The Best Prep for a Job Interview

Your interview starts long before you show up at the job.

If you want to stand out from the pack and impress the interviewer, you’ll have to psych yourself up and mentally prepare.

[Check out my Power Pose post]

You’ll also need to do your homework about the job itself.

Here’s a simple strategy that will help you nail the interview and demonstrate your dedication, focus, and intelligence.

Study the Job Description

1. Define each of the responsibilities listed in your own words.

2. Do you know what they mean, what they are asking you to know or do? 

3. Can you define those words so it makes sense to you and you know what the job is?  

4. You might not understand them all, and that’s OK. But mark the ones you do know and now ask if you have a relevant skill or experience that can support that responsibility. 

5. Write down next to each line your relevant skills or experience. These skills or experience could come from something you did on a sports team, at a summer job, or in a community you belong to, like your sorority or volunteer organization. It might even relate to your role in your family. For instance, maybe you are the oldest sibling so you’re a natural leader. 

Let’s take one line from this job description for Creative Project Manager and see if we know what they mean for this responsibility:  

“Proactively identifies fresh and innovative approaches to team projects.”  

Here they are asking you to have new ideas when communicating and bringing teams together to collaborate on a project. Are you someone who can take charge of major changes about how people work together? Can you lead teams in a fresh new way?

Show Your Growth Mindset

Again, it’s OK if you do not know every responsibility on the job description, or if you don’t have experience in all of them.

In all the jobs I’ve applied for, even ones where I was recruited, I didn’t have experience in some of the responsibilities I would end up holding if hired.

In fact, it’s normal only to know about 70% of the role and learn the remaining 30% on the job.

Be honest about your skills and experiences. Give the impression that you are comfortable learning and that you can grow into your role.

You might provide an example where you have demonstrated learning something new quickly.  

If you found this tip helpful and want to go deeper into how to get more confidence and less confusion when applying for jobs, schedule a free career strategy session.

And remember… “Life doesn’t just happen. You make life happen."