Well hello everyone Julian Placido here today professional recruiter and career coach. The topic of the conversation today is how to succeed with interviews. So if you think about the anatomy of an interview, it's kind of an uncomfortable conversation in the sense that it's kind of two perfect strangers trying to get to know each other. So the desired outcome of this particular training is to create the best possible representation of yourself to the prospective employer. Now, getting a job is really a byproduct of the quality and quantity of offers that you create for yourself. And this is the highest value event that can take place in your job search, which is the interview.

So here's the agenda, we're going to be talking about three pieces to get you set up for your next interview. Number one, we're going to talk about the pre interview, the things that you need to do to prepare to make sure you have a great performance. If you use the game day analogy of let's say football right, the more preparation you put in On the front end, the better you'll actually perform during game day. Next, we'll talk about the day of the interview. So this is game time, all your preparation is done. And we'll talk about some best practices to do during the day of your interview.

And then lastly, we'll talk about the post interview, the things that you should do after your interview concludes. So let's jump into things. So when it comes down to it, the most important thing you can do for an interview is prepare and preparation is absolutely the key when you think about it. Interviewing is all about kind of differentiating yourself from the competition, right? And one of the first things that you want to do is make a good impression to show your true interest. And part of that is researching the company.

So make sure to dig deep into the company's website, know some basic things about it like positioning in the market. How big of a company is that in terms of sales or employees? What are the products and actual services that the company offers? any recent news on the company competitors And also stock price. So these are some of those basic minimum things you should research about a company. And while you're doing this, find some things that you really appreciate about the organization.

And really don't take like a shotgun approach to preparing for interviews really tailor fit your preparation for the specific company that you're going after. So here are the things about the pre interview. Number one, understand the job and the business need. If you think about what a job is, it's actually a problem that company has. So put yourself in the shoes of the organization, deconstruct the job description and find out why is this here in the first place. And the more that you have clarity, when it comes to what the problem of the organization is, the better you'll be able to prepare and see why you would be the best fit for the job.

Research the people you're going to be interviewing with. So after you research the company, make sure to look who are the folks that you're interviewing with? Would they be potential peers to the organization or to this particular role? Are they going to be the supervisor You're out who they are, look them up on LinkedIn, look for any commonalities in the profile. And that will absolutely help you better prepare for the interview. Sometimes you won't know who you're going to be interviewing with.

So ask the person who invited you, and see if it's appropriate to get their LinkedIn profiles ahead of time. And clean up social profiles. Now, I do use social media to recruit candidates from time to time, but it also use it as kind of a secondary kind of guessing check. And the worst thing that could ever happen is us find a great candidate and find some kind of criminal using social media picture like on Facebook or LinkedIn or something like that. So kind of one of those bare minimum things to consider. But make sure to clean up your social profiles and be aware of your social footprint.

Prepare for questions to ask. So what you don't want to do is sort of respond to impromptu to questions based on the conversation that you have. It's okay to write down additional questions, but you want to make sure to be prepared to ask questions that are important to you. And to me from an employer perspective, a lot of times shows me the level of interest that candidates have. It shows me the thoughtfulness and also shows me their preparation. So you want to make sure to have written down questions ahead of time.

And then lastly, this is something that's completely underutilized when it comes to preparing for interviews and a lot of people feel kind of silly about it. But practice doing your interview with a peer or a loved one or anyone who's willing just to kind of ask you questions and get used to sort of answering questions in an impromptu style. There's nothing wrong with practicing. And just like the game day thing, you got to get your reps in, the more that you practice interviewing, the better off you'll actually perform. So make sure to practice and some people actually go to the extent of like videotaping themselves as well. And that's great because sometimes what you feel you're presenting is not necessarily what's actually happening.

So that might be a good thing. Everybody's got a webcam or or something like that an iPhone just to answer a few questions and see how they present on camera. So the day of the interview, so arrive early drive to the meeting venue before the day that you need to donate show up late. So I know this is super basic, but I've interviewed hundreds upon hundreds of candidates at all various different levels. And the worst thing that anyone could ever do is show up late. And everybody knows that most of communication is for the most part nonverbal, but just not showing up on time really reflects reflects poorly upon yourself.

And not knowing where the venue is, is not an excuse if you need to, like I said, Show up the day before drive to the place make sure you arrive early 10 to 15 minutes is a good staple rule of Sir dress. So I'm very conservative when it comes to my approach. And I've hired for a multitude of different companies right? For the most part, dress business professional and talking suit and tie for men suit and tie for women. A nice business suit is going to is going to be good. And I realize there's different organizations that have different kind of like dress codes like I work for a mobile solutions studio, we're super casual, like a T shirt and jeans right?

Even here overseeing overseeing recruiting for this organization. I recommend candidates dress business professional, there's only A few handful of companies that I have experienced that don't want candidates to dress business professional, but when there's any kind of ambiguity about how you should dress, you should really ask the person who invited you and figure that out that way you at least know from the company themselves how you should dress, but rule of thumb, business professional all the time. So as I said earlier, nonverbal communication really is the majority of kind of what you're saying, right? So maintaining eye contact is, especially for folks who are not really comfortable with interviews, or maybe you're just a college, college graduate, and you haven't really done a whole lot of interviews, it's important to maintain eye contact, it shows a level of confidence and also professionalism, your handshake. It's the only time you should be touching the interviewer right.

So it's kind of important to sort of make your impression when it comes to this. So you don't want to have like a soft kind of dead fish handshake and you don't want to have a super overpowering one as well. Just a nice firm handshake. And this is one of those things you could practice with other people also and get their feedback. And then lastly, smile. I know this sounds super basic, you probably heard about this stuff in elementary school.

But that's probably the single most disarming thing that I've seen from candidates to really kind of set the mood is just smile. So practice that dude in front of the mirror and see how you come off. Bring a notepad. So every experience that you go through should be a learning experience. So you want to make sure to be taking notes. Sometimes they would be questions that come up during the interview that you can't ask right then but you want to ask later.

So take notes. This is a learning experience. You should be interviewing the employer as well as them interviewing you and have multiple copies of your resume printed out just to give out to your panel. A lot of times you can ask the person who's interviewing or who invited you for the interview, how many copies you should bring, make sure to have fresh copies of your resume handy. And then lastly, I mentioned this earlier, have questions ready to ask and a lot of the questions will probably stem from your preparation, but make sure not to wing this piece of the interview but have them physically prepared Interview continued. So when it comes to answering questions, try to cite specific examples to support your answers.

So it's one thing to say that you have experience with a particular let's say technology. But it's another thing to say, Yes, I've worked with QuickBooks but I've also reconciled Ledger's, I've also installed the software Abdi install the software, I've done things. So it's important to think about the actual experience you have, and particular bullet points, citing why your experience is relevant to the needs of the employer. And also try to relax and be yourself I realized this is super hard to do, especially if you don't do a whole lot of interviews. But know this, you've made it and you made it to an interview in person for a reason, because for the most part, by the time you make it in person to an interview, somebody may have seen your resume, you may have gone through some kind of technical test. And you may have already conducted a phone screen.

Usually employers don't bring in candidates for in person interviews until they know something about them. So based on your merit, you're already there. So have that done. competence going in is that the employer also wants to make this work they have a business need, and every candidate that they see could be a potential to the need that they have. So walk in there with confidence, try to relax and be yourself. And really, the confidence that you come from, that you create is really going to be from the preparation that you make.

So the more prepared you are, the more practice that you have, the more that you can visualize and also create the situation, the better off you're going to be. So here's some common interview questions. And these are questions that I've used quite a bit. And quite frankly, they're really basic things that employers look for. So number one, why are you looking for a job? There's a multitude of reasons why somebody could be looking for a job.

Maybe they just graduated, maybe they got fired, maybe they got laid off, maybe or there's a restructuring, but a lot of times that motivation for why you can't it's looking for a job. What create flags for an employer to further dig deep upon, so be prepared to answer why you're looking for a job in the first place. And what do you know about your company, about our company, I mean, so your preparation should be able to tailor fit for that. So remember to to find things not just like facts, but things that you really appreciate about the organization that makes you want to work there. And not only will you know those facts, but you'll have a deep sincere appreciation and your your answers will come off much more genuine. What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Super common question for everybody to have and just kind of be prepared that somebody's going to ask you this. When I asked this, yes, I'm looking for level of awareness for a candidate to have about what are the things that they do well, and what are the things that they do poorly, but also I'm looking for kind of a level of sincerity, because I think a common mistake that people have, especially to the weakness piece of things is I am a perfectionist or I work too many hours and you know what, that's surface level. Every hiring manager has probably heard that before. But for me in particular, I've been recruiting now for the past 10 years. And ever since I was a kid, I personally have been horrible with math and numbers, anything that required complex computations, abstract mathematical computations, it's just never been in my strength zone.

But luckily for me, I found a perfect It really catered more to, to my strengths, which was communication, rapport building and sales and things like that. And that's something that I always lead in with. And that's something I know about myself. But honestly, I'm not ashamed to do it because it's not, it's not required of the business need in the profession that I've gone after. And honestly, if you're trying to apply for a job that doesn't cater to your strengths, it's probably not the career for you. So think about those things and analyze yourself, figure out the things that you do well, and the things that you do poorly.

And it's okay to do things poorly. Everyone is weak at something, not everyone is great at everything. And it's okay to be honest and sincere and a little bit vulnerable when it comes to connecting with people. If anything, it makes you much more human. So what's most important to you in a new position? So these are things that you want to sort of think through and it's okay to be totally honest with it.

Is it? Are you looking for more more leadership potential? Are you looking to manage a team are you looking just to be a follower, So figure out those things that are important to you and have a real good conversation with employee to see if this is going to be the right fit for you long time. Long term because I don't want you guys just to get a job, I want you to find a career that you love. So what interests you about this specific job? So the preparation piece of the evaluation of the business need a lot of this, the answer to this will come from that preparation.

So not only should you find reasons to be interested in the company, but the specific role itself. And what salary are you looking for? This is like a super touchy subject. Right. And I have a whole nother training on this, but be prepared to answer this question. For the most part, employers are going to want to know what you're currently making and what you're looking for.

And then if there's a delta between there the supporting evidence of why you think you're worth that, I have a whole nother training on that. But be but there are definitely tools out there that you can research I recommend salary, comm, payscale.com, and also Glassdoor to find what your actual market valuation should be based on your level of experience and also particular discipline. And then why should we hire you? This is kind of the all encompassing question that employers asked to figure out. Why should we hire you why basically On all the folks that we're actually talking to you right now, should it be used, so have have kind of a general summary of all of your experience and why you think you're the best candidate ready? And then lastly, what questions do you have for me, and I've kind of alluded to this already, make sure to have questions prepared for the employer, again, that shows off that you really prepared, and you're really thoughtful about this conversation, the fact that you really want this job.

So here's some questions to ask during the interview that are totally super appropriate for almost any conversation. You do want to sort of tailor fit your questions also to the particular company, and also perhaps to the individuals that you research. But here's some good staple interview questions that you can ask almost any employer. Why is the position open? That's important. If somebody's fired?

Is there a lot of attrition here? Is this because of growth? Because a lot of the reasons why this position open could also trigger questions that you need to ask in the future for this particular opening. So what are the biggest challenges for this role? For the most part, you kind of know the discipline that you're applying for, but every company has unique challenges and you want to know what they are to figure out, man, if this is actually the right thing for you? And what are the opportunities for growth and also advancement, I think it's one of those those longer term things.

Like I said, I don't want you just to find a job, but I really want you guys to find a career, if you're looking to be a leadership role, like out of the gates, and they just don't have the platform to do that, that might not be a good long term fit for you. So definitely ask that and see kind of what are the perks of the organization would have. And that's not like super nosy or anything. I think that I think that also shows like you care about your career that you want to grow in this role. Another great question asked, it's kind of almost sort of flipping the strengths and weaknesses question on the employer. But what do you like best?

And what do you like least about this organization, you want to get kind of the good, the bad and the ugly of this opportunity to make sure that you're finding the right fit for you? And can you tell you about the team that I'll be working with so it's, it's a good idea to figure out sort of the peers that you're working with also from a cultural fit. in hiring. There's kind of a technical and also the cultural fit of things, right. The technical fit is, can you do the job in the cultural pieces would I enjoy working here? Well flip that back around and figure out the backgrounds of the individuals that you'd potentially be working with.

And if they would compliment your your strengths and also your weaknesses. And, and this is again, kind of a flip side of the question, do you have any reservations about my candidacy for this job? I think one of the biggest disservice is that employers make for candidates that they pass on, as they typically don't give any kind of feedback, if they decide to pass, it's usually some type of canned response. And that's because most people are, are good and they don't want to hurt your feelings, right. But this is a good way of kind of eliciting, hopefully, candidly, where you sort of stand in the process, right. So when would be the appropriate time to follow back up with you?

So this is a great question, because for the most part, you're probably on pins and needles. After that interview, you want to figure out where you stand. So ask them one inappropriate time to follow back up with and if you get it in a verbal or written communication, you have it from them when it's appropriate to follow up, because you don't want to be the candidate is kind of like falling up every single day. You want to know when it's appropriate and have those expectations set in stone. So you could follow back up. So the posts interview so you've done your preparation, the interview is complete.

And I think a lot of people sometimes forget that there's things that you can do to continue that impression after the interview takes place. And really kind of a basic thing is to send a thank you note to each of your interviewers restating your qualifications. Send references as a closing technique. Now there's three pieces to an effective thank you note and kind of closing experience to show yourself off. And that is, number one, thanking the employee for their time. Number two restating your qualifications, and most likely, you're going to learn more things during that interview of why you're a best you're a better fit.

So you want to in bulleted form, let them know why you think you're the best candidate restating your, your, your, your qualifications. And lastly, something that not a whole lot of people do is sending the references. And that's kind of a way of saying I'm an open book, look at me, feel free to contact the people I've worked with before and get the references. Because really savvy employers know this. What they see in an interview is merely a snapshot of who that candidate actually is. Right?

And for me, I'd much rather have A great set of references like people who've actually managed this person, tell me candidly how this person performs, versus a candidate who like is a great interviewer and says all the right things. So that's a great way to, to post close and interview. So in summation, we talked about kind of the three pieces and how you should go about conducting your interviews, the preparation, I mean, the pre interview really is kind of the pre interview work is really is the most important thing. Really, it's the preparation. That's the one thing that you can like really control, because for the most part, you usually know pretty far in advance when your interview dates going to be, but take the time to prepare. And we talked about some of the best practices of, of interviewing, don't show up late, answer questions and provide specific examples have questions prepared.

And then lastly, we talked about the post interview so the things that you can do to continue impression and continue to make a good impression on the employer, even after the interview concludes. So hopefully this was helpful. Good luck on your next interview. And I look forward to connecting with you soon. Thank you