Hello JFY friends! It’s a new week, and sheesh it’s a HOT one!
With the hot weather in the area, we wanted this week’s post to be just as hot: everything you need to know ahead of your next (or first!) job interview!
Let’s start with the basics of interviewing. The first thing everyone needs to know are the different types of interviews you might encounter. Take a peek below for a breakdown of the various types of interviews out there and the unique purpose for each:
SCREENING: Screening to see if and how you respond
ONE-ON-ONE (AKA 1:1): Getting to know if you’re the ideal candidate
PANEL: Getting to know if you’re the ideal candidate, multiple interviewers
TEAM: Are you a good fit for the team, team interviews you
LEADERSHIP: Are you a good fit for the company
GROUP: How do you work and communicate in a group setting
PRESENTATION: You may be asked to create a presentation or submit a deliverable
Now that you know the most common forms of interviews that you will potentially encounter, how ‘bout you practice with one that you will certainly encounter: a one-on-one.
Before we get started, it’s important to prep before your interview. Now, it’s important to find the right balance between under-preparing and over-preparing for an interview. If you under-prepare, you will 99.9% of the time get stuck, trip up, or come across as unconfident during the interview. However, similar issues might arise if you do the opposite and over-prepare by trying to memorize answers to potential questions, overthinking what may be asked, or scripting what you want to say.
Instead, it is important to simply prepare. This could be doing research into the values and mission of the organization you are interviewing for, preparing questions to ask them at the end of the interview, and making bullets of ideas that you want to make sure you mention at some point during the interview.
To help you start thinking about how to best prepare for your next interview, we have a list of simple interview questions that you will certainly be asked at one point or another in some form.
The first thing you should do is write 3-4 bullets – yes, BULLETS! – for each question. Go through them all, writing a few bullets for each, and have a partner do the same. It’s important not to write down full sentences or paragraphs to avoid over-preparing. Having just a few bullets to guide you will help you sound natural and more confident!
Here are the questions:
- Would you tell me about yourself?
- What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses?
- Would you tell me about your last/current job?
- NOTE: This doesn’t have to necessarily be past work experience. Think to any volunteer experiences, teams you were on, clubs/organizations you were part of. Be creative!
- Why should I hire you instead of someone else?
- Do you have any questions?
- This is your time to refer to the preparation you did before the interview, as well as the Passion Pitch which we went over last week!
To wrap things up, reconvene with your partner and practice interviewing one another! Take it seriously, be thoughtful with each response and your body language, and let us know how it went!
We hope you found this helpful, and best of luck with your next interview!
*Be sure to refer to our attached PDF for more information on how to nail your interview.
P-33-34-JFY-Sample-Interview-Questions.doc