About this Interview Preparation Guide

In this Guide, you will find out how to succeed in the interview phase of your job search. By the time you are called into an interview, you will have already defined what you have to offer to potential employers, and will have written about your background in your resume and cover letter. This Guide explains how you will use that information in the interviews that follow. You'll be pleasantly surprised at how effective you can be at selling yourself once you understand how the process works.

Introduction

Interviews with an employer vary in degree of formality or style, but most follow an unstated series of stages. The employer and you will exchange information, ask questions, form impressions of each other, reach conclusions, evaluate the experience, and make future plans. Some of this occurs as open conversation, but the rest happens quietly and independently.

To better understand the job interview, think of it in comparison to a social situation in which you're meeting someone for the first time – a person with whom you may wish to form a friendship. Either situation might be described like this:

You begin with small talk to "break the ice" and in this way to develop impressions of each other. Next you exchange information about yourselves, your experiences, your interests – trying to establish a common ground and form mutual respect.

Questions are asked and responses given. On the basis of all this conversation, you independently form conclusions about the suitability of continuing the relationship. You suggest a time to talk again. Then you leave and review the experience.

If you project the attitude of wanting to do your very best, of putting yourself forward as the person who will be committed and dedicated to fulfilling the other person’s needs, you increase your chances of being the one chosen. Whatever happens, you’ve learned something to apply to similar experiences in the future.

Interviews are very much like these first meetings with potential new friends. In the final analysis, a job seeker has to be qualified in order to get a job, but there will always be other people who are also qualified. James E. Challenger, President of Challenger, Gray and Christmas, Inc., says “In the end, you will be hired because the interviewer personally likes you the best. Many interviewers will know whether or not they like you the best within the first five minutes. As a result, that first impression is vital.”