Madeline Mann walks through four research steps and four practical prep items before an in-person interview. Research the company's mission, find a genuine reason you want to work there, gather their stats, and locate a recent news story about them. Then print your resume, learn your interviewer's background, rehearse common questions, and prepare behavioral stories.
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Hey everyone. This is self made Millennial. I'm Madeline Mann. In today's video, I'm going to teach you how to prepare for a job interview the super quick and efficient way. This will help you dramatically stand out in a phone, video and in person interviews. I absolutely love my career in HR and recruiting and we spent so much of our time at work, we really shouldn't settle for anything less than than the best. And so my goal is for you to find a career and job that you love just as much too. So subscribe to this channel and hit the bell to get a new video every Thursday. And make sure you stick around to the end because I explain that there is a special type of document you need to review before each interview to get you the best interview results ever. It sounds a bit magical, I know, because it is. I mean, it's gotten my students the most success stories, so it's making me feel very confident that if you haven't prepped this document before, which you know, most people haven't, so that's not surprising, then this will be a revelation for you. Let's start with four steps on how to research the company and then I'll go in to some other important forms of preparation. First, make sure you know what they do. You know who they do it for. Find a few videos and articles and test yourself. So summarize out loud what they do. For some companies, this will be easy. But for some B2B software as a service companies, yeah, this is easier said than done. Second, write down one reason why you'd want to work for the company. And do not stop researching until you have your answer. You better focus. It could be anything, right? It could be because they have a cool product, you believe in their mission. You saw a post from an employee who talked about how it was a great working environment. Find a genuine reason why you'd want to work there. Some resources I recommend is to dig for a company blog that can either be on their website or a site like Medium. I also recommend reading Glassdoor reviews and check out their social media pages. Third, find out stats about the company. How big is the company? How much revenue do they make? How many cities are they in? I mean, none of this should be asked in the interview. Your time shouldn't be taken up with that. Or all of these researchable questions should be done ahead of time. And these will provide deeper context for your questions in the interview. Such as you could ask something like, I see the company is at a thousand employees. Now how is that different? From when you started here two years ago. Oh wow. Has that growth impacted your role in the culture? Use these tidbits to really customize the way you discuss the opportunity and really show off that you did your research. Because you know, frankly, it's, it's a lot less common than people would hope. And fourth, find a current piece of information. It could be of a tweet or a piece of recent news. They launched a product, they moved offices, they had a hot dog eating contest or a Nerf gun battle. I have worked at a company that's done both of those. True story. Anything like that, have that news in your back pocket to spur great conversation. Now make sure you write these findings down and reference them during the interview. I always have notes out for both physical phone and in person interviews. Okay, both. I mean to get a job isn't a competition of who has the best memory, right? It's showing who is a great fit. Also, who cares enough to put in the time to really get to know the company? A nice full notebook of insights will for sure put you in the top 5% of candidates who are on their game. Practice like you play, baby. Now here are four key things to also have prepared before your interview. These are so important. And remember, number four is that document I talked about in the beginning of the video that is a true game changer. First, print out your resumes if you're going in person. Now if you really want to impress them, create a folder specifically for them. Slap their logo on the front too if you'd like. And then place your resume and work samples inside and potentially even a customized cover letter. If you need help writing a cover letter, I will link the a video in description of my three step formula that got me a job got many other people jobs. Cover letters don't have to be complicated. And also when I say work samples, you probably want to watch my video called how to stand out in an on Site Interview, which is where I show you from A to Z of how to make a portfolio for any profession. And so I will also link that in the description. Second, ask for names of interviewers. You should always research who you're going to be talking to before the interview. But it is bonkers how few people do this. I always write down in the notebook their name so that I don't have to remember it. Then I can say their name several times throughout the interview which then people will feel more connected to you if you use their name frequently. And I don't know about you, but I always think I'm getting someone's name wrong, so having it written down will make me so. So I'm not freaking out internally like, oh my God, I just said Victoria is her name Veronica. Oh my God, oh my God, she hates me. Next, write down how long they've been at the company and their title, which is great context. And then write down anything interesting you see on their LinkedIn profile or any blogs or anything else you found online. I'll also record some places where they said they've lived, what they studied in school, any professional experiences that I would be interested to hear more about. All of this helps you to jump into more meaningful questions and conversation than you going, um, so what's your title? Where did you go to school? Damn. Vote third. Have your answers for top interview questions down pat. You can predict a large amount of the interview questions that are likely to come up. I have created a playlist of every question you should absolutely rehearse so you can learn how to answer each of those flawlessly. I will link that playlist because it is the ultimate interview preparation tool. I'll link it in the description and and I'll pop it somewhere on the screen. 4th so here is this document you need to review. It's called your story toolbox. You need to read your story toolbox right before you go into the interview. Now, I provide a guide on how to tease these stories out from your memory and have the right range of stories so that you are ready for any interview question. I mean, tell me about a time when you worked with a different colleague. Tell me about a time when you failed. What's your greatest accomplishment? You've got it all. I will link two videos. The first is how to have a behavioral interview where you can watch the video and download the document that goes with it that I'm describing. And then the second is the video purely describing exactly how to use the story toolbox in every situation. Seriously, these two videos, I'm a pride and joy. They're my sweet babies. They result in truly exceptional success stories. I want to see you also soar like the ambitious eagles you are. So I will link those in the description. I will also link a free download of how to craft your answer to the question. Tell me about it yourself because that absolutely needs to be a part of your interview prep. This is the all time most common question and there is a right way and a wrong way to answer it. And so I will link that freebie in the description and in the comments like this video and subscribe to this channel. Thanks so much, everyone. Wi Fi. High five.
