Stuff you absolutley need to do before your next interview
You have an interview coming up and you want to make sure you are prepared.
You have an interview coming up and you want to make sure you are prepared.
You’ve prepared for common interview questions. You’ve researched the company. You wrote down a list of questions you want to ask the interviewer. You’ve researched the interviewer.
However, even after doing all these things, you still feel unprepared! You’re nervous you’re missing something, but you don’t know what it is!
Like you, I always felt unprepared when it came to interviews. No matter how much prep I did, I always felt I could do more! That’s why I created the pre-interview interview checklist. It’s a short checklist you can run through prior to your interviews to help you feel more prepared.
1 — Research information about the company
Do your homework. You MUST know about the companies you are interviewing with. You should spend 1–2 hours researching pre-interview. Here are some of the things you need to learn about the companies you’re interviewing with.
Full company name — This goes without saying, but make sure you know the full name of the company you are applying for. If the company name is an acronym, then make sure you know what the acronym stands for. For example, CVS. CVS stands for Consumer Value Stores! I bet you didn’t know that. I certainly didn’t.
Industry — What industry does your company operate in? Manufacturing? Finance? Consulting?
What do they do? — This may be the most important piece of information that you learn about. What does the company do? How do they make money? How do they operate?
News — Familiarize yourself with news about the company. A simple way to keep up with new about a company is to set a Google Alert for the company name. It’s very easy to do and it’s a super-effective way to keep up with news about a company. Some things to look out for include:
Mission/Vision — What does the company do every day to achieve operational excellence? This is the company’s mission. What is the company working for? This is the company’s vision. Normally, you can find this information on the company’s website.
Core Values — What does the company value? Do your values resonate with those of the company?
Culture — What is the culture like? You may have to work a little bit to learn about the company’s culture. Yes, you can research this on Google, however, the best way to do this is by talking to an employee.
History — When was the company founded? By who? Where?
Competitors — Who are the company’s biggest competitors?
2 — Questions you should be prepared to answer
Familiarize yourself with common interview questions, then prepare answers for them. This is a critical part of the pre-interview process.
What are your greatest strengths?
What are your greatest weaknesses?
Why do you want this job?
Why do you want to work for this company?
Why should we hire you?
For more help on preparing for interview questions, check out https://medium.com/@austinschlessinger/3-steps-to-absolutely-d449d92018fa
3 — Questions you can ask the interviewer
What are you going to ask your interviewer? Create a list of questions you want to ask after your interview. Doing this pre-interview is important because it can be difficult to think of questions on the spot. Here are some things you can ask your interviewer.
Why did you take a job at this company? Why do you stay?
What does your typical day look like?
What’s the company culture like?
What is the best part about working for this company?
From our conversation today, is there anything that would prevent me from getting this job?
For a detailed post about post-interview questions check out