Interviews are hard. Super hard. Add travel, and you’re looking at a very stressful situation. Not just stress about sounding competent and knowledgeable, but stress over hotel and flight logistics! Here’s some advice for acing that interview, regardless of where the interview is.
General:
- Practice ahead of time. Find example interview questions, and have someone practice with you. For my last interview, Home Warrior quizzed me day and night for a week. There are sample questions everywhere, but we found great ones on Monster.
- STAR format. Situational interviewing is everywhere, but organizing your thoughts on the fly is hard. Prior to the interview, think of 3-4 situations you can cover, and during the interview discuss them like this: Situation, Task, Action, Result. I.E.: Last year, my team fell 30% behind on sales goals (Situation). Our manager told us to figure out a way to exceed our goals by end of quarter (Task). By expanding our customer base and offering new products to existing partners (Action), the team ended with a quarterly attainment of 105% (Result).
- Research the company, industry, and role. Before interviewing, spend time learning about the company and role. Having a working knowledge of the industry is also very important. Familiarity with these can help you stand out, but a lack of knowledge will be a strike against you.
Travel:
- Plan for delays. Missing your interview due to flight delays is terrible. Arriving the day before eliminates this, and you avoid going straight from the airport to the office. Map out your route from hotel to office ahead of time, noting road construction or other delays and planning accordingly.
- Pack smart. Bring a suit that doesn’t wrinkle. Affordable, attractive, wrinkle resistant collections are everywhere! Don’t wear anything new that may be uncomfortable, because worrying about the tag on your pantyhose during the interview is lame.
- Worst case. If you do have to go directly from the airport to the office, don’t wear your suit on the plane. After landing, go to the ladies’ room, change clothes, and fix your hair and makeup.
Before you land the interview, you need a job to apply for. That’s where BeKnown comes in! BeKnown is a professional networking app for Facebook. Set up a professional profile separate from your Facebook profile, network with alumni on the College Pages, search Monster’s database of job postings (without leaving Facebook), and find many valuable tools. This app is cool—check it out! (As part of this contest I want lots of readers to check out BeKnown—so do a gal a favor and take a look!)
In honor of BeKnown and Monster, give me your best interview tip! (Bonus points if it’s travel related.) The winner will be randomly chosen on Tuesday January 10th. One entry per person. Winner receives a makeup kit and business card holder from Monster!
Road Warriorette is participating in a blogger contest from Monster, and will receive a prize kit (makeup kit and business card holder) for participation.
I do mainly phone interviews as I am currently working contract work – keeping a mirror in front of me when doing them helps to remind me to keep smiling – (or you can put the mirror behind your camera if you are doing a webcam interview) – helps with your voice quality and tone…
Research research research!
Very important to understand the company and the industry, latest news, prior to the interview. This helps you ask smart questions to impress the interviewee.
Alot of people do not try on their clothes prior to an interview – especially the first interview in a long time. Try the suit on a week or two before in case it needs alterations or you need to buy a whole new suit all together.
Practice questions with someone. It helps to get asked something unexpected so you will know how to respond and not have “dead air”.
I just remind myself that the interviewer is just another person like me. Nothing to be nervous about.
Dress for success! Even if the job won’t require a business dress code, act like it will in the interview. You will inspire confidence and also feel more confident.
Think before you speak! It is ok to pause for a few seconds before you answer a question.
Use Google to reserach:
— The company will interview you + their Executives
— Your travel plans — using FF miles or $
— Check the hotel/resturants you will stay/eat
If you have to travel for your interview, always try to arrive the day before. This way, you always look refreshed when you head to the interview, and there is less chance of rescheduling due to flight delay etc. You never know how urgent the company needs to fill that position or the availability of the executives interviewing you. Whether it’s your fault or not, if you need to reschedule the interview, you are less likely to get the job. It just reflects poorly on your planning skills!
Never pose as if you are dying to get the job….
– make eye contact
– ask questions
– follow-up with a thank you note
Though you need to be professional, employers like to know that your being HONEST and YOURSELF in an interview.
Make conversation
Smile, laugh, be YOURSELF
I have always aced interviews when I was confident and being myself. When they ask what my weaknesses are I don’t say I work too hard, I’m HONEST. Most of the time the employers already know what some of your weakness are they just want to see if you will be upfront with them.
Always Always pack a second interview worthy outfit!
This prevents you from having to re-wear the outfit if you are called back for a second day of interview. Its happened to me, when someone who -had- to interview for the position had a last minute emergency.
Preparing for the questions you expect to be asked in the interview is important, and there are many many books and articles that offer suggestions about how to do this. Also VERY IMPORTANT, however, is to think about what are the key messages, separate from answering the interviewers questions, that you want to communicate. Make sure you can very articulate what you want to get across to the interviewer about yourself and then make sure you find a way to do this during the interview!
First, thanks for all of the tips. I have an interview on Wednesday and these are definitely coming in handy. I would have to say practice, practice, practice. I have been thinking up questions and reviewing questions online as well as reviewing some of the concepts in my field of work that I am a little rusty on.
Habe confidence in yourself. That’s probably the most important hurdle.
Wear something you’ve worn before, preferably an outfit you wore when you had another successful event. An interview is not the place for trying a new suit, as tempting as it is. Remember your prior success to project confidence in the interview.