A friend of a friend described his ordeals with job interviews with my friend. According to him, during his first interview, he put on casual office wears to the interview and the interviewer asked: “are you stopping by at the gym after this?” Dumbfoundedly, he replied “no”. During the second interview, he dressed more officially and the interviewer asked “are you new at this?” dumbfoundedly again, he replied “no”.
The moral of the story is that job interviews come in different forms and takes several shapes, with different people’s preference in play. Some interviewers want white, some want black but you can’t meet everybody’s expectation, however, you can pass every job interview you go for.
Sometimes, it may seem hard to stay composed after being bombarded with the expectation of suiting everybody’s style, however, after going through this article, you should have the right skills required to pass job interviews.
Some of the easy steps are researching the company, prepping your communication skills, learning the industry jargon, and preparing for the interview.
Steps To Take To Pass The Job Interview
Here are some easy steps to take to pass the job interview in flying colours. Taking these steps help you alleviate the disappointment and embarrassment of a stressful and unsuccessful job interview.
Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance
Go through the list of potential lists of questions asked in job interviews. Do not just go through them, revise them, find answers to them ensuring you relate them to relevant contexts within the scope of the job you are applying for.
Ensure your answers can resonate well with the employer. In other words, ensure that you are preparing yourself to give cogent and coherent answers to questions posed at you. Also, prepare a list of questions you will want to ask the employers as it is a common tradition for you to have questions for the interviewer in every interview.
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Connect with Your Interviewer
Asides getting to know the company, also get to know your interviewer. Connect with your interviewer in the simplest way, such as knowing the person’s name.
People are naturally disposed to people they have a bond with no matter how little the bond is. Try to acquaint yourself with the people or person interviewing you as this is almost a sure pass to getting hired.
Get to know more about the company and show them that you do
Get to know more about the company, get to know about the industry, get to know about the company’s goods and services. When you have done that, do not hide the knowledge from your employers, show them that you know about the company.
If questions, as regards your knowledge about the company, don’t come up during the job interview, chirp it in your answers, for example, if asked about how to improve customer satisfaction in a food processing company XYZ foods, you can say,
“I noticed that last year when XYZ foods introduced ABC brand to the market, there was much hype about the product because customers loved the new branded sachets”.
You can also learn from the company’s public information outlets like its website, its social media handles about the core of the company’s value, mission statements, etc. It is good to note that one way you can learn about the company is by patronizing the company if they produce goods or services you need.
Be Ready
There are little foxes that spoil the vine. Avoid those little foxes, such as; not having attire ready, not being ready for the job interview. Put everything in place for the interview, prepare the documents you will need, ensure you have planned out the right outfit prior to that day.
Ensure you have made all the plans as regards your dressing, your hair and when you want to arrive at the venue of the interview. Ensure you have made copies of your resume, you have a neat and tidy attire, you have functioning stationeries, etc.
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Be Early
It is a huge misstatement of your personality for you to be late on the day of a job interview. It tells of a laissez-faire attitude to work and in other to avoid this, it is best to estimate properly the time it takes to get to the venue of the interview.
Factor into the time all the hiccups that may delay you on the way to venue and also factor in time to relax and calm your nerve when you arrive at the venue.
Be Calm
Most of the tips have been about what to do before the interview. During the interview, be calm. Exude confidence during the interview, this will be easy if you were well prepared for the interview. Let your body language speak confidence and assurance that you know what you’re saying. Here are some dos and don’ts in the interview room:
- Maintain eye contact with your interviewer.
- Pay attention to the question, ensure to note make mental notes of the question. Be an active listener.
- Never interrupt your interviewer especially when he/she is in the process of asking a question. Be calm.
- If you are unsure of your answer and you need a moment to think, it is better to stay silent than to mumble “ums” and “uhs”.
Keep in Touch after the Interview
Learn to always follow up with your interviewers after the interview.
Try to send a thank you note to each of your interviewers if you were interviewed by multiple persons, and also include details you may have left out in the course of the interview. It was discovered that 80% of the hiring managers found it nice to receive a thank you note after the interview.
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