Interview Skills: Sharpen Them Like A Pencil

You should treat your interview skills like you treat a pencil and sharpen them on a repeated basis. The people who will be interviewing you are there to weed out anyone who they feel isn’t the real deal. So you want to go in their like you know your stuff while at the same time being yourself. Sharpen your skills by using some of these basic guidelines.

Prepare for tough questions:
You have to be prepared for tough questions, if you are not you will be thrown off guard and made to look like a fool. Some questions you can prepare for and some you can’t, but this is all a part of the game. The interviewer wants to see how fast you respond when thrown out of your depth. The better you are at this, the better you will be able to handle similar situation if you were hired.

Research the company:
I guarantee you will be ahead like secretariat in a horse race if you do a little research on the company. Most people don’t do this, by showing you know about the company’s history you will be able to take a detour from the interview and throw the person out of their grilling element. They will see you as a real person and not just a face behind an application.

Doing both of these things shows a company that you actually care about the job and are not just trying to get hired. Master these two steps and you’ll go into any interview ready for anything.

For lots of advice on how to prepare for even the toughest of interviews check out this site, it will be sure to help put you above the rest of the candidates you are sure to be up against.

How To Give A Great Phone Interview

Doing a phone interview can be really hard but sometimes they just can’t be avoided. So this article is about how to interview over the phone when a face to face interview is just not possible.

There are many reasons why employers do a phone interview rather than a face to face one. It can cut down the list of people applying for the job position.  They can find out who meets their criteria and who appears to be more suitable to the job. This is usually for those who like to start with a really large group of people, and they can then whittle them down for face to face interviews.

Another reason could be that the employers are interviewing folks from different states and it’s just way easier to make initial interviews over the phone. No matter the reason, it’s always good to know how to give a good phone interview. Learning how to do a phone interview isn’t hard. Here are some tips to help you out.

You should always practice for each interview just like you were going to a face to face, don’t fall into the trap of thinking ‘it’s only a phone interview, so doesn’t matter’.

Research the company  just as you would for a face to face interview, and have a strategy for answering many types of interview questions (this is a great book for helping you to prepare for interview questions).   If you think you will get nervous, write your answers out. Since it’s over the phone no one will notice as long as you don’t sound like your reading a script. Don’t worry with practice you will learn how to do a phone interview with ease.

Be sure it’s very quiet where you are during the interview. Your home (or at least the room you are going to be speaking from) should be empty, or if this is not possible then go someplace that is quiet and you can concentrate on the call.   You need to ensure there will be no interruptions during the call.  

Keep your focus during the call, and really listen intently to what the person is saying as well as the questions you are being asked. Take your time answering the questions. Don’t rush!  If you want do well on your phone interview this would be a big one to master.

Some more tips on how to give a good phone interview is to have enthusiasm in your voice when you are talking about the job, the company or the industry – this will come over to the person interviewing you so they can see you are going to be an enthusiastic employee.

You can try walking around to help keep your energy up during the call. Don’t get to relaxed or you will end up talking about things that are not relevant to the interview. Feel free to talk about your achievements and explain to  the employer that you are a perfect fit for their company.

Taking these steps to make sure you are prepared for the phone interview will show professionalism and polish. Keep your attention focused on the questions being asked and how you will fit the position, this will highlight you above the others, so you will stick in the employers mind.

Remember, be prepared because the employers first impression of you, even if it is just a verbal one, are important and will go a long way to helping the employer decide whether to interview you face to face.