Day 21: Interviews

Today you will learn how to succeed in any type of interview, prepare for questions, tell stories that make you stand out, and the secret leave behind trick that will put you in the top 1% of candidates for any job.

Summary

What Are  Interviews?

An interview is where you're talking with employers, asking information about the position and you provide information about yourself.

• Many organizations go through a multi interview process, sometimes with one person at a time, sometimes a group interview of you.
• Interviews can be a traditional office interview where you're speaking with one interviewer, or it may be conducted by phone or online via Zoom or video call.
• You might experience a panel interview facing several people lined up along a table, or you might have a group interview in the case of several people from a particular office or team interviewing you at the same.
• Case interviews: presented with a situation and asked how you would handle it or how you would determine a plan of action. Case interviews can involve tricky questions that focus on your logical ability to solve problems.
• During some interviews, you might also be asked to do behavioral exercises.
• If you were interviewing for a position that requires you to do presentations, you might be asked to do a sample presentation.
• If you're interviewing for a technical position or knowledge about a specific program or software, don't be surprised if they have you do a task on the computer using some of those technical skills.

Why Do Employers Have Interviews?

The goal of the interview is to be a fact finding mission to collect as much data as possible about you as the employee to make a correct decision.

During this process, they're trying to answer the questions:

• Do we like you?
• Do we want you to work here?
• Do you have the skills, knowledge, or expertise that we really need?
• Do you have the work ethic that we are looking for?

After the initial phone screen, your second interview is going to be with a person who would be your direct manager.

• They're going to want to know that you have the skills and competencies, but moreover, they're concerned that you're gonna be a good fit for the team.
• Your goal before coming to this type of interview should be to learn about this manager's leadership style and trying to connect with individuals on the team.

If they continue to have multiple interviews, depending on your position, one of these might be a technical interview or  an interview with a panel of senior execs or just meeting with one senior exec.

• In this interview, you need to think more big picture. The more senior the person you are meeting with, the more big picture they are thinking.
• This person will be analyzing whether or not they think you will excel and if you could do the job that it's two positions above the one you're interviewing for.
• Make sure that this person can tell that you've spent a considerable amount of time researching the company and that you're really interested in the position.

‍How to Nail the Interview

In the activity below you will complete the follow steps:

• Research the Company
• Research the Role
• Research the Interviewer
• Make Your Case
• Answering Questions
• Telling Stories
• Asking Questions
• Follow-up After the Interview
• Network for Accountability & Practicing Interviews

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Activity

Download today's worksheet and complete the exercises inside of the worksheet.

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Skill Lesson Mastered

Demonstrate mastery of the knowledge and skills presented in this lesson by applying it to the above activity. If, and only if, you have a full understanding and have mastered the knowledge and skills presented in this lesson, select the next lesson in the navigation.