This is Part-One of a series on preparing for a job interview.

"They All Laughed When I  Submitted My Resume For The Job. But Then When I Got  Called For The Interview, The Stunned Silence Said It All..."

Okay, so you've sent out your resume and cover letter and you're still finding it hard to believe that you have been contacted by  the organization for an interview. Well, you better believe it, and by the way -  WELL DONE, you did a sterling job on your resume, excellent!

With your foot in the door - know this - party time is over, the hardest part is about to begin. We need to start preparing  for a job interview. With that in mind, I've put together a few tips here for you based on resources gathered from experts in the industry.

Firstly you need to find out every detail you can about the specific position and the employers requirements. The more you know about the actual position the more effectively you can show what you'll be able to bring to the table to benefit their organization.

Make sure you go through the job ad thoroughly, this will give you the employers main concerns or requirements.

Practicing your introductions.

The first 30 seconds of your interview are critical, more decisions are made to hire during the first micro moments  than the entire combined interview.

Go over your introduction until you become so familiar with it that it comes naturally and you feel comfortable with it.

As silly as you might think or feel about this, you will thank me later for talking you through it. Don't think about it, just do it:

Practice opening a door entering a room and confidently offering your hand while smiling and introducing yourself. Remember the details like... using your left hand for carrying, leaving your right free for the handshake.

The Interview.

Practice your responses to interview questions. However, don't try and commit them to memory. Your responses must sound and feel natural. Having previously thought through ways of adding value to your potential employer, will make it easy to come up with new ideas and examples of how during the answers your provide.

Knowing the answers to the 3 most critical interview questions  will give you an advantage so great some will consider it unfair.

The three questions are:

1. Why do you want this job?
2. What do you have to offer?
3. What else do you need to know?

Take these questions very seriously, there is more to them than meets the eye. Quite frankly it would be worth writing them out and practicing them with friends and family  until they roll off your tongue sounding and feeling completely natural.

1. Why do you want this job?

You need to realize and understand that employers are not just looking for available bodies to fill a vacant position, but want someone who can add something valuable and fresh to their business.

How the heck can you convince an employer of how you can deliver this unless you know in detail what your potential employer actually does. Find out everything you can on their business, in a sense become...one of them.

So, can you see how when you know the answer to the question "why do I really want this job" you will be able to convincingly answer important questions like...

"How did you become interested in this field?"
Or...
"Why did you submit your application to our company / organization?
Or...
"What are your general career interests?
Or
"what do you see yourself doing in five years?"

2. What do I have to offer?

Your potential employer is asking himself, why he should hire you or put another way "what's in it for me".

Understand their reason for asking these questions is to find out who you are and what you are capable of in terms of benefits to their company.

* Being prepared to answer these questions effectively means going over and over, your previous and current experiences at work, school, and in volunteer activities.

* By doing this you will have a mental list of your accomplishments.

* Come up with challenges you've faced and how you managed and dealt with them

* Think about times you have had to problem solve and pushed through to victory.

* Look at mistakes you have made from the point of view of valuable learning experiences.

3. What else do I need to know?

One of the famous last questions is often...

"Is there anything you would like to know about our organization or the job?"

Tell them "No" and you might as well have said "I am not interested in your organization, I have no idea what's important to me in regards to employer / employee relationship and to top it all I lack confidence and assertiveness.

Questions to ask about the job...

* What is the salary range for this position?

* What are my opportunities for advancement?

* Do you have a training program and if so please could you describe it to me?

* What is the size of the department / branch / section?

Questions to ask about the person you would be working for...

Who would I report to directly?

How long have they been with the company?

What is their background?

Well,  that's it for tonight  - I am tired and going to bed.I hope you enjoyed this post and gained some helpful insight from it... If so - please feel free to pass it on to a friend or two... Give me a shout in the comments, I'd love to hear from you, let me know what you think so I can write more on what you need to know.

Thanks again
Jerry Pohn

P.S look out for Part-2  of "Preparing For An Interview" next weekend. Subscribe to my RSS feed or receive my posts via email by clicking the email link near the top of this page.

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