Interviews are something that everyone faces in their lives. The stakes are particularly high when it is a job interview. Here are some useful tips to crack a job interview. These are time-tested job interview tips and if followed properly, are sure to pave your path with success. These job interview tips are essentially for face-to-face interviews, however, the tips hold good with some variations for telephonic interviews too. So go on check out these tips crack a job interview and negotiate your way to success.
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Tips To Crack A Job Interview | Job Interview Tips
Here are some practical tips that are sure to help you crack a job interview. Be it a one-to-one interview or a panel interview.
Tips To Crack A Job Interview – Preparation Before The Interview
Your interview is just like an examination, and hence the tips for success in examinations hold good for interviews too. It is not at all recommended that you casually turn up for an interview without preparation. If you go to an interview without preparation, you are scripting your failure. Here are a few job interview tips that will help you appear for your interview with confidence.
1. Research The Company – Tips To Crack A Job Interview
Before you step into the portals of the company for your interview, it is pertinent to do proper research of the company. You can look up the company’s official website to understand more about it. Check out its vision and mission statements, most companies give weightage to candidates whom they think, understand the company’s objectives.
You also need to understand the company’s line of business as well as aspects of the markets in which they operate. You may also like to get a brief understanding of their financials from their balance sheets. To what depth you want to understand the operations of the company depends on the position you are being interviewed for. If it is a junior-level position, a basic understanding is enough, however, if it is a senior-level position, then an in-depth analysis is called for.
Do your homework, it is bound to pay off.
2. Review The Job Profile – Tips To Crack A Job Interview
This is a very important aspect about which you must be well prepared. Review the job profile carefully and in detail. Understand the KRA’s (Key Result Areas), and the scope of the job that you are being interviewed for. Check whether the job is a staff function or a line function, i.e., whether you will be an individual contributor or be part of a team and/or have a team reporting to you.
Interviewers prefer candidates who have taken pains to understand the job requirements.
3. Try To Fit In – Tips To Crack A Job Interview
Once you have carefully reviewed the job profile and understood its requirements, it is time to do your own SWOT (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis. Carefully compare your own skills and experience to the requirements of the job, and see how well you fit in. Once you have a clear picture of this, you shall be better prepared to position yourself correctly in the course of the interview.
Most rejections in interviews happen not because the candidate was not good enough, but because the interviewers perceived the candidate as not fitting in with their requirements.
4. Anticipate Interview Questions – Tips To Crack A Job Interview
It is a good idea to think about likely questions and prepare answers to those beforehand. The usual questions that you need to prepare for are those around your current job profile if you are working, your achievements in the job, and so on. One question that is de rigueur in most if not all interviews is about the reason for looking for a job change. Make sure to have a convincing reason. A word of caution here. Though you may have prepared for the anticipated questions, make sure that your answers during the interview sound natural and not scripted.
Think about the likely questions and prepare, make the answers sound natural and spontaneous.
At The Job Interview – Tips To Script Success
Irrespective of how much you have prepared, what matters is how you bring it all together effectively on the D-Day. If you are confident, natural, and composed, things will fall into place effortlessly. Just be aware of these job interview tips when you knock on the door and enter the interview room.
5. Remember The Halo Effect – Job Interview Tips
Just as there can be love at first sight or hate, at first sight, you can be rejected in the first few seconds of the interview. If your demeanour, body language, or tone of voice is not correct, the interviewer is likely to be put off immediately and, “shuts off”, from the interview. Whatever you do in the remaining time will be of no use.
On the contrary, if you impress in the first few seconds or minutes with a good elevator speech combined with confidence and positive signals, the interviewer is sure to be impressed, and the halo effect will linger throughout the interview.
Impress in the first few seconds and the battle is half won.
6. Lead The Interview – Job Interview Tips
There is a general misconception that an interview is all about listening to the questions of the interviewer and answering them. But you can actually steer the conversation and even control it. Usually, the questions that an interviewer asks are related to your own answer to a previous question. So if you are clever enough, you can actually steer the direction of the questions to the area of your strength.
Remember there are no right or wrong answers, it is all about what the interviewer wants to hear.
7. Ensure You Highlight Your Strengths – Job Interview Tips
In many ways, a job interview is also like a sales call. You are selling yourself to the interviewer. So be prepared with a list of USP’s (Unique Selling Proposition) of yourself, and highlight them clearly right at the beginning of the interview. Also, remember to showcase your strengths and illustrate how the company can leverage them to their advantage.
Always remember, the interviewer is more interested in what value you will provide to their organization.
8. Be Mindful of The Three C’s – Job Interview Tips
Be confident, clear, and concise in your speech.
It is very important to exude confidence when you speak. This needs to be coupled with clarity. You should not end up going round and round in circles, but be very clear with your thoughts and present them fluently.
Don’t end up telling long stories, the interviewers’ time is valuable.
9. Do Not Try To Bluff – Job Interview Tips
There is every chance that you face a question that you have no clue about. It is likely that the question has been asked intentionally to see how you react. Whether it is a genuine question or not, if you do not know the answer, it is a good option, to be frank, and say that you are not aware about it, but would like to know more.
Don’t think that you can get away with a bluff, it will be called immediately.
10. Body Language & Eye Contact – Job Interview Tips
This aspect cannot be highlighted enough. Did you know that over 80% of our communication is not through speech, but through body language? The way we sit, the way we use our hands, everything is sending off signals, which the interviewer can pickup and interpret. So make sure you make eye contact with the interviewer and are seated comfortably. Use your hands to emphasize your point, but do not overdo hand movements.
Understand and harness the power of non-verbal communication.
11. Ask The Right Questions That Show Your Interest
Most interviews end with the tables being reversed. The interviewer usually asks the candidate if he or she has any questions. Use this opening to ask genuine and relevant questions. These can be about the company, the job profile for which you are being interviewed, etc., it is also fine if you do not have any questions. But do not botch up all your hard work by asking stupid or irrelevant questions.
The last few minutes of the interview are as important as the first few.
We hope you find these tips for cracking your job interview useful. Do connect with us if you have any particular questions or doubts. For more such interesting and informative posts, subscribe to our blog and follow us on our social media channels.
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