13 of 30: Interview Tip

In addition to all the project work that I do and consulting, I've been recruiting and interviewing for the last 15 years. So over that time, I have done hundreds if not thousands of interviews. And if you're preparing for an interview or you're in the middle of a job search, I have two pieces of advice just based on my experience and how to prepare for an interview. The first would be to spend some time thinking through your experience, just going year by year and thinking about a accomplishments or things that are really important. I think that this exercise helps prepare you because it builds your confidence in the experience you have and the work you've done. And it'll also give you more easily accessible content and kind of refreshes all the work you've done so that when you're in the interview, you have a lot more examples of your work to highlight or reference when you're talking about your experience. The other thing I would do is, as you're going through that list of your accomplishments, is spend a little time thinking about the skills that attributed to the results or the success that you had. So you kind of have to abstract away a little bit from the work you did and say, what are the skills that helped that success or that accomplishment? So for example, can communication skills, these were the communication skills I demonstrated during that project and that helped lead to success. Or organizational skills, things like that, because those skills are transferable across disciplines and industries or jobs. And it will help the interviewer understand where you might be able to fit and help that organization succeed in the role they're hiring for. If you're looking for a job you're interviewing, I know it's a tough process and I wish you the best of luck and I hope it goes well. Maybe these tips will give you a little bit of help in preparing and I hope you have great interviews. Thanks.