I have an interview scheduled.. now what do I do?
Congrats! Here you are! You sent an application and you got an invitation for a first interview. That’s already progress. The Interview will help you get to know the company, and if it doesn’t lead at the end to an offer, at least, you got to practice and you grew from the experience. Now, how can you make the most of this first impression that you’ll give to the recruiter?
There are 3 steps that you can do to prepare for the interview and nail that first phase.
Let’s get started.
Step 1: Get Clear About Your Best Job Environment
First, if you haven’t worked on it yet, now it’s time. Gaining clarity about what you want is essential because the recruiter wants to know if you’re someone who could have a place in the company for the long term or not. They want to see if they have a place for your aspirations. if you don’t know where you want to see your career in the next few years, you will show up in doubt during your interview. Some of the questions to ask yourself are:
- Where do you see yourself in the next 1 to 3 years?
- What are your values?
- What environment do you envision being in?
- Do you prefer to work independently or on a team?
- What kind of work schedule suits your needs?
Alignment in these different components (values, goals, environment) has a significant impact on how happy and satisfied you will be at work.
Step 2: Research the company, people, and role
The second step is to do a broad research about company. Often, you got to answer certain questions during the interviews about the company and why you applied for their job offer. So have ready the key milestones of the company’s development, their key values, and their current challenges or recent achievements. By researching the company online, you could find some informations to share with the recruiter in order to let them know, you are actively choosing where to apply, not randomly applying for the job advertisements.
Then, you can also look on LinkedIn to read more about the person who will be interviewing you. LinkedIn is a great resource to get an idea of what type of people are they working at the company and get a glimpse on things like the diversity of the team, the different skills they have, etc.
Also, consider keeping track of what sparked your interest in the job advertisement by having a spreadsheet.
Step 3: Use the Interview As an Additional Filter
Finally, the last step to prepare for the interview is to prepare the questions you are going to ask in order to get a better idea about the company environment. The interview is your opportunity to filter who’s the right employer for you and there are things you can do to know that, already, from the first interview.
When the interview is coming to a close, the interviewer will give the turn to your questions. Never reply with I don’t have any.
There are many questions you could ask depending on who is interviewing you. Sometimes, it’s the recruiter (Human Resources) and some other times, it’s the direct hiring manager of the role you applied for.
If it’s the recruiter, you can ask questions to know more about how the company’s values are concretely applied. Ask for an example where the value was expressed. You can also ask him/her about how does a day at work look like. Another question would be what they like in their job and what they dislike.
And if it’s the direct hiring manager, you can ask all of the above questions, and additionally more questions related to the team.
If you need some inspiration here are some good questions:
- What does a typical day or week look like in this role (the one you’re applying for)?
- What are the biggest challenges that someone in this position would face?
- Are there opportunities for training and progression within the role/company?
- Can you tell me more about the different skills of the team?
Conclusion
With these 3 steps, you are ready to give a good impression and at the same time to filter if the company environment fits you or not. All that is left now is to show up with confidence!
You can do that on your own, or you can get some help from me in order to not miss the right opportunity when it presents itself to you. Here is the link to book Confidence After Maternity Leave Strategy Call with me.