Introduction
Job Interveiw. CC Flickr, Mike Licht
Employers often arrange interviews when they want to hire someone. During the interview, the employer will look for your strengths and weaknesses, evaluate your qualifications, experience and other abilities and he or she will try to determine your attitude to work, your suitability, your motivation and maturity.
An interview can seem challenging and exciting, but sometimes difficult and a bit scary. The interview is mostly for the employer to gather as much information about you as possible, to see if you are the one they are looking for. Some employers are good at this, others are less accustomed to make interviews. The interaction between you and the interviewer is important for you to succeed in an interview. Therefore, here are things you can do to prepare yourself.
Preparation is key to a successful interview. Many companies are surprised how many applicants come unprepared and with only a vague idea of what they will say. That will not happen to you!
Task
Work togheter! CC Flickr, Peter Komposch
You and one or two friends from class have to work together to prepare you all for the best job interview ever. By going through all the exercises, videos and links, no one in human history will ever have been better prepared for a job interview than you! The most important part is to get to know yourself. What are your strengths and weaknesses? How can you play at your strengths, and improve at what you are not so good at? Remember, this only has to do with good/bad in this specific situation. You really want to come across the table as a person the employer will want to hire! Be truthful and fair with each other. Applaud the improvements, but do not ask the impossible. And remember that all traits have an upside. A really shy person might be wonderful doing something that is exactly right for him/her
Process
Before the interview:
- What shall I wear? Have a look at Exercise 1 and agree or disagree!
- Prepare yourself! Write answers to all the questions in Exercise 2. Discuss your answers - what sounds vague, unclear or could be answered in a better way?
- Warning! The most common mistakes will be dealt with in Exercise 3. Discuss - what is the biggest "sin"? What would really put you off?
The interview
If you work in pairs, take turns to interview each other. If you are three, the third person will act as an observer, and take notes. Switch roles, so all three get to do all the roles.
As an interviewer, decide on a company and research it for - let's say - 2 hours (this could be more or less depending on how much time you have). Do not tell the applicant which company it is - he or she will be busy doing research as your employer to be.
Then, give the applicant 30-40 minutes to quickly learn as much about the company. You, the employer, will of course know more, and you will hopefully be able to answer questions or at least know if it a good question to ask or not.
When the time is up, start the interview.
Make sure you film the whole thing. The mobile camera will do just fine. Everyone think seeing themselves on screen is an absolute horror, but - and this is the important part - it will help you improve enormously.
Then switch roles - the applicant will now be the employer.
To prepare for the interviews, check out The ABC to Succeed. This can (should!) also be read later, before going to a real interview.
Conclusion
This is great!
You have now done everything to prepare yourself for the perfect job interview. And, if you do not get the first job you apply for, don’t get disheartened. Because the next time, you will do even better!
Videos
Warning: file_get_contents(): http:// wrapper is disabled in the server configuration by allow_url_fopen=0 in /home/migreatoer/public_html/tmp/sourcerer_php_54f95bbfd74d13295022fc97880b4ccb on line 10
Warning: file_get_contents(http://youtube.com/get_video_info?video_id=1dWMIuipn_c): failed to open stream: no suitable wrapper could be found in /home/migreatoer/public_html/tmp/sourcerer_php_54f95bbfd74d13295022fc97880b4ccb on line 10
Warning: file_get_contents(): http:// wrapper is disabled in the server configuration by allow_url_fopen=0 in /home/migreatoer/public_html/tmp/sourcerer_php_e1f040c219a9b31b4a9c636bf2ab1d68 on line 10
Warning: file_get_contents(http://youtube.com/get_video_info?video_id=TD884Dl-kLc): failed to open stream: no suitable wrapper could be found in /home/migreatoer/public_html/tmp/sourcerer_php_e1f040c219a9b31b4a9c636bf2ab1d68 on line 10
Warning: file_get_contents(): http:// wrapper is disabled in the server configuration by allow_url_fopen=0 in /home/migreatoer/public_html/tmp/sourcerer_php_3dc2feac6eb058bc66c6ba59e14e40be on line 10
Warning: file_get_contents(http://youtube.com/get_video_info?video_id=CumOvDWnUDY): failed to open stream: no suitable wrapper could be found in /home/migreatoer/public_html/tmp/sourcerer_php_3dc2feac6eb058bc66c6ba59e14e40be on line 10