Success Mantra: What to do Before, During, and After an Interview

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Tips for Successful Interview

One should prepare to face the interview to cope with the competition. Many go through rejections because they did not prepare well and did not fulfill an interviewer’s needs. Generally, in every organization, candidates are interviewed by HR or managers who have gone through many applications. They closely observe the candidates on how they project themselves at the interview. To do better than other candidates, it is necessary to follow specific instructions before, during, and after an Interview. Below there are some tips for a successful interview can follow to maximize the chances of selection.

What to Do Before An Interview?

Resume writing

A resume is the first weapon to capture the attention of the employer. The CV should be brief, capturing every critical skill, qualification, and educational background. Prepare a strong resume so that employers will choose yours from the rest. Make sure it is different from others. The most important thing is not to mention elements that will be controversial and ask for an explanation.

A resume should cover all the education and work history and mention the key skills related to the current job role. Don’t talk about career breaks in the resume. Instead, mention all the additional responsibilities you have taken on in the past jobs.

Browse about the company

A day before attending an interview, it is essential to go through the company’s website, its products, and services; during the hiring process, it is likely that the candidate will be asked some specific questions related to their organization to find whether one is aware of their nature and readiness to accept the challenges.

The applicant can draw employers’ attention by speaking about that company’s facts and knowledge; this will highlight the candidate’s excitement and enthusiasm to work with them. It also reflects that one is prepared and well deserved.

Try Online ability tests.

Online tests before an interview build confidence before the actual interview. Have an online mock test; one can assess and analyze their performance level. Accuracy levels also improve by practicing. Also, it helps the candidate know about the interview’s basic pattern. Have a great discussion, evaluate the results, and understand the drawbacks, so you don’t repeat the same mistakes while attending the interview. Finally, it gives a gist about the professional format of interviews.

Dress up professionally

One needs to concentrate on the dressing part before attending an interview. Groom a day before the interview. Make sure to choose subtle colors that appear to be professional. Do not wear heavy makeup; be as simple as possible; for men, choose brown, black shoes and a right tie with light color shirts.

For women, make sure that the skirt length is not too short; a blazer will be an outstanding idea to pull over before attending the interview. Comb hair well; for men, trim mustache and make hair short. For women, a pony will do any hairstyle which does not fall over the face.

Have a Good Sleep 

Good sleep is always required to enhance performance, mental health, concentration, and much more. Many researchers say that a person should sleep for at least 6-8 hours for a healthy lifestyle. Therefore you should take a good nap to recover your tiredness and attend the interview with a good state of mind.

What to Do During the Interview?

A resume is just a set of pages that will show applicants’ skills, qualifications, and profiles. But that will not help a candidate succeed in the interview; one has to present themselves so that they get impressed with the professional behavior and attitude towards the job.

Be elegant

Never show nervousness on your face. Instead, be pleasant and smile when required. Wear a formal dress and be confident and active while entering the interview room. Say hello to the interviewer and sit comfortably on the chair.

Maintain eye contact while answering the questions. Do not rush or interrupt in between. Instead, let the interviewer complete the sentence and then proceed with your answer. Also, keep mobile silent on office premises.

Confident and specific answers

Be prepared to answer basic questions like telling me about yourself, your education, hobbies, and many others. But make sure you give the perfect introduction. Be spontaneous and give them exciting and intelligent answers. Sell yourself positively on how best you can fit the offered job role.

Organize yourself and give simple but straightforward answers to the question, but don’t mess up with anxiety. While talking about negatives, make sure to provide a reasonable answer.

Posture and body language

Sit firmly in the interview. Don’t get nervous in the discussion; avoid shaking your legs or playing with pens or hair, which can distract the interviewer.

Maintain eye contact and smile when necessary. Stop wandering while talking with employers.

Employers will observe that the candidate is nervous and find that they are weak. Take a deep breath and start. A mock interview will help the candidates to handle such situations.

Talk about positives

One lousy sentence is enough to fail in the interview. Be careful while making statements or when talking about something. Don’t criticize anyone in your past company.

The interviewer will ignore all the achievements one had described in an interview, but they can easily reject someone only with one negative statement. Be careful when the employer asks questions and prove that you are deserving of this position. Be active and engage with interviewers.

Speak about special skills

Employers will not choose the average candidate when competition is high for a specific job vacancy. So when you get an opportunity to speak about special skills, gather confidence, and build sentences to talk with the employer about the elements that will help you grab this job.

A fresher can talk about their projects; they should be very keen to explain how they suit this job and match the requirement. Be honest and true to them.

Ask the interviewer for feedback at the end.

After the final interview, you should ask the interviewer for feedback; it will hint at how you performed during the interview. You can also guess their mood after the discussion; the feedback is to determine your reaction to your interview performance. In the end, you should also explain that you’re always looking for improvement opportunities. 

What to Do After an Interview?

The time has come to break the suspense, and candidates worry about their results. Therefore, after performing brilliantly in the interview, one should also take care of some tips after an interview to not lose the opportunity.

Thank the interviewers

After finishing the interview, shake hands with the interviewer and thank them for giving the opportunity. This will show that one is interested in the job and is excited to work with them. Utilize this time to impress them but don’t be overexcited; this is one of the professional behaviors that should be followed after an interview.

Show some enthusiasm by thanking on the spot or through an email or message. End it smart. Tell them once again about their interest in working with their organization.

Wait for the deadline to pass.

Never get back to the recruiter as soon as you are done with the interview. Please wait for the deadline patiently because they also need to consult their team for the final decision. It is generally observed that many of them write emails and try to contact before the deadline; it is a significant mistake that gives some time to decide.

Don’t annoy them by drafting emails and messages; they may block the candidate if they do such things. Follow up only when the given deadline is passed. Please keep checking the inbox frequently so one will not miss the opportunity.

List down the power facts.

Interview adds a great experience, especially for the freshers. Apart from the result, analyze your mistakes and note down the overall performance in the discussion. Note down all the critical statements one answered before the employers repeat the same in the following interview.

Also, ensure you get the recruiters’ feedback to improve; this will help overcome the drawbacks in the future, not only in the workplace. In addition, this will enhance a person’s performance in the following challenges and help them handle them easily.

Mail, the organization after the deadline, has crossed

Once the deadline is over and you did not receive any correspondence from the organization, you can mail them and ask them about the current status of your interview conducted by the company.

Pandemic Interviews: How are Hiring Managers Conducting the Interviews

Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, interviews have been changed, and it is not as realistic as face-to-face interviews, but they will get the job done both for the interviewee and the interviewer.

Video Calling

Video calling is the first choice for an interviewer to conduct an interview. Then, the managers and the hiring managers can coordinate face-to-face and proceed with the interview process. Zoom and Skype are the most used apps for video calling.

Telephonic interview

A telephonic interview is the most common process to conduct an interview, where an interviewee answers the interview questions over a call.

Communication through Mail

We are not saying interviews are conducted over the mail, but many dependencies have come over the mail after a round of interviews. So you need to check your mail daily and follow up accordingly. Dependence on mail was slightly on the lower side before COVID-19.

If you want to achieve something in your life, there are no shortcuts. Be systemic, and follow your plan. Being a fresher, you might get nervous before the interview or be super excited, but the only thing you should do is keep yourself calm and hold your nerve. 

If you follow these steps before, during, and after the interview, we are sure you will achieve success.

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