How to Expertly Prepare to Impress During Your Next Interview
There’s no way to predict and prepare for every and any possible interview question. Rather, you should prepare your work anecdotes to be flexible and modular for any situation.
PRE-WORK
🔍 Researching for your interview
A great candidate comes prepared to an interview having done some research. This could be in preparation for the role itself or to be more informed about the company.
Look into the company’s product, culture, people, etc. What might you improve? What about the culture and workflow? Who works there and how do they support DE&I? Did they lay off recently? What’s the future outlook of things? You can think of a lot of great follow up questions based on this research.
Check out the news around the company. Did they host an event recently? Did they close another round of funding? (Crunchbase is a good resource for that) Perhaps they launched a new product. Demonstrating that you’re interested and up to date on their company activities shows proactive engagement.
See if there are any example interview questions posted on Glassdoor! If not, see if you can find a list of interview questions for your role. I have a guide on answering common Qs, but not technical or role-specific ones.
A GAME OF CARDS
🃏 I like to think of interviewing like a card game
Picture this: you’re playing a card game with the interviewer. (For funsies, you can imagine the game to be Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Magic: The Gathering, etc). The interviewer plays a card, the “Tell me about yourself” card. You respond with a card (or a few) that delivers a high-level overview of your background relevant to the role. Next, they play the “Describe a time you collaborated with…” card. You play a card about a project, but you add another card to highlight collaboration in particular.
Based on your level of preparedness, you may already know your deck of cards really well or maybe your cards are still card stock waiting to be cut. What you want to avoid in an interview is mentally fumbling and shuffling through your cards, trying to come up with a response.
Read on for my tips on how to prepare for an interview! 👇
FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH YOUR DECK
🎴 Take a moment to craft your anecdotes
I always recommend my clients to take a moment to (re)familiarize themselves with their professional anecdotes. Take a moment to think through:
The context of a project
What your role was
What happened and who you might have worked with
What were the results
Feel free to write down bullet points or paragraphs or just keep them in your head — whatever works for you.
👉 I created a Notion resource to help keep track of everything. Check it out here! 🌱
🤔 If you’re struggling to come up with an anecdote
Start with the job description and look at the responsibilities/tasks mentioned. What have you done that most closely matches that? Now think about the context and other details.
These anecdotes can be used to cover a variety of questions. Often times a project that you’re really proud of could have also been a very challenging one. A moment of failure or a lesson learned can be used to highlight a professional weakness or even a strength. It’s totally okay to double dip with your anecdotes because there are different perspective or flavors to them that you can showcase.
Your professional anecdotes have all sorts of skills and experiences embedded into them; they’re several cards that you combine together for a power play! They’re not epic tales carved into stone that can only be told one way. They’re modular and can be used in a flexible manner!
🥑 Double dipping
This exercise in reviewing your anecdotes can also help generate word tracks or reveal successful metrics that you can incorporate into other answers. For instance, an impressive metric can be added to strengthen your “Tell me about yourself” response or reused as a proof point to support your “greatest strength.”
Don’t be afraid to double dip and play the same card(s) for different interview questions!
CREATING RELEVANCY
🔬 Analyzing the job description
If written well, a job description reveals key tasks and responsibilities, desired skills, level of responsibility, and nuances to the role. Review the job description and consider the following:
🏃 Action verbs — Make note of what they want the person they’re hiring to do in the role and use their words
🔁 Reoccurring key words (skills, technologies) — If it’s mentioned repeatedly, it might be highly important
🥚 Requirements — What are they looking for that you have?
✨ Qualifiers — Characteristics of the work (fast-paced, global team, etc.)
👉 and other details like key tasks, collaborators, and values/ethos
Creating relevancy is about understanding what the hiring manager is looking for in their ideal candidate. Distilling and discerning those details will help inform you on how to best position your experience.
🌉 GREAT interviewees build bridges
Good interviewees answer the question. Really great interviewees take it a step further and build bridges; they tie their responses back to the interview, the role, the industry, the company. In doing so, they create relevancy. (Insert angelic choir singing).
Enter: the conclusion statement.
To nicely package your interview response with a big bow, end with something like:
“I’m looking to do more of (tasks/responsibility that was mentioned on their job description), so I’m really excited to be chatting with you about this role.”
“I’m looking to exercise this skill more, and this opening seemed to really align with my background.”
An interview is a conversational opportunity for you to highlight the skills, experiences, and professional anecdotes that demonstrate you’re qualified for their specific opening.
PRACTICE WITH POTENTIAL QUESTIONS
♟️ Test your deck of cards against interview questions
Knowing your deck of cards is one thing. Being able to think on the spot and answer questions by playing the right card(s) is another skill. The best way to improve this skill is by working out responses to the interview questions and going through a mock interview. For potential interview questions, try these resources:
My list of the Most Common Interview Questions (and guidance on responding)
Try Glassdoor to see if anyone posted past interview questions
Ask ChatGPT to generate questions based on the job description
REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS
🤞 A job well done does not always mean a job offer
Ideally, you’ll have crafted a strong deck of cards influenced by the job description, incorporating key words from the job description, that touches upon responsibilities and actions they’re looking for. You’re spelling it out (without literally spelling it out) that you’re a great fit for the role!
While the most diligent prep and best efforts don’t always guarantee you’ll secure the job (there are too many factors at play), you will at least have been a pleasant and memorable interview for the interviewer, and that is a job well done in my book. Even if it doesn’t translate to a job offer in the end, you should still take advantage of that connection and expand your network. Maybe they’ll remember your great interview in the future next time they’re hiring. 😉
I’ve created a worksheet in Notion precisely to help you jot down your story beats as you prep for your next interview. It includes guidelines and example responses to the most common interview questions.
Happy Interviewing!
Interview Practice is my most highly requested service. I offer sessions with tailored interview questions for the role(s) you’re vying for to help you prep and package well-thought anecdotes and build your interviewing confidence.