Interview Process
Preparing for the Interview
Before the Interview
- Create your talking points. Know yourself and be ready to identify your abilities, accomplishments, strengths, weaknesses, goals, and priorities. Create detailed examples from your past experiences to demonstrate each.
- Research the organization. Look through websites and written materials or talk with customers/clients to familiarize yourself with the organization, its product lines/services and competitors. The "About Us" section of the company website is a good place to start but you will have to dig deeper.
- Practice, practice, practice! Talk through your answers out loud or in front of a mirror. Better yet, ask a friend, family member, counselor, or mentor to give you feedback.
- Arrive ten minutes before the interview. If you arrive too early, it's an inconvenience; too late and it's over. Upon being introduced, use a firm handshake, smile, and have good eye contact.
During and After the Interview
- Listen to the interviewer - Adjust to the interviewer's style and think about why particular questions are being asked. Respond completely to all aspects of a question.
- Don't monopolize the conversation - While interviewers usually want more than a simple "Yes" or "No" answer, avoid long responses. Make your answers accurate, brief, and as interesting as possible.
- Be positive - This is not the place to criticize your school, past employers, or professors. An optimist is more useful in an organization than a pessimist. If you can be enthusiastic about past experiences, you are likely to be positive about future employers.
- People hire, not organizations - Remember, people make the hiring decisions. Your goal is to make effective contact with the interviewer.
- Ask questions - Reflect your interest and enthusiasm by asking questions about the organization and the job. This is another place to demonstrate that you researched the organization.
- Express interest - Take time near the end of the interview to reiterate excitement about the employer and the position.
- Learn what happens next - It is always acceptable to ask about the next stages in the employment process and when might they occur.
- Express thanks - Thank the interviewer for his or her time and interest in you. Thank the receptionist and anyone else who has helped you.
Source: Career Opportunities News, Garrett Park Press, Garrett Park, MD
Case Interviewing
Case Interviewing 
- a type of interview where the employer asks the applicant a set of questions ranging from mini-problem solving to a take-home problem cases. From Case Questions.com
Interview Follow-Up with a Recruiter
from Monster.com
Dressing for the Interview
The first few moments of an interview are crucial. Almost immediately, the employer begins to form an initial impression of you based mostly on your handshake, manner, and dress. As a rule of thumb always dress conservatively and professionally. Although "business casual" may be appropriate for daily wear in the workplace, such dress is inappropriate for an interview. Trying to make an impression by choosing clothes that will make you stand out is a bad idea. The interviewer will most likely remember such a candidate for the wrong reasons (such as odd colored hair or clothing). Always bring along your best interview accessory: a big smile!
- Dressing for Success In Interviewing
from Wetfeet
- Dress for Interview Success
from College Grad.com
- Dress to Achieve
from Syms
- Created by the University of Tennessee: PDF (470KB) | Word (60KB)
Know What Employers Want
Most Desirable Applicant Skills
- Integrity/honesty
- Participates as a team member
- Personal appearance and hygiene
- Critical listening
- Social/interpersonal awareness
- Responsibility
- Self-Esteem
- Writing
- Speaking
- Serves customers/clients
Source: New York State Employer Survey of Workplace Skills, conducted by NYATEP & NYSDOL.
Most Common Reasons for Applicant Rejection
- Late for an interview; lack of courtesy or proper etiquette
- Poor appearance, voice, diction, grammar
- Lack of confidence, poor eye contact, extreme nervousness
- Little enthusiasm; couldn't sell him/her self to employer
- Talked too much, rambled
- Negative attitude
- Overbearing or aggressive
- Lack of purpose or career goals
- Condemnation of previous employer
- Talked about salary
Source: Kent State University, Career Services Center
How to Use Employer Research in an Interview
Asking and answering interview questions in a prepared and professional manner is the key to successful interviewing. Before you choose to interview, comprehensively evaluate the following employer information criteria to ensure you are well-informed. You can gather a lot of this information through company literature such as website materials, annual reports, brochures, and fact sheets. Also use what you know based on conversations with recruiters or current employees you may know.
- Details, functional descriptions and qualifications of typical positions
- Hiring process and patterns, including timing, evaluation criteria, training program
- Typical career paths and employee review/evaluation process
- Introduction to employer products or services
- General starting salaries, benefits, compensation forms
- Travel/relocation expenses and regional lifestyles/cost of living
- Organizational chart/structure
Simply being informed about an employer does not guarantee a successful interview unless you can effectively use the information. Information about the employer's products, financial data, opportunities or how they impact society is only helpful if you know how to tactfully "weave" your new knowledge into the interview. This is no easy task and simply spouting facts or statistics, or prefacing a question with a lot of memorized information, is not the answer.
- Conducting Employer Search Tips
- Sample Employer Research Questions & Answers: PDF (60KB) | Word (113KB)
