Acing an Interview

By Mackenzie Rose

Coming off a string of freelancing or contractual jobs, you may have forgotten the stress-filled, often times degrading process known as an interview. Transitioning from your current freelance career to the part-time or full-time employment industry can be difficult and the very first step is to fine-tune your interviewing skills.

Let’s say you apply for a job and based on your beautiful resume, printed on glossy photo paper, you get a call back. “Jim!” the guy says, “Love your credentials and I can see my reflection in your resume here, how about you come in for an interview?” Suddenly it hits you, “I hate interviews.” My hands get clammy, my voice shaky and my eye does this weird thing that makes it look like I am winking, suggestively winking, if you know what I mean. There are simple steps, however, that can turn you into an interviewing ace in no time:

Know the Company

Nothing makes you look more qualified than firsthand knowledge. I don’t mean go into an interview and say, “The stock is down, revenue is miniscule and I give you guys three years before chapter eleven.” Unless of course you have a clever recommendation to add, but at that point you may already be in the elevator catching a last glimpse of the guys in the office using your shredded resume as streamers. Know people, know products and gather questions. Many companies are going to ask you basic questions about their company they want you to know, but if you fire back with questions of your own, it demonstrates interest and knowledge. If you believe in your knowledge of the company, they will too. Don’t quickly glance at the finance pages before the interview; spend some time reading company profiles and corporate biographies.

Read Your Resume

It is hard to imagine how many people go into an interview with the same resume they made some ten years ago. “So Bob, tell me more about this freelance photography job you had back in ’99, what exactly were your job specifications? All it says here is, ‘took pretty pictures’ (or something to that extent).” In this case, two things are going to happen:

1. You, not looking over your resume before hand, are going to have to think on your feet fast or else face the risk of the “um’s” and “uh’s” coming out of your mouth and looking about as qualified as Oliver the Monkey (he actually was one of the smartest monkeys of our era so maybe this would over qualify you)

2. You are going to talk about a job from 1986 as the two people behind the desk both look at each other and smirk before cutting you off and ending the interview

Make sure you read over your resume; it is hard to give the appearance of a qualified competent person if you know the least information about yourself of all things. Take the time, even if it just the night before, to look over your past experiences so that when the question comes up, you are more than ready with the correct response.

Teamwork, Teamwork, Teamwork

In a survey of hundreds of interviewers, it was not degrees or even GPAs that were the most looked for quality in a candidate, it was the ability to work in a team. Most employers will tell you, it is EQ (emotional intelligence) rather than IQ that best predicts career success. Don’t go into an interview and talk about your degree from Harvard or how you got the best grade in Professor Archibald’s Finance 300 class, they already have that information on your resume. Instead, talk about your teamwork abilities gained from prior jobs or even everyday experiences. In most cases, they will ask the question without you ever having to mention it. It is tough to find a job where you are not working with other people. It is important to interviewers that you are capable of teamwork and not some Machiavellian know-it-all who everyone will resent. High EQ with at least moderate IQ means an effective employee while high IQ coupled with low EQ means a highly argumentative show off best suited for the engineering department.

Interviewing is a combination of knowledge and acting, unless of course you are highly unqualified for the job, then interviewing is going up an elevator then almost immediately back down. You need to go in with a positive attitude and a smile across your face. Know your company and more importantly know yourself. Show interest, even if your interest level as high as the time you read Crime and Punishment for English class in the 12th grade, show it. If you don’t interview well, qualifications may mean nothing in the end. Rehearse it the night before if you have to, but don’t fall victim to interview stressors, go in with confidence and walk out with the job.