Nailing an interview can be scary, but they don’t have to be. Here are 7 tips to help you get hired!

1. Dress the part

   1. Don’t wear cologne or perfume.
   2. Are you applying for a corporate job? Dress the part. What do you think they would wear. To make it easier, google the workplace and check out pictures of the office or center. The idea behind this is to always dress more appropriately, but not to underdress.

2. Know your audience

   1. Did you find out the name of the person you are interviewing with? Is it a face to face interview? Phone interview? Skype? or even a group interview?
      1. If so, research who they are. It will help take off the edge if you find out they started at the job you are applying to, or maybe you’ll find out you have something in common with them. It will give you the edge.

3. Research the company

   1. If you don’t know about the company in which you are applying to, you are wrong. They are fantastic sites that help with learning about a company and what it is like to work for them. One website I recommend is –www.glassdoor.com
   2. Not knowing the company in which you are interviewing with my create a risk. what happens if the company has a strong political stance or endorses a particular candidate? and you don’t agree with them? wouldn’t you want to know that before accepting the position?

4. Research the job description

   1. Researching the job description will help you better prepare for the interview. You can easily throw in some of the job duties into past work experiences to be more relevant.

5. Bring your updated resume and references

   1. In my industry, I always see candidates bring a reference page full of friends. This is a big NO. Make your references professional. If you don’t have professional references, go find them. Create a LinkedIn page if you need to.
   2. Another funny thing, I see when interviewing candidates, is old resumes or made on the spot. Make your resume as relevant and new as possible when bringing it to an interview.
   3. They didn’t ask for you to bring a resume? bring it anyway, you will look much more prepared than other candidates.

6. Bring experiences not experience.

   1. I typically know when I have nailed an interview. When the interviewer asks questions that are relatable to experiences and not my experience is when I do my best. “Describe a difficult time at your past employment and how you resolved it.” as an example.
   2. Show the interviewer you can deal with the duties of the job. Paint the picture for them so they can understand how you would react in certain environments.
   3. These are always changing and can be hard to think of on the spot. Think about tough times at other positions or how you made your past employer more money, created efficiency, why you were promoted, etc.

7. Always apply

   1. This may sound strange to people, but I say you should always apply to places. You never know what you’ll be offered. The offers you don’t want, you don’t have to take. Always looking up and making upward transitions is the key here. Like I have mentioned before, I am the typical millennial with no job loyalty. If I see a better opportunity for self-growth and development, I will jump on it and so should you. Upward growth is the key to self-development. Always pushing yourself to learn new things and create challenges to overcome them. Strength through adversity.

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