Interview Tips: What To Do Before, During and After Your Job Interview

Looking for help for your job interview? You came to the right place! Some basic interview tips, help preparing for your interview, answers for common interview questions, and lots of practical advice to get you through the interview process – without driving yourself completely crazy!

Advice to help you with your interview

These articles offer tips and suggestions to help you prepare for and handle job interviews and answers for interview questions. It’s important that you know you’ve done all you can to make your job interview successful. And sometimes just feeling well prepared can make all the difference!

Things to know and do ahead of your interview

Just a little extra effort beforehand can help put you in the driver seat … or maybe at least give you an extra steering wheel. Knowing you’ve done all you can – and coming in well-prepared in knowledge as well as attitude – will help you relax enough to turn your interview into the two-way conversation that it should be:

♦ How To Prepare for a Job Interview

♦ 7 Things To Know BEFORE an Interview That Could SAVE You the Job

♦ What Color Is Your Interview Lipstick?

♦ Job Interview FAQs

♦ The Little Secret To Making a Good Job Interview Great

♦ Why Interviewers Ask Those “Stupid” Interview Questions

Things to help during your job interview

I’ve worked with clients who are great at what they do, but when it comes to interviews, they feel lost. Very few of us are trained in how to interview well. Hopefully these articles will help you handle your interview naturally and with a sense of confidence that you really are a great match for the job:

♦ How You Can Make YOUR Job Interview Go Really Well!

♦ What Questions Do Employers Ask in a Second Interview?

♦ 20 Things an Interviewer Looks For During a Job Interview

♦ What To Do When a Bad Interviewer Happens To Good People

A few extra things that can help you during the actual interview:

♦ How to Talk About Transferable Skills in a Job Interview

♦ Why YOUR Body Language is So Important In Job Interviews

♦ Job Interviews: The Power of Silence In Your Interview

How to handle interview nerves

Almost everyone gets nervous during a job interview. Even people who have been interviewing for years. Here are some things you can do to help you get hold of your interview nerves and shine – even if underneath you’re still feeling some very normal jitters:

♦ Job Interviews: Are Interview Nerves Making You Nervous?

♦ How To Help Calm and Handle Interview Nerves

♦ How Drawing a “Selfie” Can Help You Overcome Interview Fear!

How to handle your answers for job interview questions

While there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to every interview question, there are some ways of handling them that can help you look good.

Methods for answering the most common interview questions

I’ve put together a list of questions that many interviewers turn to, at least for part of the interview. You may run into an interview that asks none of these, but if you take the time to prepare and follow at least some of the tips, they’ll give you a solid method for approaching your interview:

♦ 12 Often Asked Job Interview Questions (and How to Handle Them)

Talking about your strengths, weaknesses and you

Sometimes the simplest question – like “tell me about yourself” – can completely throw a job candidate. But these can actually be a great opportunity to give the interviewer a feel for who you are as a person and who you would be as part of their company, what they really want to know anyway. Some tips for answering in a way to help them see the match:

♦ How To Answer “What’s Your Greatest Strength” Question

♦ How To Answer The “What’s Your Weakness” Question

♦ Why Don’t You Tell Me Something About Yourself

♦ Handling the “Describe Yourself” Version of the Question

Looking to the future – and what not to say!

Employers love to ask this question, or some variation of it. And sometimes job seekers go way off into a direction they shouldn’t. Here are some tips for how to answer – and how not to answer – the five year question:

♦ How To Answer Where Do You See Yourself in Five Years

♦ How NOT To Answer “Where Do You See Yourself in Five Years?”

Talking about things in your job history

Where you’ve been, what you’ve accomplished, and how you’ve handled all of that is the key to a good job interview. Yes … even more important than the right color lipstick or well-polished shoes. So take a moment to read the articles and really think about how you’d answer these questions:

♦ How To Answer “What’s Your Greatest Accomplishment?”

♦ How To Answer “What’s the Biggest Challenge You Ever Had to Overcome?”

♦ How To Handle Interview Questions About Leaving Your Last Job

♦ Explaining Why You Left Last Job When Reason Is You Were Fired

♦ How To Answer “Have You Ever Failed at Anything?”

Talking about the company you’re interviewing with

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is thinking you can wing it. The research you do up front can pay off big time during the interview, and even in your follow-up notes. Here are some tips for answering these questions in a way that can help you connect:

♦ SAMPLE Answer: “Why Do You Want to Work For Us?”

♦ SAMPLE Answer: “Why Should We Hire You?”

♦ How To Answer “What Do You Know About Our Company?”

♦ How To Handle “Do You Have Any Questions For Us?”

Dealing with phone interviews

Many companies use phone interviews to decide who they want to bring in for the all-important in-person interview. But, just like a regular interview, you still need to show good energy, ability to converse naturally, and a match for the skills and experience they are looking for. And if the match isn’t exactly perfect, this is your chance to help connect the dots:

♦ Phone Interviews: What You Need To Know When They Call

♦ How To Handle Your Initial Phone Interview

♦ What Employers Look For In a Screening Phone Interview

♦ What Questions Do Employers Ask in a Phone Interview?

♦ MORE: Summary Article on Job Screening Phone Interviews

Advice about thank you notes

Wondering what to say in a thank you note? Or whether they really matter? Some people say they don’t matter. Others say they are essential to getting that job offer. Here are some articles to help you decide what you want to do and how to do it:

♦ Do Post-Interview Thank You Notes Really Matter?

♦ How an Interview Thank You Note Got Rosie O’Donnell the Job!

♦ SAMPLE: If You Forgot To Send a Thank You Note After Your Interview

==> After the Interview: Thank You Note (SAMPLE)

What happens when employers check references

No one employer checks references at the same time or in the same way. But these articles should at least help you get a good feel for the basics of reference checking – and maybe even save you some worry headaches:

♦ When and How Does an Employer Check Your References?

♦ Do Employers Really Check Work History and References?

♦ What Do Employers Ask When They Call Your References?

Sometimes there are glitches in the reference process. Or more precisely, things you didn’t expect. Here are some articles to give you an idea of what it means and what to do if things go a little differently than you were hoping they would:

♦ I Got a Job Offer With No References, Does It Mean No One Checked?

♦ What If Employer Can’t Contact Your References After an Interview?

♦ What If I Don’t Have ANY Current Job References or Any References at All?

SAMPLE References Page

Everything you do as part of the job search process matters. So why give them a reference sheet that looks less professional than your resume? Here is a sample to help you prepare your list of references:

♦ SAMPLE: How To Create a Reference List Sheet for Job Interviews

Staying sane after the interview (waiting game)

One of the most challenging parts of any interview is the time after the interview, when you just wait and wait and wait. If this is seemingly endless waiting is driving you crazy, you are NOT alone. Here are some articles that hopefully will help keep you sane:

Right after the job interview

♦ How Do I Know If I Did Well On My Job Interview?

♦ What If Interviewer Says “Good Luck” or “We’ll Be In Touch”?

♦ Is It Always a Bad Sign If the Job Interview is Short?

What to do about a bad interview

Not all interviews go well, of course. Although it pays not to jump too quickly to any conclusions. But even when it did go badly, there are still things you should know that might help:

♦ My Interviewer Didn’t Like Me. What Did I Do Wrong?

♦ My Job Interview Didn’t Go Well … Now What To Do?

♦ What To Do If Your Second Interview Didn’t Go Well

Following up after your interview

After the interview, unless you hear back right away, you’ll be wanting to take some action. Now I can tell you that an employer isn’t going to forget a candidate that they are very interested in, but sometimes follow-up notes can help get things moving. Or at least help keep you sane. Some tips on what to do – and what NOT to do when you follow up:

♦ How Soon After a Job Interview Should You Follow Up?

♦ What If No One Responds When You Follow Up After a Job Interview?

♦ Employer Promised To Get Back, But It’s 3 Days AFTER Deadline!

==> Job Interviews: Interview Follow-Up DOs and DON’Ts

Dealing with the silence of the waiting game

I think that a prolonged waiting period after a job interview could be added to a list of ways to torture people. But even though the ideal process would include regular communication, it is not uncommon for there to be minimal communication or even total silence. Some posts to help:

♦ Job Interviews: When Will I Finally Hear Back from a Job Interview?

♦ Waiting Game: How to Deal with the Silence After a Job Interview

♦ After the Interview Blues: Still Waiting for a Call That Never Comes

♦ Why Don’t They Get Back To Me Already!

♦ How To Stay Sane (and Employable) While Looking for a Job

♦ 25 Things To Do While Waiting To Hear Back From a Job Interview

TEMPLATE for Post Interview Follow-up Note

If you do want to follow up after your interview and aren’t sure exactly what to say, here is an article designed to help. Use it as a model – and then make the note your own:

♦ TEMPLATE: Follow-up Note (Letter or Email) After a Job Interview

Dealing with job offers

After all the seemingly endless waiting and nail biting and just plain going mad with anticipation, you finally get an offer. And then maybe ANOTHER offer. Or maybe just an offer you aren’t sure about. How do you decide whether to say “yes” to a job?