Interviews: Meeting Your Next Boss
- Jun 5
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 8
Congratulations, the right people at your target organization have noticed that your portfolio is a good match for the role they’re filling and now they want to talk to you! Today, you’ll learn about basic considerations for succeeding in job interviews. Reading this post and taking the recommended actions will help you have a strong showing at your interview, which will greatly enhance your appeal to the hiring manager as the right person for the job. The main topics for this post explain at a high level how to prepare and present yourself well:
- Basic interview prep
- Different interview formats and looking professional for each
- Show up with genuine enthusiasm to complement your professionalism
Basic interview prep
There are lots of things to consider when preparing for a job interview; many of these are basics that will cause prospective employers to move past you after the interview if not addressed, and some are extra things that will help you stand out from most other candidates. Visit your job seeking website amongst others to find interview preparation resources, like the pages covering interviews and the youth interview checklist on the CareerForce website. Also borrow What Color Is Your Parachute? from your local library if you don’t already have a copy handy; there’s a whole chapter of good job interview advice there as well. And here’s one more source of solid job interview advice for good measure: Job Interview: How to Ace a Job Interview | The Art of Manliness.
Get plenty of practice answering behavioral interview questions before each interview. These interview questions generally start with “Tell me about a time when…” and can’t be addressed with a simple one-sentence answer. Practicing these ahead of an interview will help you prepare by making sure you’ve really thought through your work history and abilities. Here is another opportunity for your support person to provide you with help in a significant way. Be sure to have them ask you about your greatest weakness (don’t give a trivial answer) and how you manage it, as well as a time you failed at something and what you learned or how you overcame that later. These are two behavioral questions many interviewers like to ask to gauge a person’s willingness to acknowledge and reflect on ways they’re not perfect.
Different interview formats and looking professional for each
A common sequence of interviews goes like this: first, you have a phone call with someone from the human resources department of the company interviewing you. If that goes well, you’ll probably have a video call with the hiring manager, who is probably the person you would report to in the job. After that, if you’re one of the top candidates, you’ll be invited to come onsite for an in-person interview. Each successive interview will get more in-depth about your qualifications and perceived fit for the role. Depending on the job you are interviewing for, you might have fewer or more interviews than this, but this is a good average to expect in general.
As a brief aside, use these interviews to not only persuade the hiring manager to give you a job offer, but also to more deeply assess if this is a place where you want to work. If you notice red flags about the environment or implications of certain remarks you hear during the interview, you might decide that it’s better to continue your job search even if given an offer. Talk it over with your support person to get their perspective if you have this feeling.
Of course, you and your home office (if taking a video call) need to cast a professional image. For better or worse, people judge by appearances and anything off-putting or unprofessional can sabotage all the hard work you put in to getting a job interview. Dress for the type of job you’re interviewing for, generally one step above what the typical daily attire would be. If travelling onsite for your interview, plan an activity to spend some time (half an hour would usually be enough) within a five-minute transit of the interview so you can practically eliminate your chances of showing up late, as showing up late for an interview will practically eliminate your chances of getting the job.
Your portfolio got you into the interview. Once you’re in the interview, how you present yourself is a pivotal, make-or-break next step to getting a job offer. While you’ll be asked about information from the portfolio of work submitted with your application, how your interviewer sees you in front of them will be the biggest determinant of advancement through the interview process. How do you maximize the impact of your personal impression on your hiring manager and any other interviewers?
Show up with genuine enthusiasm to complement your professionalism
You applied for the job you want and are qualified for, and you know yourself so well for that job that you show up with genuine enthusiasm to complement your professionalism. Your behavioral interview practice will go a long way to help you get good at this. The interviewers will pick up on your enthusiasm, and it will make them much more interested in you; a lack of enthusiasm on your part will create in them a lack of enthusiasm for you.
People say to “be confident” in job interviews, but it might be better to “be enthusiastic” instead. Thoroughly knowing your stuff and having genuine enthusiasm for what you do will radiate confidence without you even having to try. Never try to force confidence (anytime, not just in an interview), as forced confidence is easy to detect and just looks cocky and obnoxious. Enthusiasm with a professional tone gives you an air of high confidence with a humble vibe – those together very effectively sell others on what you can do and also puts them at ease with you.
Conclusion
A job interview is a decisive event in your quest to land a better paying job. Consult resources for tips and practice for the interview ahead of time. Expect more than one interview in different formats and make sure you look and sound professional in each. If you know your stuff and you want the job, your knowledge and enthusiasm will exude all the confidence you need to show. Go into the interview believing you’ll do great because you prepared and are interviewing for the right job.
For your convenience, here are some links to sample behavioral interview questions and an explanation of the STAR method of answering these questions:
Start preparing for interviews today, even if you don’t have one on the calendar yet!
The next step on the roadmap: Don’t Do’s in Job Interviews