The Ultimate Interview Preparation Checklist!

The Ultimate Interview Preparation Checklist!

By Susan Gitonga

The moment you finished College/University, was the day you thought you were done with exams for the rest of your life, right? Wrong.

An interview is an exam, and as you may be aware, most people don’t get job offers after interviews.

Ms. Elizabeth Ndembei, an Interview Coach at Corporate Staffing services has a lot to say when it comes to preparing well for interviews to ensure that you land a job.

I caught up with her and here are her top 5 tips on Interview Preparation:

1.Research on the company

Visit the website of the company you are applying to. Who are they and what exactly do they do? The goal of being informed about the company is to have a good interview session with the employer. This will enable you to answer questions correctly and also build your confidence.

Never, at any one point walk into an interview without understanding what the company does.

Related Article >>> 10 Types of Interviews and How to Handle Them

2.Tailor your skills to match the job description

Make it easy for the employer to engage with you by talking about skills that are related to the job you are interviewing for.

It does not add much value to talk about unrelated work experience that does not match the job you want. Sure, it might be great to mention it, but the employer is going to have a hard time connecting that unrelated work experience with the current position he is looking to fill.

Be very careful about this because it might end up being a time waster.

Unless the employer asks you to talk about unrelated work experience, don’t give it much talk time.

3. Stop digging your own hole by saying too much

Ms. Elizabeth says that she has interacted with a candidate who disclosed her strengths without being asked to. The candidate went ahead to say that during the end of year reviews at her place of work, she is always told that top 3 of her strengths are hard work, good time management, and commitment.

Even though this might have sounded like a plus for this candidate, the employer was very interested to find out about her weaknesses.

That said, be very wise and calculative in an interview . Think before you speak and ensure that you don’t open up a can of worms.

A great tip to this is to wait for the interviewer to do the asking, while yours is to do the responding.

If you are asked to talk about your strengths, that’s fine. If not, you can still talk about it in a very subtle way.

Read Also >>> Worst Interview Mistake You can Ever Make! Not Disclosing Your Salary

4. Speak using Industry Language

Go through the job description very carefully to familiarize yourself with the kind of terminology used in it.

During an interview, you should center your conversation around the job and the terms used.

If for example, you are interviewing for a Digital marketing job in which they have mentioned words such as SEO and SEM, you should talk about how you have used SEO and SEM in the past and how it has helped you achieve company goals and objectives.

This will give the employer the impression that you are the right candidate and that you understand what the job is about.

5. Engage the services of a Career Coach

If you are not confident about your interview skills, you can have a session with an Interview Coach like Ms.Elizabeth to have a mock interview session, to be corrected and advised on how to succeed in your next interview.

Click here to book a session. 

For interview questions or comments, Email: Elizabeth@corporatestaffing.co.ke

Susan is a Communications Officer at Career Point Kenya. Email: susan@www.careerpointkenya.co.ke.

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