TIPS FOR SUCCESSFUL INTERVIEW

1. Be on time.

 2. Know the company and why you want to work there: learn as much as you can about the company’s mission, objectives, goals and future plans.

 3. Bring resumes: Your interviewer(s) will likely have a copy of your resume but bring spares. It shows you are prepared and serious about getting the job.

4. Dress in a clean conservative manner: Make sure you go into a job interview having showered and wearing clean clothes. If you like wearing cologne or perfume, don’t wear any on the day of interview. What is subtle smelling to you may be overwhelming to your interviewer. 

5. Don’t make jokes: Too many people think they are funny when in reality they are not. A job interview isn’t the place to test your material. Be friendly and outgoing, save the jokes.

 6. Don’t babble: When answering a question, answer the question. Don’t start out answering a question and then veer off to talk about something else. Make sure your answer directly reflects the question being asked. 

7. Don’t badmouth a boss: Bad mouthing a previous boss in a job interview is a huge negative. They may have been the worst boss in the world but expressing that in a job interview is a huge mistake.

 8. Don’t play with your face/hair: Interviews can be a nervous experience but rubbing your chin, twirling your hair, or anything else along those lines makes you look like you are lying or lacking confidence, both not good.

 9. Less is more: Sometimes certain details of your life are better left unsaid. 

10. Have good eye contact: Staring at the floor, ceiling or wall when speaking or listening makes you appear disinterested. Again, simple and obvious but happens way more then you had thought.

 11. Have goals: May be you don’t have any idea where you want to be in a few years professionally but figure out something to say. If you don’t and you’re asked, you appear unambitious, which leads an interviewer to think you’d be a lazy employee. 

12. Have accomplishment: Be prepared to talk about something that you’re proud of accomplishing, whether professionally or personally (or a failure and what you learned from it). 

13. Have passion: be able to express why you want to work in that field/industry and what you do to further your knowledge. The more intelligent or informed you are the more impressive you will look. 

14. Ask questions: At the end of the job interview make sure you have some questions to ask. If the interviewer doesn’t offer you chance, ask to ask. Again, it reinforces your strong interest in the job.

 15. Send a thank you note: it’s easy to send an email but take the extra effort to mail your interviewer a hand written thank you note. It reinforces your interest in the job. It doesn’t need to belong, just make it sincere.