Important Job Interview Tips
Introduction
Succeeding at a job interview is still one of the most important parts of getting hired to a particular job in the United States. The people who have great resumes and a lot of work experience are going to be at a tremendous disadvantage if they don’t know all of the right job interview tips. Their actual job skills and their work experience often won’t be enough to make them worthy applicants in their own right. While knowing how to do well on a job interview isn’t going to compensate for other problems that workers might have, job interview tips can still make a huge difference in terms of the success of potential American applicants.
Important Job Interview Tips:
For one thing, it is important for job applicants in the United States to look their interviewers in the eye during the interview. This is very much an American cultural norm, and it tends to denote confidence and power. People need to also maintain a confident and positive attitude during their job interviews, trying to hide any of the nervousness that they might understandably feel.
Potential employers may be able to tolerate a little bit of nervousness, but job interviews in the United States are partly tests of people’s ability to cope with stress and maintain their composure. The individuals who are able to do so will have already won half the battle. Employers will usually imagine that these applicants will be just as confident when they are actually on the job, regardless of whether or not this is actually true in practice.
The other half of the battle concerns coming up with all of the best answers to the questions that the job interviewers are going to answer. Job interviewers are going to ask a lot of the same questions, and it is possible to work out some of the answers in advance. They are certainly going to ask people about why they want to work at the company in question, and people have to find some answer that doesn’t contain references to the salary involved. Companies are trying to avoid people who are just interested in getting paychecks, regardless of whether or not it is true.
Avoid:
People should avoid outright lying during these questions, but they can’t technically answer honestly, either. Job interviews are partly tests of manners. People who are masters of giving polite but evasive answers in normal conversation will usually be able to do the same thing during job interviews.
Idea:
It is often a good idea to research a company before the job interview. People who do this will be able to talk about the reasons why they want to work at a particular company, and they can do so with no references to the salary. They can talk about the company’s success, mission statement, and profitability. They can talk about the work environment involved.
At any rate:
At any rate, signaling to employers that they were able to do research in advance is already going to help create a great first impression for anyone.
Applicants can try to work in the research that they did on the company in question whenever they can, although they should avoid going overboard.
It is also a good idea for job applicants to ask questions in the final stage of the job interview, and if they research the company in advance, they will be able to ask questions that are intelligent and informed.
Questions:
The job interview questions that are harder to answer are the ones that concern the applicants themselves. Employers are going to ask their interview subjects about their strengths and weaknesses. People should try to list genuine weaknesses without mentioning the wrong ones. Good employees are going to have certain weaknesses, such as being too driven.
Then:
Interviewers aren’t going to want to hire people who say that laziness is their biggest weakness, however, so this is a bad answer even if it is true.
People aren’t always going to know what to say in advance, which means that a certain degree of improvisation is important. People who respond well to pressure and who can think on their feet will ultimately be the people who will succeed in job interviews.