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Complete Guide to Interviewing

Featured Author:

Sharon Blaivas

Sharon Blaivas, founder of Shake Up My Resume , is a human resources professional with over 14 years of experience in the field. For over 10 years, she was a member of the Human Resources team at Goldman, Sachs & Co. For most of her career at Goldman she was involved in recruiting on both the campus and experienced hires sides. In addition, she was involved in benefits administration, training, performance evaluations and compensation determinations.

More articles from this author:

• The Art of Resume Writing

Most job candidates approach the interviewing process with one of two extreme, though opposite, attitudes – anxiety or indifference; neither of which is preferable. Feelings of anxiety generally result from an excessive focus on the pressure to do well on the interview in order to secure the position, and on all that can possibly go wrong during the interview. Such feelings are particularly prevalent in the current environment, where job interviews, and even more so job openings, are few and far between.

On the other end of the spectrum, indifference, may result from numerous factors, including laziness in adequately preparing for the interview, a lack of confidence that the interview will yield positive results, overconfidence in your ability to secure the position, or the belief that an interview is simply a conversation with another person (and no different from having a conversation with a friend or acquaintance).

The most effective interviewing approach actually falls somewhere in between these two extremes. Some initial nervousness or anxiety is useful to ensure that you adequately prepare for the interview and don’t simply brush it off or procrastinate. On the other hand, some (small) level of indifference or nonchalance can also be useful, to the extent it enables you to be calm and collected on the interview, and allow you to realize that the world will not come to an end if you don’t get this job.

A candidate should consider the interview as an opportunity to present himself or herself in the best possible light, with the goal of securing a desired job or position, and resolve to make every effort to make the most of that opportunity. For some, it may be helpful to view an interview as a self-challenge of “how positive of an impression can I make on my interviewers?”

What all this boils down to is that each interview should be taken seriously, and should be prepared to the best of your abilities, but not taken so seriously that you cannot be relaxed and collected on your interviews.

Interviewing should be given the proper attention as a critical step in one’s livelihood and career advancement. Yes, we all know what we do for a living, but an interview may involve many unknown or unforeseeable challenges or potential pitfalls, such as an interviewer with a tough personality, difficult or “oddball” questions, or you simply not feeling up to par that day. However, with proper preparation it is possible to overcome any of these obstacles, and to enable even the most nervous personality to truly shine.

Whether just entering the workforce, returning after some time away, or transitioning to a new job for the first or tenth time, we can all benefit from some guidance on the topic of interviewing. An interview technically begins when you walk through the door of the potential employer and technically ends when you walk out of that door. Preparations for the interview must begin well before that and follow-up continues well beyond the click (and hopefully not slam) of the door.

Below are some basic guidelines and tips that can help you ace any interview. Remember, it is often not the most qualified candidate who gets the job, but the most prepared candidate!