My Take On Job Interviews

Job interviews can be one of the most stressful things during the job searching process. Whether the stress comes from before, during, or after the interview, in the end, it can all be very stressful. So what are some tips a student like myself can offer other then what’s already posted all over the internet? Well, all I can simply offer is my experiences and mentality when I’m heading into an interview.

Over the years I’ve learned that when you’re preparing for an interview the most important thing to do is practice, practice, and practice. After all, it’s essential that you’re ready for whatever questions the interviewer might ask you. Furthermore, it’s also important to practice situational, behavioural, and standard interview questions over and over again with genuine and honest answers. You can do this either by practicing by yourself, with a friend, or perhaps if you’re enrolled in an educational institution, a career advisor. Career advisors after all are here to help, but not only that, want to help, at least based on my experiences. Lastly, I believe that it’s important to just be honest in an interview. Forget about people telling you to “answer” what is right, what sounds like the perfect answer, and what the interviewer wants to hear. If you’re honest and genuinely believe in what you’re saying, then it’s most likely you’ll “fit” perfectly with the organization. Overall, in addition to what I just suggested above there are also other factors that should be included such as dressing appropriately, getting there on time, and being polite, but these tips should already be obvious.

My mentality heading into an interview is simple, I put 110% into it and do my very best. First off, I try my best to not stress about it. The key is to go into an interview with confidence where you can market yourself and show the employer why you “fit” with the organization. If you think too much about the possible mistakes you could make, most likely, you’ll make them in an interview. Secondly, the key thing about interviews is after you’ve done them, move on. In other words, after you’ve completed the interview don’t stress about it, you’ve already completed it and the important thing is that you tried your very best. If you sit back and think about, oh my, I shouldn’t have said this or oh my, I should have done this, you’re only creating unnecessary stress. If you did make mistakes, the important thing is to learn from it, apply it, and try again the next time. Overall, I believe that it is important to have a mentality of putting 110% in preparations, just doing it, learning from it, and moving on. After all, it is important to move forward towards the future rather then dwelling in the past.