When you’re focused on finding work in Cleveland. That usually means taking part in a job interview or two. For many people, meeting with the hiring manager can be a bit anxiety-inducing, even if they’ve participated in numerous interviews before.
While job interviews will typically be a bit nerve-racking every time, if you feel like they are always incredibly difficult, there are things you can do to make them easier. If you aren’t sure where to begin, here are some tips that can help.
Always Start with Research
Research is your friend when you’re preparing for a job interview. Suppose you spend time reviewing the job description and learning about the company’s products or services. Next, you start exploring the organization’s mission and values, and even getting to know the hiring manager a bit by reading their company bio and scanning their public social media profiles. With that approch, you reduce the level of mystery surrounding the experience.
Plus, research helps you find tidbits that you can work into your interview answers. That way, your responses to common job interview questions can be incredibly relevant, allowing you to position yourself as a stronger candidate.
Learn the STAR Method
Usually, it’s the behavioral interview questions that feel like the hardest ones to answer. There’s no “right” or “wrong” answer with behavioral interview questions in a traditional sense. Instead, you have to explain how you handled a situation or would react to specific scenarios, leaving you a lot of room for how to approach the question.
With the STAR method, you’ll have an easier time creating engaging answers. STAR stands for situation, task, action, and result, giving you a framework for sharing examples in a meaningful and thorough way.
Practice Your Answers
Spending some time reviewing common job interview questions is a great starting point. However, you also want to prepare your answers in advance, using the STAR method when appropriate.
By practicing your answers, you can increase your comfort level with what you’re going to share. As a result, discussing your examples and achievements will feel more natural and automatic, alleviating some of the stress from the scenario.
Aim to Be Early
Scrambling to get to an interview on time will impact how you feel about the entire experience. Ideally, you want to make sure you have some breathing room, ensuring that small issues don’t derail you.
Start by preparing as much as possible the night before. Pick your outfit, gather anything you need to bring with you, plan your breakfast, and handle anything else you can do in advance.
Next, if you’re interviewing in-person, review your route to the interview to see how long it’ll take to get there. Then, add a bit of a buffer by planning to leave early enough that you can arrive at least 15 minutes ahead of your interview start time. If you get there too early, you can always wait in your vehicle until an appropriate check-in time.
If you’re interviewing remotely, check all of your technology the day before. Download and test the software, make sure your camera and microphone are working, and ensure that you can be seen clearly and that there’s nothing inappropriate in the background.
By using that approach, you streamline the morning of your interview day. That way, you won’t feel rushed at any point, increasing the odds that you’ll feel calm and collected when your meeting begins.
Is It Time for a New Job in Cleveland?
If you’re focused on finding work in Cleveland, partnering with a recruitment agency is a smart move. By contacting the recruitment team at Vector Technical Inc., you can get your job search underway immediately.
Plus, if you want to start your search without delay, you can always take a trip to our website. There, you can learn more about our current open jobs in Cleveland, you can submit your online application, and otherwise begin the process today.
