A majority of the companies use an interview to hire people. Your
performance in the interview is crucial for your career. It not only helps
you get the job but also plays a critical role in deciding your
compensation. It doesn’t matter whether you have the subject matter
expertise, experience or the knowledge of the job, if you perform well in
the interview, you can move to the next stage in your career quickly. Thus,
you must prepare well for any interview. Even if you are not serious about
the prospective job, you must prepare for it extensively as it will boost
your confidence for future interviews.

Take care of the following things when you go for your next interview:

Know a few things

An interview is a test for you. You should have a bare minimum knowledge
about certain things to pass the test. Irrespective of the position or the
job, you must know following things before going for an interview:

Know yourself

Write a brief profile of yours on a blank paper. Highlight your personal
and professional achievements, strengths and expectations from the next
job. Many candidates get confused or fumble while answering questions
related to these areas. Remember, the interviewers or employers won’t hire
someone who is confused about themselves. Thus, know yourself very well and
try to articulate it before going for an interview.

Know about the company

You must do a research about the company where you are going the interview.
You don’t need to know a lot of things. Only find out its products or
services, foundation day or year, values, mission and vision and a few
things about its management and employees. That will be a big help during
the interview.

Know about the role/job

You must know about the job for which you are being interviewed. If you are
a fresher or want to shift your industry, search LinkedIn and talk to a few
people about the details of the job for which you are heading for the
interview.

Prepare for Common Questions

Irrespective of the nature of job, company and the role, there are certain
questions which are always standard for all the interviews. Here are some
of the questions you should prepare for:

Commonly asked interview questions

• Tell us something about yourself
• List your top three strengths
• Tell us two biggest weaknesses of yours
• Why should we hire you?
• How much salary are you expecting?
• Why do you want to work here?
• Where do you see yourself three to five years from now?
• What is your biggest achievement till date?
• Do you have any question for me/us?
• How can you say that you are a team player or have leadership qualities?

Customize the answer of some of these questions according to the job. Also,
while responding to these questions, speak about things that you know very
well. It will help you lead the conversation in your strong areas.

Also, search for some commonly asked technical questions related to your
field, if you are going for a technical interview. For example, if you are
looking for a programming job in Java, you will find a lot of common
questions related to Java and programming that interviewers ask.

If you can prepare these common questions, you can easily answer almost
70-80% of the questions of any interview.

Take Care of Body Language

Take care of your body language during the interview. Sit straight. Smile
while answering the questions. Be polite, firm and assertive. You must show
a high level of confidence (without being overconfident) even if you are
not feeling confident. Don’t shake your legs. If there are more than one
person on the interview panel, try to make eye contact with everyone during
the entire interview.

Ask a Question

At the end of the interview, always ask a question that shows your
willingness to join the company. Ask the questions that show your interest
and passion about the job. Avoid asking questions related to salary, leaves
or personal life of interviewers.

Conclusion

If you prepare well for five interviews, you will definitely crack the
sixth one. Thus, work hard and prepare well before appearing for the next
interview. Going unprepared is like wasting your valuable time and forcing
yourself to fail.

If you have any questions regarding your career, ask us here.

About the Author
David is a Private Educator and a Career Counselor at GogoTraining. He is passionate about IT courses, specially the Java online training programs and help students accomplish more. Connect with him on social media to get latest update about the It Industry.