-up thank you notes to each interviewer. With that being said, it is important to NOT over do it. You walk a very thin line between “hey, this person did their research and wanted to know a little more about me- that’s cool!” and “wow, this person is creepy and kind of weird.”
During the interview, say something like I saw that you used to work at X company, I interned there one summer, knowing how that company and this one operates, what makes this company a better company to work for? OR, Hey, I saw from your Linkedin profile that you studied abroad in Barcelona while you were at X university, me too! What did you love most about Barcelona? Things like this. They lighten up the mood and are pieces of information that you can include in your follow-up thank you notes which will make you stand out and help the interviewer remember you. As you know, they just met with 5+ interviewees who will most likely be sending the typical and boring “Thank you for your time and consideration” email to follow-up.
Side Note: Remember to send each individual interviewer at the company a personalized Thank You Note. They should never be the same even if you feel as if the discussions you had were similar.