How to Prepare for an Interview
Interviews are
opportunities for marketing one's skills and abilities. Most companies value the candidate based only upon interview performance. Interviews can be unpredictable. It can range from being simple and less stressful to a serious drill-down. Some interviews are serious to the extent that even the smallest actions of the candidate will be accounted. So the candidate is credited for everything in an interview. Even with such heavy factors a job interview can be faced with ease, if the candidate gets ample preparation.
The candidate should understand the thought behind interviews to get through it. The general idea or thought behind every interview is 'do not select a wrong person even if you miss the right one'. This has made the interview situation kind of tricky. It has become necessary to be the best even to clear the first round of interviews. The following are some techniques that would teach you how to prepare for an interview.
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The first point to understand before an interview is that your resume has been screened and found fit by the company, so you have a good chance of getting in. The second is technical knowledge. Updating and refreshing technical skills before an interview is a must. Technical abilities can be improved by:
- Complete Understanding of your work
- Refreshing or polishing your knowledge through study sessions
- Writing down technical experiences
- Latest developments in your field
- What does the company deal with?
- What are the company's products?
- Market performance of the products.
Chemical engineers may need to take a look at the recent advancements in reactor technologies, programmers need to know about a critical update released for a bugged operating system etc.
Technical and communication skills are the two wings of any interview, in balancing both of them candidates can fly through an interview. Good communication skills help to deliver the answer with clarity and confidence. Confidence can come through practice. It is advisable to take a mock interview. It helps in building confidence, improving voice clarity and performing well in the interview
Another important part of an interview is interaction. The interview panel would like to interact with the candidate. Proper interaction would enable easier transaction of questions and answers, which in turn helps the interviewer in exploring the candidate to a greater extent. Smile can make interaction fruitful. Smile is known to be the curve that sets everything straight. A smile in an interview can ease out the pressure and give a positive impression to the interviewer that the candidate is confident. Most interviewers would prefer a person with this attitude.
Although technical skills, confidence and smile give a positive impression, excess practice before the interview is also not advisable. All interviewers may not like a smile during an interview. Some interviewers can become very serious that they expect only answer that they have in mind. Several experiences cite the interviewer asking the same question many times until he got the answer he wanted.
The preparation for an interview includes developing technical knowledge, confidence and communication. A little relaxation before the interview can ease out the pressure and enable a smooth interview session.