Seven tips to prepare your job interview

March 26, 2011 - PRLog -- Congratulations! With the invitation to your first interview, you have taken the first step on getting a new job. These are the most important things now:

Be likable, dynamic and most importantly authentic. Based on the skills in your resume, your potential new manager has decided s/he wants to meet with you. Therefore you “only” have to convince from a personality standpoint. Show 120% of your personality and not only 80%. Be yourself and you will show you are the right person for the job!

  1. You only get one chance to make a first impression: be on time, wear a dark suit or dress with a white shirt if you apply for a white collar job and choose a classical tie if you are a man (well, can look good on women too). Apply a firm handshake (as if you held a tennis racket) and be attentive to a straight eye contact. If you have problems with that, look at the point between the eyes of your opposite but do not underestimate this point as I haev seen several candidates being dismissed because of an insufficient eye contact.
  2. Go into the meeting with a pen a pape. You would do that for any other important meeting with your boss too, right? Take notes during the interview (rule of thumb: write down all figures and data).
  3. Read the homepage carefully and maybe print out some pages. Everyone will recognize the logo of his/ her company and notice you have come prepared. Google the firm. You should have every accessible information before going into the interview (market, history, number of employees, revenues). One of the first questions may be “what do you know about us?” and you have to be able to give a qualified response. Also investigate the people you will meet with. Do they have a profile on LinkedIn or even Facebook? Print it and put it to the other print-outs and you will impress your opposite.
  4. Your meeting will usually take 60 minutes and has 3 parts: 1) the client will present the company, department and values, 2) You present yourself, 3) You both go into the job specifics and define the next steps. Be very attentive in the first part! You will get a lot of valuable information which you should focus on when it’s your turn. Focus on similarities as this is all about similarities (tasks and values). Confirm when you agree, listen actively (such as “that matters to me too”, “I know this from…”, “Yes, when I was at ABC, we had a similiar challenge and I did this and that”).
  5. Never say “what are my tasks” but “what would the tasks be”? Use “would” instead of “will”.
  6. You will prove your competence with the questions you ask – or your incompetence! Ask the exact tasks, the status quo of the department, the biggest challenges, what they are looking for in a candidate or simply what kind of person is successful in this company. Do NOT ask for salary, benefits, canteen or else (in 10 years, I heard all this). What is the purpose of this first meeting? To define if you want to see each other again. Don’t use all your questions today and let them ask you about salary etc. (however, DON’T ask for the canteen unless you apply as a chef…).
  7. Positive ending: give positive feedback at the end of the interview if you would like to have the job. Choose your own words and something like “Thanks for the pleasant meeting. I like what I heard and saw and I am confident I could fill the role. I am very interested in this job and would be pleased to meet you again soon. What is the next step?”

Be natural and honest. There should be no surprise on the technical side if your resume is written properly. Be yourself and the the result will be a good one – whatever it will be.

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JobThoughts.net | Career advice from a headhunter

Jorg Stegemann has been working in professional recruitment for the past 10 years, has coached thousands of professionals from entry to C-level and found a new job for approximately 350 candidates. He has held various managerial and corporate functions with two major players in this industry and worked in four countries.

Jorg has his own blog on and publishes one new posting every Monday morning

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