Introducing yourself at Job Interviews – Preparation

female-desk-notepad-laptop-workingMany people struggle to introduce themselves because they haven’t properly prepared before the job interview.

If we know a little about the organization and people that we are about to meet then we have material to make our introduction relevant and interesting.

The interview process normally starts after we have submitted a resume. In order to know about the interview we normally receive a letter. This is a good starting point for your preparation, it should have a name at the bottom and they may say something like “phone or email if you have any questions”.

Job Interview Preparation

  • Find out the names of the people you will be meeting at the interview (and people that you may meet).
  • Find out as much as possible about the company.
  • Find out about the office you will be visiting when you attend the interview. If it is being held at a hotel or conference facility, find out which office the staff are traveling from.
  • Search the web for any interesting stories about the organization.
  • Review your resume and make a list of relevant experiences that match the organization.
  • Make a list of areas that you need to learn about, then prepare a list of questions for the interview.

If at this point you decide you don’t want the job, you have two options:

  • Decline the interview and focus your attention on getting an interview that you do want, or
  • Use the interview as practice so that you are better prepared for the next job.

These are the possible steps involved in the interview process:

  • First interview
  • First interview then a second interview
  • The above plus aptitude, intelligence, and personality tests
  • References from past employees
  • Background checks by specialist organizations (looking for evidence of things like past bankruptcy, criminal activity, credit scoring, company directorships, et cetera.)

In the current economic climate (lots of applicants, few jobs), you need to create a file and record everything you learn for each interview. This is because most people will find they need to attend many interviews before they receive a job offer. It is easy to forget names and facts when you are rushing from interview to interview. In fact, it has been know for people to forget the company name or to use the wrong one. Any mistakes like this, however funny at the time, will impact your interview score (negatively) unless the organization values your entertainment value over your competencies (this is quite possible, not all organization want clever workers without any sense of humor).