EASY Top 10 Tips & Tricks for Interviewing

So how do you prepare? Pick any list and think about which questions you're most likely to encounter, given your age and status about to graduate, looking for a summer internship. Then prepare your answers so you won't have to fumble for them during the actual interview. Line up your questions for the interviewer. Come to the interview with some intelligent questions for the interviewer that demonstrate your knowledge of the company as well as your serious intent.

10 Job Interview Tips and Tricks for Job Seekers (Get the Job Now)

Interviewers always ask if you have any questions, and no matter what, you should have one or two ready. If you say, "No, not really," he or she may conclude that you're not all that interested in the job or the company. A good all-purpose question is, "If you could design the ideal candidate for this position from the ground up, what would he or she be like?

If you're having a series of interviews with the same company, you can use some of your prepared questions with each person you meet for example, "What do you think is the best thing about working here? It's one thing to come prepared with a mental answer to a question like, "Why should we hire you?

The first time you try it, you'll sound garbled and confused, no matter how clear your thoughts are in your own mind! Do it another 10 times, and you'll sound a lot smoother and more articulate. But you shouldn't do your practicing when you're "on stage" with a recruiter; rehearse before you go to the interview.

The best way to rehearse? Get two friends and practice interviewing each other in a "round robin": Another idea but definitely second-best is to tape record your answer and then play it back to see where you need to improve. Whatever you do, make sure your practice consists of speaking aloud. Rehearsing your answer in your mind won't cut it. Score a success in the first five minutes.

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Some studies indicate that interviewers make up their minds about candidates in the first five minutes of the interview — and then spend the rest of the interview looking for things to confirm that decision! So what can you do in those five minutes to get through the gate? Come in with energy and enthusiasm, and express your appreciation for the interviewer's time. She may be seeing a lot of other candidates that day and may be tired from the flight in.

Top 10 Interview Tips and Tricks

So bring in that energy! Also, start off with a positive comment about the company — something like, "I've really been looking forward to this meeting [not "interview"]. I think [the company] is doing great work in [a particular field or project], and I'm really excited by the prospect of being able to contribute. Get on the same side as the interviewer.

Many interviewers view job interviews as adversarial: Candidates are going to try to pry an offer out of the interviewer, and the interviewer's job is to hold onto it. Your job is to transform this "tug of war" into a relationship in which you're both on the same side.

You could say something as simple as, "I'm happy to have the chance to learn more about your company and to let you learn more about me, so we can see if this is going to be a good match or not. I always think that the worst thing that can happen is to be hired into a job that's wrong for you — then nobody's happy! Be assertive and take responsibility for the interview. Perhaps out of the effort to be polite, some usually assertive candidates become overly passive during job interviews.

But politeness doesn't equal passivity. Don't make the mistake of just sitting there waiting for the interviewer to ask you about that Nobel Prize you won. It's your responsibility to make sure he walks away knowing your key selling points. Be ready to handle illegal and inappropriate questions. Interview questions about your race, age, gender, religion, marital status, and sexual orientation are inappropriate and in many areas illegal.

Nevertheless, you may get one or more of them. If you do, you have a couple of options. You can simply answer with a question "I'm not sure how that's relevant to my application" , or you can try to answer "the question behind the question": Make your selling points clear. If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, did it make a sound?

More important, if you communicate your selling points during a job interview and the interviewer doesn't get it, did you score? On this question, the answer is clear: So don't bury your selling points in long-winded stories. Instead, tell the interviewer what your selling point is first, then give the example.

No one likes a complainer, so don't dwell on negative experiences during an interview. Even if the interviewer asks you point blank, "What courses have you liked least? Or more specifically, don't answer it as it's been asked. Instead, say something like, "Well, actually I've found something about all of my classes that I've liked.

For example, although I found [class] to be very tough, I liked the fact that [positive point about the class]" or "I liked [a previous job] quite a bit, although now I know that I really want to [new job]. Close on a positive note. If a salesman came to you and demonstrated his product, then thanked you for your time and walked out the door, what did he do wrong? He didn't ask you to buy it!

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If you get to the end of an interview and think you'd really like that job, ask for it! Tell the interviewer that you'd really, really like the job — that you were excited about it before the interview and are even more excited now, and that you're convinced you'd like to work there. If there are two equally good candidates at the end of the search — you and someone else — the interviewer will think you're more likely to accept the offer, and thus may be more inclined to make an offer to you.

Even better, take what you've learned about yourself from your MyPath career assessment and use it to explain why you think this is the job for you: I also know that I'm most motivated by [two or three of your most important motivators from your MyPath assessment], and I have the sense that if I do well, I could get those rewards in this position.

Finally, I know that my strongest abilities are [two or three of your strongest abilities from your MyPath assessment], and I see those as being the abilities you most need for this position. You'll be making the strongest possible "close" — and that's worth a lot! Bring a copy of your resume to every interview.

Have Interview Clothes Ready to Go

For ladies, a professional skirt is absolutely fine, but keep it at or below knee length. Low-cut tops should be matched with a conservative tank top that covers cleavage. Ties and jackets are optional for many jobs these days, but should be worn if you are interviewing for a job and place where management wears ties. There are some questions that are commonly asked in interviews for just about any position. If you are interviewing for a skill-based job such as computer programming, be prepared to prove your skills in a written or computer-based test.

Common tests given to Web developers is a challenge to create a simple webpage that has a specific feature, or to debug some buggy code. Arriving late to an interview is one of the worst things you can do. One good strategy would be to leave your home well before your interview and plan out something to do in the area to kill time, such as visit a nearby store or grab a coffee. Take some time to learn about the company to which you are applying. This means getting a sense for what the company does, and what type of culture it works to cultivate among its employees.

You can learn a lot about a company through its website, and find some pretty helpful behind-the-scenes tips on sites like Glassdoor which hosts reviews of companies left by employees and interviewees. Practice interviews are great! They help you get over any anxiety you might be having about the process, present you with questions you might not have expected, and give you insight into how well you interview.

Find a friend that is honest, and preferably experienced with interviewing people. Their objective insights will prove invaluable to you when the real interview comes along. The questions the interviewer asks are only part of the actual interview. The questions asked by the person being interviewed are often equally important.