How to Prepare for Your Job Interview

Preparing for a job interview might seems like a waste of time, since predicting which interview questions you will be asked is impossible. However, there are key steps you can take to increase your chances of getting the job. As an experienced HR Professional, I've conducted my fair share of job interviews. For those of you struggling with interview preparation, I'd like to share the top three most important actions you can take to help ensure success.

First and foremost, learn as much as you can about the open position and associated job duties. If you don't understand what the job entails, you cannot be adequately prepared to give examples that demonstrate your ability to successfully perform in the position. You can easily obtain this information by studying the job posting, searching the company website and conducting broader internet searches on similar jobs in the industry.

Second, understand the company culture. You can think of culture as the organization's personality. Culture drives the behavior of employees and leaders in the organization because it defines the values, norms and assumptions. Culture impacts areas such as leadership style, work/life balance viewpoints and communications to name a few. If you understand the company culture before your interview, you can ensure your answers to interview questions position you as a good fit within the company. Throughout the interview, the interviewer will be looking to assess your compatibility within the company. For example, a candidate who emphasizes the need for face-to-face communications wouldn't be a good match with a company that places high value on the ability to work with geographically dispersed co-workers and limits travel. Understanding culture will also help you determine whether you would indeed be happy working for a particular company. After all, the interview process goes both ways!

The third action you can take to prepare for success during your job interview is to develop a set of job anecdotes based on your knowledge of the required job duties and what you learned about the company culture. These stories will be your toolkit to draw from an can be tailored with little effort to apply to a multitude of interview questions. Take some time to look through your resume and reflect on your job history. If you are fairly new to the working world, incorporate your experiences while in school or as a member of an organization in your community. Pull out your most job-relevant and valuable accomplishments from the past and spend time developing your stories about them so that when you are asked a question, you don't have trouble thinking of a good answer. Remember, many accomplishments and the corresponding story can be used to answer a number of different questions. For example, a story about how you solved a conflict with a team member could be used to address interview questions around teaming, communications, conflict resolution or problem solving.

With a little up front preparation, you can dramatically improve your chances of landing that dream job! Good luck!