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The Interview

The Interview

Making The Best Of Yourself At Interview

You are just about to leave university You are just setting out in the job market You have a number of hurdles to get over before you have the job you have been dreaming of. You find the thought of an interview daunting. You want to make a good impression and succeed!Creating a good impression at an interview isn't rocket...

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I agree with most of it but there is a great deal more if you really want to impress a perspective employer. When I conduct a interview, I am looking for flaws and strengths. If you let me control the entire interview, I will have time to find both. If you actually ask some questions and make it interactive, in general, I am not going to get to everything I want to ask and unless the questions are rediculous, I am going to be impressed. So know the following:

Find out about the company you want to work for...who the competitors and how do they do it. This knowledge impresses managers. They love to talk about where their business ranks.

Have a general understanding of the job before you go in and have some questions ready about it. They may answer all of them when they describe it, but if you can ask a good question that they didnt mention you will get bonus points. Depending on the business...asking about how they handle waste streams in the business can usually get someone talking about how things work.

Do not ask a whole lot about benefits, holidays and overtime. You probably can gleen some answers to this by asking in other ways. Ask about being on call or how off-shift is handled (if they have offshift).

See if you can get a list of people you will be interviewing with and titles. Use this to set up questions for each of them. Ask them about their job progression (it can give you a good insight to mobility within the company and what paths might be available to you once you get the job).

They are going to ask you about yourself, so know what you are going to say. I wouldnt do it word for word, but bullet points are easy to remember and help you give an answer smoothly. Be ready to answer questions about :

Work hours
Overtime
Transportation
Your History (why you quit certain jobs in the past, what was the hardest problem you solved and how did you solve it, why do you want to leave your current job)
Your Future (where do you see yourself in 5 and 10 years, why you want to leave your current job)

If you are just out of school, you need to stretch that resume to make you look like your experience is more. Take the jobs you have done and look for qualities that might not seem obvious from the job. Such as a Assistant Fast Food Manager, you might note that this job required things like: Managerial Skills, Inventory Control, Conflict Resolution, etc...