6 Tips to Prepare for Any Interview: Be ready for anything!

While I spend a lot of time on this blog discussing resumes, it is important to remember that a resume is a means to an end. Its purpose is to get you into the interview process. But what should you do after getting the call or email asking you to schedule with the employer or recruiter?

Here are six tips we gathered that you could implement today to prepare for your next AI, video, or in-person job interview:

1. Understand the industry or employment sector,
2. Research the company,
3. Learn about your interviewers,
4. Prepare responses based on the job description,
5. Have your own questions ready, and
6. Be prepared for the unexpected.

Last week we wrote that the key for success at any interview is to be prepared. This is so important it bears repeating. You would not walk into any meeting at your job unprepared, right? So why not treat an interview the same way?

Understand the industry or employment sector.

A place for you to start is making sure you know something about the industry or employment sector you are interviewing in. This will not be an issue when you are making a move from, for example, one consumer electronics company to another. But, when you are doing a career change from the government to the private sector, for example, investigate the target industry. It is likely that you have taken this step already if you are landing interviews in the new field, but if you got the call before learning the industry, now is the time to do it.

Research the company.

Once upon a time, it was a challenge to do research on the prospective employer before an interview. While it has been easy for years to get shareholders’ annual reports for public companies, getting more detailed information often meant visiting a university or main public library. Today, some level of information is available online even for closely held private companies, family businesses and small nonprofit organizations.

If you have sent out hundreds of resumes, it is possible that you do not know much about each specific employer. But there is a wealth of information available online about almost every prospective employer so there is no excuse, in our view, for walking into or Zooming into an interview without knowledge about the employer.

The depth of knowledge you will need to have depends on the kind of job and career level. For example, when you apply for a customer service role a basic knowledge of the company’s product lines, its history, and its future product plans may be sufficient. If you are applying for the job of CFO, though, you will be expected to display a sophisticated understanding of the firm’s federal SEC 10-K filings, annual report to shareholders, and any other publicly available financial information.

Prior to the Internet age, most of us did not gather information below the company level unless we had personal contacts at the organization. It is different today.

Study the interviewers.

Today, most of us have access to LinkedIn. We can and should use LinkedIn to look up the employees and external recruiters who will be interviewing us when we have been told who they are. Even if we do not know who we will be meeting, we may be able to find LinkedIn members in our “network” who work at the company. Some may be willing to share their insights if we contact them through LinkedIn.

At a minimum, you will be able to read the public profiles of employees in jobs like the ones you are applying to fill. That may give you a perspective on what employees in the job do that is not reflected in the formal job description.

Study the job description for interview question clues.

The way we prepare to answer questions during the interview has also been changing. It was sufficient at one time to prepare responses for “tough” interview questions such as “tell me about yourself?” While we should continue to prepare for basic questions, our rehearsal can go deeper based on the information available from LinkedIn and other sources. For example, most of the time, you will have a job description because you applied in response to a job announcement or posting. Alternatively, if the company reached out to you, they may have provided you with the job description.

Mine the job announcement, when available, for clues to potential interview questions. For instance, if the announcement includes a requirement for you to deliver great customer service, be prepared to discuss a time when you provided great customer service. If you have written accomplishment statements related to customer service for your resume, you need only to elaborate on these. But when you do not have accomplishment stories related to points in the job announcement, this is the time to prepare them.

Of course, job descriptions are not always well-written, and occasionally do not exist. We can look at sources of generic job descriptions online, such as ONET for clues in that case.

Have your own questions ready.

Your job interviews should be a conversation. Have your own questions ready based on the job description, your company research, and things that matter to you.

Make your questions relevant to the level of the interview. For example, the young person that makes the initial screening call cannot respond to detailed questions about the job. On the other hand, do not assume that an entry-level staff member has no role in the process. The hiring manager may ask them for their opinion later. So, address everyone you speak to in a professional manner.

Expect the unexpected.

Remember that, in most business situations, the unforeseen will occur. Perhaps the team member that was scheduled to meet with you is not there or the job description changed for some unknown reason.

Be prepared for the unexpected by having extra accomplishment stories ready. And make sure you take note of who the interviewers are when this changes so you can thank them and offer follow-up information later.

Occasionally, you may find it necessary to exit the interview process when strange things happen. For example, the “job” could turn out to be a multi-level-marketing (MLM) scheme that does not interest you. Or it could even be an outright swindle. Do not hesitate to leave when this happens, although you should only do so when you are sure this is not a legitimate job opportunity.

Concluding comments

An interview for employment is a business meeting, so prepare as well or better than you would for any meeting at work. Use online resources and your contacts in the business to learn all you can about the opportunity. Have your own questions ready for the interviewers. Most importantly be prepared for unexpected curves to be thrown at you.