Best Preparation Strategies to Win a Successful Interview  

You devoted months searching for the perfect role for your next career move. Hours were spent completing job applications and posting your resume on job boards. You updated your LinkedIn profile, did a ton of networking, spent countless moments speaking with recruiters, and finally landed that interview. Congratulations! Now take a deep breath because the work has just begun. Don’t get overwhelmed because this post is aimed at helping you simplify your interview preparation. To give you the most excellent chance to shine, and represent your most authentic self to the organization you are interested in, you need the best preparation strategies to win a successful interview.

First, when you intentionally invest time to prepare for an interview, the benefits are that you will have a clear mind, feel more comfortable, and increase your confidence. In today’s job market, interview preparation is not just important; it is necessary. The right practice can make or break you in getting the role you are interviewing for.

It helps to think about an interview as a performance. You would never show up at a concert to play a set of songs on a guitar, having never practiced at all. Likewise, why would you show up for an interview without taking time to prepare? Preparing for your interview makes a huge difference in your performance. You will quickly send a clear signal that you are an excellent communicator, organized, and eager to hit the ground running to solve the organization’s challenges.

Speaking of confidence, remember to show your excitement and enthusiasm for the organization and the role you are applying for. No matter how nervous you are, be mindful of your body language and try not to come across aloof. Work on managing your stress before the interview so you will have strategies ready to diffuse negative emotions. Some stress management methods include taking deep breaths, praying, self-affirmations, or meditating.

Tips to prepare for a successful interview:

• Do your research: Spend time researching the organization. Learn the origin story, its mission statement, and who the key leaders are. Glassdoor.com has company reviews and employee feedback and lists interview and application expectations that can be extremely valuable for an applicant. If you have the information, take time to research the specific individuals that will be interviewing you. Do your best to know who the organization’s competitors are. While you read about the company, see if you can uncover any challenges they may be working on, along with popular or new products. Review their job description and highlight areas that match your own experience. Look at the role responsibilities in the job posting for the skills you highlighted and ensure the language is similar between the company and your resume.
• Practice Interview Questions: The best way to practice interview questions is to invest in a career coach to conduct mock interviews. This trained individual can give you industry-standard questions varying in style and provide valuable feedback to tell you what you need to adjust. Many career coaches do pro bono work (for no fee) for a certain number of people each year. (Authentic Cadence® has opportunities like this if you contact us). You can also ask a trusted friend to help you. Ensure the mock interviewer uses various interview styles (behavioral, informational, panel, and structured interview questions). If you work with a friend, use industry-related questions you can find online. When answering questions, anticipate how to answer to reflect the skills the company seeks based on your experience.
• Create An Elevator Pitch: This should be a quick summary about yourself that tells your career story. An elevator pitch is named for the amount of time it should take to deliver it, which is a short elevator ride (30 to 60 seconds or 75 words). They are most often used to sell yourself as a professional when networking. Even if you don’t recite your elevator pitch verbatim, having one and using it will make you more comfortable speaking about yourself.
• Know Salary Ranges: When scheduling an interview, you should already know the salary range at the company for the role you are interviewing for. Additionally, you should know the market salary for that type of role. Most recruiters will inform you of the salary range early in the application process to ensure no one wastes their time. If you are not told before the interview, make it a point to ask. You do not want to interview and then discover that the salary range does not meet your salary requirements. To research market salary for the role you are applying for, you can check salary websites like Salary.com, Glassdoor, or Simply Hired. If you are looking for the average salary of a role you would like to apply for, you can use the sites already mentioned or do a google search. These resources are brilliant for salary negotiation.
• Prepare Questions: Getting hired is a two-way street. Every applicant should interview the company to ensure the fit is appropriate. This starts with the recruiter and is ongoing throughout the discovery process and application period. It would be best to ask questions about culture, day-to-day responsibilities, performance, advancement, etc. This is your way to learn about the company to ensure it is what you seek. Hiring managers want to know that you are just as interested in the company as they are in you. Be prepared with questions that show them you are. Here are a few general examples:
  • What kind of opportunities for advancement are available in this role?
  • What would an exceeds performance look like in this role?
  • What does the day-to-day look like for this role?
  • How regularly do performance evaluations occur?
  • Are there any expansion plans for the company?
  • How long have you been managing this team?
  • If the role is remote, ask if any travel is required and the frequency.

During the interview, the interviewer should know how much you want the role and how excited you are about the opportunity. You can convey this by connecting their challenges with your experience when answering questions. An example statement is, ‘I am very excited by how ABC company uses technology to bridge the gap between operations and new hire training. I would love to use my experience with process improvement to look for ways to streamline the new hire training.’

Using my experience working to help clients at every career level in various industries improve their interview answers, I noticed that five central themes surface for all of them.

1. Use examples to show how you solve problems: Tell a story with details to add value, but keep it brief. Examples are the most engaging way to do this. Example: Interview Question- How have you handled a difficult situation with a coworker or a customer? Answer: ‘Much of last year was spent dealing with a client that was hard to please in every way. The client had a reputation of being difficult to handle. No one had the patience to talk on the phone with them because they were very long winded. Several other managers were unsuccessful in dealing with this client. I was assigned the account and was able to change the relationship by…’. Giving this example is much more effective than saying, ‘I handle challenging clients by working to build relationships.’
2. Be clear and concise with answers: Typically, the higher your level, the more succinct you expect responses to be. If you learn to be brief and precise; you will be golden when answering questions. Be especially careful if you received feedback that your responses were too wordy in the past. While practicing your interview questions, try to record your answers and play them back for yourself. You can also ask your mock interviewer/coach to help you narrow down what you are saying. If you notice you are being wordy during the interview, you can check in with your interviewer after the first question to ask, ‘Is that too much detail? I want to be respectful of your time’. However, I strongly recommend practicing response clarity over reactionary tactics. Sometimes, if the first question takes more than a few minutes to be answered, the interviewer may lose interest and move on mentally before giving it another shot.
3. Use quantifying proof: If your answers include general statements, remember it is always better when sprinkled with evidence. If you want to tell the interviewer you are organized and responsive or how you work well with stakeholders, don’t just say you possess those attributes. Instead, if you have professional feedback from coworkers, stakeholders, or your manager about those attributes and how they impacted others, use those specific details in your answer. Remember that for some roles, using metrics, and FTE savings best describe particular scenarios.
4. Demonstrate Growth: Be intentional when asked to answer a question. Know your growth areas in the last year and tie them into scenarios you are discussing about a challenge, or a problem. When you let the interviewer know what you learned from something or how you grew from this challenge, that is precisely what they are looking to hear.  
5. Show Gratitude: Remember to write thank you notes to everyone who interviewed you, including the recruiter. Use discernment and include specific discussion topics, challenges you can solve, value you can add, or connections made in conversation, to remind them why you are the best fit for their role. Was there an area you wish you could have expanded on but didn’t? Find a concise way to incorporate that into your thank you note.

To conclude, your career decisions will impact your overall quality of life for years to come. Not only does that level of importance deserve preparation, but it also depends on it. There are some things in life where shortcuts work, and this is not one of them. Taking the wrong amount of time to prepare for the interview or accepting a role that is not right for you will lead to a dead end. So, take all the time you need, use all the resources you need, and never feel guilty about investing in your own development and growth. After all, the only one that can be authentically you is you.

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