First of all congratulations on the first interview. This job is officially yours to lose now. Meaning based on your resume and everything they know about you to date, they think you have the requirements and skills to be a fit for their open position. Now you just need to spend the rest of the interview process validating and supporting their initial inclination.
During a first interview a few topics are fair game. First of all you should know your resume inside out. The resume is the only information they have on you and they have likely identified some hot spots that they intend to explore further. Standard resume hot spots can include any of the following:
- employment history – why did you make all of your previous job changes most specifically the ones that didn’t last too long.
- significant accomplishments and your specific involvement – an employer might ask about a project you worked on and may ask everything and anything related to that project (please note that anything on your resume is fair game here so be prepared to discuss your ancient projects as well as your recent ones).
- Your specific responsibilities at each of your past employers – note many people like to talk about what their team or company did and accomplished which is a mistake considering it is you that is being considered for the job not your co-workers.
Above and beyond your resume, you should spend a fair amount of time researching the company you are interviewing with – surf through their website, read the ceo’s blog, get to know your potential peers
on LinkedIn and Facebook, subscribe to a few of their twitter feeds, go on glassdoor and read their feedback. I always ask anybody I interview to tell me everything they know about my company and I follow that up with why do
you want to work for my company. People who give generic or unresearched answers are immediate disqualifications.
And finally be prepared to make a case for why the company should hire you. It is common for a company to ask: why do you want this job or why should we hire you. If you don’t know the answer to this, how could you expect them to.
Oh and last but not least don’t forget to express your interest in this role and ask for the next step. Saying something as simple as, ‘well I really enjoyed getting to know you. I think I would really enjoy the opportunity to work together. What is the best way to proceed from here?’ In conclusion. although some of these tips may seem like common sense, preparing to discuss these could be the difference between getting that job or not.
Good luck!! Knock ‘em dead!!
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