Hi yall after being on disability income for years and job searching for months I finally got to step two of the job search process: a job interview.

I am wondering if anyone had any tips for the job interview process? I am very nervous.

  • Larvitar@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Don’t bring your parents to the interview lol.

    Seriously though, you’re interviewing the company as much as they are interviewing you. Find interview questions examples to ask during the interview. You’ll want to find out if you like the work culture, if it looks like the interviewers like their job, how frequent overtime is required, etc.

    Whether they give you a job offer or not, don’t sweat it. There is a lot going on at the company outside of your control that will affect them giving a job offer or not regardless of how well you did in the interview. I recommend taking the interview as a learning experience and practice with a friend beforehand. Doing well in interviews is a skill especially for technical interviews where folks can ask a range of questions while all eyes are on you.

    Good luck!

  • Snart@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Clean up, dress traditionally, get there extra early so you have time to familiarize yourself with the location and decompress (breathing, stretching in the parking lot, etc.), and get into the building early to wait ~10-15 minutes before your interview is set to start. Do not bad mouth ANYTHING, be optimistic and portray yourself as an obedient worker but a free thinker. Make sure you drink lots of water the day before and eat before you go, try not to overcaffeinate. You can message me if you need hyping up or more information :>

  • FredOnline@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Be nice to everyone, from the receptionist upwards, and if you’re offered a cup of coffee/tea, offer to wash the cup yourself afterwards. Little things that show you’re thoughtful.

    • tj@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I once had a guy loudly complain that I hadn’t brought sparkling water to the session. Needless to say, he didn’t make it to the second interview

  • ReallyKinda@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Great job scoring an interview! Having worked in HR plus had a couple jobs, here’s my advice:

    1. look at the tasks you’ll be completing if you get the job and think about any experience you have that would help demonstrate that you’re experienced and able to do that thing. Think outside the box! Your examples don’t need to come from the workplace if you use clear reasoning. Interviewers love examples.

    2. Pull a sample interview of common questions offline and write down how you’d respond to each question.

    3. Don’t take things personally if things don’t go well. There are SO many reasons that you might not get a position that have absolutely nothing to do with you. One big one is that companies often already have someone internal in mind but have to meet certain job posting requirements. Just keep trekking and the chips will fall your way eventually.

  • Biotic@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Have a glass of water at the ready. It always helps to soothe my nerves and if I get stuck on answering a question, taking a sip gives me time to think things through. It’s also practical because if you’re doing most of the talking you’ll end up with a dry mouth and no one wants to croak during an interview. All this applies for both video call interviews or on site, in which case ask for a glass of water before you start the interview.

  • Wahots@pawb.social
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    1 year ago

    Congrats! Scope our the website for the company, sometimes they will ask if you’ve looked them up/made an effort to do research on them. Scoping out your interviewer on social media too, like linked in. Can make conversations flow more naturally if you know them a bit.

    Finally, dress a bit nicer than normal, fresh clothes, iron them the night before so that you are ready to go. Probably goes without saying, but being showered, clean, and smelling great goes a long way in a first impression too. Finally, a firm handshake when meeting them. Good luck ^^

  • avividtale@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    So, one of my favorite questions for interviews is something like this:

    “What are the top 3 things you would want any new person walking in the door to know?”

    If they ask you to elaborate, you can explain this is a deliberately broad question meant to catch the kinds of important, organization specific things someone might not think to ask. It could be anything from “When the boss has his door closed it means he’s working on a key project, don’t knock just come back later” or “Never drink the coffee on Monday mornings.” It could also be: “A,B, and C are serious priorities for Management eventually.”

    This sometimes catches people off guard (which is not a bad sign), but it can often yield good information.

    Congrats and best of luck to you!

  • bbbhltz@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    I came to give some advice but I see all the bases are covered! Part of my job is career counselling a d helping with stuff like this. I see all the good tips here so it looks like you came to the right place to ask your question.

  • Jim@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Be confident and know your worth. Don’t accept the job without getting explicit details on the salary. Surprisingly often, jobs will try to hire people before ever actually showing them, on paper, what they are willing to pay. Or worse, they might lowball you in the interview when the job posting was for a higher wage. Don’t get exploited by a company just because they make the first offer to hire you, there are more opportunities than this one.

  • LemmyAtem@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Really depends on the Job Type/field. I have an excellent interview record, so I’m happy to give you some tips if you need them!

  • BricksDont@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Look up popular interview questions ahead of time and think of ways to answer them, then practice giving the answers! You really can’t practice enough- the more you do it, the more confident and prepared you’ll be in the moment. Bring a copy or two of your resume, and paper to write notes on. At the top of your paper, list some of your accomplishments (to remind yourself if you blank in the moment).

    When answering questions, be direct and give concrete examples whenever possible. Try not to ramble on or talk around the question.

    If it’s in person, get there a little early so you’re not rushing in with sweat dripping down your brow lol. If it’s online, login 5 minutes early to make sure the technology is working. Wear something professional (what this looks like will vary by job, but generally nothing too revealing or casual, like a t shirt and sneakers).

    Remember that you are there to evaluate them just as much as they are evaluating you! Show that you’re interested by looking into the company a bit beforehand, mentioning what you appreciate about their company values (or whatever), and having questions at the ready for the interviewers.

    Read www.askamanager.org! SO many amazing tips on not only interviewing but lots of other work related stuff!

    Good luck!

  • TheCalzoneMan@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Assuming this is a corporate job, come up with a couple questions for your interviewer. Get them talking about the company and they’ll remember you as a good listener. My usual go-to questions are:

    • “What’s the company culture like?”

    • “What aspect of the company do you see as the most enjoyable?”

    • “Why did you chose to work for the company, and what’s made you stay?”

    Questions like that. Try to make it personal and specific, since it’s usually the hiring manager that you’re interviewing with. You can write them down and bring them with you; as long as you’re bringing multiple copies of your resume, you can stash the questions at the bottom of the stack.

    If it isn’t a corporate position, then it depends. I can’t answer for those since I’ve only done labor and corporate, so I don’t now how to interview for technical or artistic positions. I would assume make sure you have your portfolio on hand, though be careful about doing on-site consultations since you would be giving them designs for free and they have no obligation to hire you after that. If they try to do that to you, do not continue the interview with them. Just thank them for their time and leave.

    • chibi-totoro@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I agree with your premise and approach to personalization, 100%… but not those exact questions.

      I run a lot of software engineering teams and I interview people every week. I get those three exact questions from almost every single candidate. Frankly, those questions do not show any particular interest in your company - they are generic questions and kind of have a negative framing to them. The company culture one is especially annoying for a lot of reasons. If company culture is important to you, there are much better ways to tease it out from the interviewer.

      Try to actually show real interest in the job, try some of these ideas:

      • Ask questions about the responsibilities of the role, and tell them you love doing whatever they are.
      • Ask about the kinds of projects you’ll get to work on. Relate them to any experience you have, if you’re lucky enough.
      • Ask about the latest press releases you’ve seen for the company.
      • Ask about the tools/software/training that is required or available for the role.
      • Ask about how much autonomy you’ll have in bringing new ideas in for improving things (I love this one, it shows they might be a self-starter and have curiosity and agency).
      • Ask about what kind of fun things the workers do together. Do you have a memes channel in your slack? Do you ever go for team lunches? Do they bring their dogs to the office?
      • Ask about the roadmap for the department where the potential role is. What’s the vision?

      All of these kinds of questions actually show genuine interest in getting involved. Remember that a company is just a bunch of people working together. I will take an engaged, friendly, curious and smart candidate with barely any experience over a distant, disengaged, looking-for-the-least-bad-option AAA software dev any day of the week.

      Hope that helps!

      • demvoter@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Ask about how much autonomy you’ll have in bringing new ideas in for improving things

        That is a fantastic question.

      • TheCalzoneMan@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        Agreed that they’re relatively boring questions, but anything deeper is going to be industry-specific. For example, asking what projects you’ll be working on is not particularly helpful for someone who is going into secretarial work. Since OP has never done an interview before, it’s mostly important to start them thinking about how they will engage the hiring manager, since it shows at least some interest beyond just having a job. I think it’s especially important to figure out where the hiring manager is positioned relative to the job they’re hiring for. Are they your boss, or are they hiring for the company? That will give a better idea on if they can answer direct questions about the position or department.

        Again, questions are going to be determined by the type of work, the position, the position of the person doing the interview, etc. Without more info, it’s hard to tailor questions to the specific. And, quite frankly, it’s a good skill to pick up. Learning how to engage your coworkers/managers/vendors/etc. is part of workplace etiquette, imo.

  • Gray@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    It really depends on your field of work, but if it touches customer service (or even is just a job that will involve socializing with peers) at all then I think my biggest advice is to just be very friendly and approachable. Practice your regular conversational skills.