How To Shine At Your Next Job Interview

Do you have a lucrative job interview approaching? Then you want to that you are ready to show your best side and give the interviewer the best possible first impression. Job interviews can be stressful but with a few simple pieces of advice you can boost your confidence level and make your next job interview a success.

To start off, you must not be afraid to emphasize your skills and accomplishments. Despite what you might think, most hiring managers are not looking for clever or canned responses you looked up on Wikipedia. They want to know what you are capable of and what you can do for the company. You can’t give this to them by being humble. If you think that your efforts were instrumental in turning sales around at your last job, then tell the interviewer! The person interviewing you has to sort through possibly dozens of job seekers. He doesn’t have the time or the desire to interrogate you to find out what your abilities are so you have to tell him that yourself. A job interview is not the time to be meek.

Second, make sure that you are dressed and groomed properly. This might seem like a no-brainer, but you would not believe the way that some people dress for a job interview. Denim jeans are a definite no, and if you think you can get away with wearing shorts or Capri’s to a job interview you might as well just go get in line at the unemployment office right now. If you are interviewing for anything other than a sales or executive position then “business casual” is usually okay, otherwise wear a suit or at the very least a sports jacket and a tie.

Third, make sure your resume is accurate and easy to read. It doesn’t have to be four pages, and in fact recent studies have shown that the cover letter of the resume is more important in landing an interview than the actual resume. The resume is just a summary of your education, experience, and personal information. Keep it simple but keep it honest and accurate. If you didn’t complete college, then don’t put down that you have a Bachelor’s. If you are in a room with multiple interviewers, one of them will be asking you questions and the other two will be bored and checking your resume for inconsistencies. Lying on a resume is a good way to lose your chance at a job.

Finally, keep your agendas at home. A job interview is a time to show a future employer that you are a good fit for their company. A job interview is not the time to share your thoughts on the president. Having opinions is okay but that is not what you are being interviewed for! Save the politics and the gossip for the break room. Companies need innovators and hard workers, people who have mastered positive thinking and can get the job done. They don’t need people to stand around on a soap box and dispense conspiracy theories.

A job interview can be very stressful. Keep in mind that if you don’t get hired it doesn’t mean that you failed as a person. Like we stated before, almost every job opening has dozens of people hunting for it and the reason why one person got picked over another might be something as simple as you looked too much like the interviewer’s brother. If you interview for a job and don’t get it, just move on to the next one. If you want to be successful then you have to keep a positive outlook and keep trying. The only way to lose is to give up and quit.