Quintessential Careers Press:
The Quintessential Guide to Job Interview Preparation
Chapter 5: Rehearsing and Practicing
Best ways to ensure you are truly prepared
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Perhaps you’re a new entrant into the job market who is lacking experience in job interviewing. Or perhaps you’re a job-market veteran whose resumes and cover letters yield loads of interviews -- but you never seem to get the job offer. While these two groups may have the greatest need to polish interview skills, anyone actively interviewing for jobs can benefit from practicing interview skills. A study by the Society of Human Resources Management proved this point when it revealed that a candidate’s background and qualifications were far less influential in their hiring decisions than interview performance and professionalism.
Practice will help you reduce interview anxiety, improve your interview skills, and in many cases, gain important feedback about how you interview. It will also help you sharpen your communication skills -- and poor communication skills were the number one turn-off for hiring managers, according to another Society of Human Resource Management survey. This article describes several ways to practice before a job interview:
Mock Interviews
Mock interviews simulate real job interviews and are conducted with a prospective job interviewee and an interviewer, often a career professional who can provide valuable input on your interview performance. The career pro will not only point out your shortcomings, but will acknowledge the areas in which you excelled, thus boosting your confidence. “Just one mock interview will result in a marked improvement in your interviewing skills,” says College Grad Job Hunter author Brian Krueger, who recommends going through two such interviews (and, of course, the more you do, the more skilled you will become). For the inexperienced interviewee, mock interviews provide an excellent picture of what to expect.
"As an HR professional, here is what I have to say about preparing for interviews,” says Robert Ashodian, HR manager for MGA Financial Services in Lakewood Ranch, FL. “Do it! You wouldn't believe how unprepared and unprofessional some people I've interviewed are. These are not recent grads either, but people who've been in the workforce for a number of years. Remember, you are in competition with everyone else for the job. What will make you stand out? Yes, experience is important and helpful, but it isn't everything. How well you show up in the interview is the other part. I'd rather hire someone with some experience or little experience who I can train that interviewed well as opposed to someone with years of experience that was unprepared. … You've been interviewed before so you know what they are going to ask. Have those answers mentally ready. If you've never interviewed, buy a book on popular interviewing questions and practice what you'll say. Make sure though that it doesn't come off rehearsed when you answer it. The point is, practice all of this at home. Have a friend or spouse ask you interviewing questions so you practice. Be confident. Any good interviewer can sniff weakness and timidity. Remember, interviewing is like anything else -- practice makes perfect. For both of my careers since college, I've got the job on the first interview I went on. Why? Experience was only part of it. How I ‘showed up’ at the interview was the rest.”
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