Interviewing for a job can be a particularly stressful event, as you need to be personable while expressing your interest and experience. No matter how much time you’ve spent preparing and researching, there will always be a question or two that catch you off guard because interviews are inherently unpredictable.
While you might not know what the interviewer will ask, you should know what they want to hear. If you don’t find out early on what the goals of the position are, you could very well spend the entire interview talking about skills that have nothing to do with the position. In an interview with SavvySugar, Michael Junge, author of Purple Squirrel and Google recruiter, explained that his number one tip for nailing an interview is to find out what the other person thinks is important at the beginning of the conversation.
“If you and I sat down and I had no idea of what your goals and expectations are in a new hire, I can spend the entire interview talking about elements and aspects of my background that are totally meaningless to you. And I may have experience that’s completely relevant and miss it. And I see this happen all the time.”
Junge explains that the best way to find out this vital information is to simply ask “I have a general idea about the goal of this position, but I’d love to hear in your own words what you’re looking for in a new hire or what makes someone successful.” This kind of questions will get them talking about what kind of expectations there are for the position, and let you know what information and experiences you need to focus on to be more useful.
Do you have any other important interview tips? Let us know in the comments.
[Featured image credit:blog.smartbear.com]