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Rapid Readiness for a Winning Interview If You are in a Hurry

Expectations, Goals & Objectives

  1. What is the interviewer expecting from this meeting with you
  2. What are you expecting as an ideal next step from this meeting?
  • Brainstorm your upcoming interview with a friend. You will be surprised how another head makes you think of things you have not thought of already.

  • What do you know about this company?

  • Find YouTube videos created by the company (esp of the company’s annual events) and google for interviews by company eexecutives. Notice how they talk about their USP, customers and solutions.

  • Make a short checklist to determine if this is the right job for you – vacation hours, compensation and other criteria.

  • Are you prepared with your Elevator Pitch (short intro)?

  • What is your unique value proposition which makes you different from any other candidate?

  • Can you state some of your past successes in quantitative terms?

  • What is the interview format – written test, scenario based behavioral interview or techincal interview?

  • What is the interview scenario – panel interview, telephonice, video conferencing via skype or lunch meeting?

  • Who is your interviewer – recruiter, HR person, peer interviewer, hiring manager? What do you expect to him to want from you?

  • Review the job advertisement to understand what are the key requirements you would be expected to fulfil.

  • What are some possible objections that you can enounter – some objections could be related to lack of experience, medical issues & lack of certifications.

  • What are some possible question types you expect – some examples are questions relating to domain knowledge, hard skills & industry knowledge.

  • Make a short list of possible questions – search on google for questions relating to your job description or ask someone who is in a similar industry.

  • What are the questions you want to ask the interviewer – think of questions which show your passion for the job.

  • Ask a friend to conduct a mock interview

  • Plan some easy icebreakers for the interveiw.

  • Ask the interviewer what would be the next step from this interview?

  • Are there some important things – must–have – for you which you would want to negotiate?

  • Be prepared to send a thank you note to the interviewer and also to the person who referred you imediately after the interview – regardless of the outcome of the interview.

Is there something NEW you can share with the interviewer? Some information or concept which the interviewer wouldn’t know?

It doesn’t need to be a technical information – it could be the breaking news in the industry, a trend which would affect the interviewers’ company or a something else which the interviewer may be interested in.

A very senior executive once said: “I find the interview to be a meaningful session if I could learn just one new thing from my conversation with the candidate.”