Key to Interviewing

The key to interviewing well is preparation. Everyone, no matter how qualified they are, must prepare for an interview if they are to succeed. This involves researching the company, reviewing interview questions, dressing well, and getting a good amount of sleep. This site aims to assist you in preparing yourself for your interview. We wish you the best in your career pursuits.

Successful interview candidates are professional, personable, and prepared.

~ Eric Vanderburg

Statistics show that job seekers may send upwards of 100 applications before getting an interview (Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development [DEED]). It gets hard to keep everything straight when you have applied for so many positions. Keeping a list of each application, the job title, job description, contact person, date applied, and any follow-up times is a very important part of keeping track of all your applications. Make sure that you download the job description when creating this list because postings are often taken down or hard to find once someone from HR contacts you.

You are being critiqued from the very first phone call so make sure you know where you have put in applications so that you can respond well to the interview invitation. It is very easy for an interviewer or HR person to see when you have not prepared or do not remember the position. This will cause them to view you in a more negative light as it seems like you do not value the position. Once you have an interview scheduled, begin the rest of your preparation.

• Research the company you are interviewing with.
• Review possible interview questions and have answers ready.
• Prepare questions for the interviewer.
• Set out clothes in advanced and map out the location of the interview.
• Write down the name of the person or persons you will be interviewing with and read about them if they are on the company web site or mentioned in company news.