In preparation- you must try to do everything in your power to prepare yourself so when the day of the interview arrives you go in confident and most importantly relaxed. This is key. You don’t want to be too uptight because it will be detrimental to projecting yourself positively to the interviewer.
- Research the company and the industry. Make sure you know about the position you are applying for- what the company is all about as well as the success of the company. You can research this at a library through newspaper clippings or finding the Annual Reports. The annual report is actually a very good means of learning about the company and its executive. You will be able to see its structure, services, growth, its forecasted growth as well as all its financial information. You might also be able to find a lot of this information on the internet. Go to the company’s website and do a search from there.
- You might also want to find out as much as possible about the interview methods of the company or organization. Is it a one on one interview. Are interviews at this particular firm formal or informal? Are you being interviewed by a panel? Are there other candidates in the room with you?- You might also want to try and find out who it is that is interviewing if it is a one on one interview . Knowing their name and proper pronunciation of it is key. Know what position they hold within the company.
- If you are interviewing for a position in an industry that comes to recruit on campus every year (i.e. Investment Banking, Management Consulting), ask your peers who might of interviewed with them the preceding year, to give you their honest appraisal of the interview as well tips on what they were looking for. It is unlikely that from one year to the next the interview style would change dramatically. This way you can have a feel of what to expect.
- You can prepare yourself with practice questions- give yourself a mock interview. Practice until you are at ease with what flows out of your mouth. You do not want to sound too rehearsed during the interview but you want the answers to flow smoothly and confidently when asked. See our interview questions section.
- Make sure you are able to answer about what skills you can bring to the company during the interview.
- At the end of the interview you will certainly have questions to ask the interviewer. Make sure to have these questions thought out in advance so that you sound on the ball when asking them. By having questions, it shows the interviewer(s) that you are sincerely interested in the job and in the company. Yet be careful- ask general questions about the company’s thoughts of expansion, or the long term goals of the company, or how they see the department evolving in the next few years. Try and stay away from questions about salary, or benefits. This will all come up in due time during final round interviewing or when an offer is made. You do not want to jump the gun.