While landing a job interview is exciting, preparing for it can be stressful. To make the process smoother, we talked to tech and business professionals — from software engineers to recruiters — who shared insider tips on what to do before, during and after a job interview. Who knows? Their advice may just help you land your dream job.
How to Prepare for an Interview
- Research the company.
- Carefully read the job description.
- Rehearse answers to common interview questions.
- Practice active listening.
- Think through your outfit and travel logistics in advance.
How to Prepare for a Job Interview
1. Research the Company
Before your interview, look for information on the company’s products, services, values, mission, management team, board members and recent company announcements. Those can be found on company blogs, white papers, news articles and podcasts.
“If you spend an hour or two reading these, it gives you an idea of who we are and it goes a long way to show you’re interested in us,” Dermot Williams, senior director of engineering at cybersecurity firm BeyondTrust, told Built In.
Reading company reviews on Glassdoor is another way to prepare for a job interview. That may offer information on what prospective and current employees have to say about job interview questions the company may ask.
Review a company’s website and social media posts. That may give you ideas of how you fit in or add to the company’s culture, Leena Macwan, a principal recruiter at Zynga, told Built In.
2. Examine the Job Description
Carefully review the job description and start thinking of ways your experience and skills align with it.
“Memorize a couple of bullet points from thejob description and match that to your experience, where you can connect it to a strong example that demonstrates that skill,” Rachel Amos, director of career services and employer relations at Carnegie Mellon University, told Built In.
For example, a startup notes in its job description it’s looking for a software engineer who is comfortable working in an ambiguous environment with a lot of demanding deadlines. Let’s say you worked in that type of environment in your previous job and thrived. Point that out to the interviewer and provide data or information to back it up.
3. Learn About Your Interviewer’s Background
If you know who is interviewing you, look up their LinkedIn profile, read their blogs and social media posts.
“Use that information as an ice breaker to start the conversation when you meet them,” senior Amazon AWS in-house recruiter Zafar Choudhury told Built In. “You can say, ‘I read you did a TED talk last year or I saw you did a cybersecurity presentation.’ Hiring managers love it because it shows you’ve done your due diligence and homework.”
4. Practice the Required Hard Skills
LeetCode and HackerRank were among the tools Bill Bruschi used to prepare for his job interview at Amazon, where he was hired as an AWS software development engineer. He said the examples used were very accurate to what they found in the coding tests he took.
“It’s important to think out loud so the interviewer can hear your thought process and you’re encouraged to ask questions,” Bruschi added. “You’re really working with the interviewer to solve the issue at hand.”
5. Prepare Answers to Common Interview Questions
In the course of an interview, you’ll be asked several questions about your experience and skill set. Here are some of the most common interview questions to think through ahead of time:
- Tell me about yourself.
- Where do you see yourself in five years?
- Tell me about a challenge you encountered and how you solved it.
- What’s something you worked on that you’re proud of?
When considering your responses to interview questions, use the STAR methodto structure your answers:
- Situation: Set the scene.
- Task: Describe what you had to do.
- Action: Explain what you did.
- Result: Discuss the outcomes of your actions.
6. Consider Questions to Ask the Interviewer
“When a candidate has no questions ... it says they’re not curious,” Marvin Lopez, director of student programs for the University of California at Berkeley’s engineering student services department, told Built in. “It tells me they haven’t thought about the organization, haven’t thought about the position, they’re just going to come in and do what they’re told.”
Below are a few good questions to ask the interviewer:
- What are the day-to-day responsibilities of this role?
- What are some traits that a candidate needs in order to be successful on this team?
- Can you tell me about the team’s culture?
- Can you tell me about this specific company value?
- How does the company recognize these values?
7. Conduct Mock Interviews
Find a friend, family member or colleague to do a mock job interview and rehearse answering questions onwhy a company should hire you.Conducting a mock job interview provides an opportunity to receive feedback on your body language when answering questions. Do you fold your arms across your chest, or avoid eye contact in an in-person mock interview? Or are you constantly looking down in a virtual mock interview, rather than looking into the camera at the interviewer?
8. Practice Active Listening
To prepare for your interview, work on engaging in active listening when responding to an interviewer’s questions.
“I’ve had cases where I asked a question and the candidate will go on to a whole other place I didn’t ask about,” Santina Pitcher, associate director of counseling and programs at the University of California at Berkeley, told Built In. “In my head, I’m thinking maybe they just pivoted because they had no idea how to answer the question or, on the flip side, they weren’t listening.”
9. Print Copies of Your Resume
Print two or three extra copies of your resume to bring to the interview if you’re going in person.
“I’ve seen this happen on multiple occasions where the interviewer may suddenly want to loop in someone else for a second opinion,” Choudhury said. “Wouldn’t it make you look more professional to pull a second resume from your folder and give it to us? That makes you look prepared and ahead of the game. These are leadership things we look for.”
10. Select Your Interview Outfit the Night Before
In-person interviews call for aneat and clean appearance that is business casual. A three-piece suit is too formal; blue jeans and a tee shirt is too casual.
11. Be Ready to Ask for Next Steps
When the interview is over, you’ll want to ask the interviewer how soon the company anticipates hiring for the position, rather than putting them on the spot by asking “What’s the next step?”
Within the next day or so, email a thank-you note to your interviewer.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are tips for a successful interview?
A few tips for a successful interview include conducting thorough research on a company before the interview, asking the interviewer thoughtful questions and sending a thank-you email within 24 hours after the interview.
What are the five C's of interviewing?
The five C’s of interviewing are competence, character, communication skills, culture fit and career direction.
