The Type A+ Podcast Episode 28 - Career Month: Acing Your Next Job Interview
Episode Description:
Job interviews can be SUPER daunting, no matter where you are in your career path. Today, Beth breaks down her top tips for acing your next job interview, and getting that offer letter in front of you! She also shares some of her interview horror stories and what not to answer.
If you have more tips, we'd love to hear them! Follow us on Instagram or connect with Beth on LinkedIn!
Links mentioned in the episode:
Podcast:
The Type A Plus Podcast Instagram
Host:
Beth Lawrence & Company Instagram
Beth will be back each week, delivering bite-sized tips (15-minute episodes or less) on how to optimize your life and work.
Episode Transcript can be found below:
Welcome to the Type A+ podcast with me Beth Lawrence. I'm a certified meeting professional, award-winning event planner, entrepreneur, and the classic over-prepared overachiever. I'm the owner of Beth Lawrence and company an event planning firm that specializes in helping visionaries organize and execute impactful experiences. In each episode, I'll be delivering bite-sized tips on organizing your business and life even during your most hectic times. So let's get started.
Hello, Type A+ community! Beth here back with your final career month episode. Today, I will be giving you my best tips for job interviews. And as a millennial who graduated in 2009. With an event planning degree, I have had my share of interview experience. I'm not being braggadocious when I say this, but many of the interviews that I have been a part of in my career have resulted in a job offer. And that is whether I had been warmly introduced to the hiring manager or whether I cold applied. So I wanted to share these tips because I empathize with all of you who are laid off right now, all of you who are looking for a new job, if you're looking for that next big opportunity, it can feel extremely overwhelming.
Today, I want to make sure that once you get that interview, you know exactly what to do. Before I start, I want to share a few horror stories of interviews. Again, I graduated in 2009 Elder millennial here with an event planning degree which if you don't know what that means, was not a good thing. At that time, the event. departments were drying up. So I wound up applying to hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of jobs, sending in my resume writing cover letters, networking, and my behind-off. And I had been invited to so many interviews, one of the worst interviews I've ever been a part of, on my end, I was running late, scheduled it on a day when I was extremely busy, walked into the interview chewing gum, and was not prepared at all. Of course, I did not get that second interview did not get that job. And I don't want that to happen to you. Another horror interview, I had just left college, I was really struggling financially, and wanted to get a job in marketing and events.
And a lot of pyramid scheme-type companies were prevalent on job hiring sites during that time. Me being unfamiliar with this industry did not know. And one time I had to have my roommate drive me across state lines to an interview because I had broken my ankle and was on crutches was interviewed by the hiring manager seemed like an okay job event, sports marketing, blah, blah, blah. And then at the end of it, I was told that the next interview would be an eight-hour-long interview, and I would be walking around all day. And I essentially wouldn't get paid. Thank goodness for my mother, because I called my mother and said, what really well, this is what happened.
This is what we're going to do next. And she said that doesn't sound normal. That doesn't sound like a typical process. Oh, what's the name of the company? I want to look it up. I'm not going to share it here because they're still in existence. But she did let me know that it was a pyramid scheme and that I should stay as far away from that as possible. Now, those are just two stories. I have interviewed a lot both for full-time roles and also in my freelancing career. And I want you guys to have the best experience possible. And I also want the hiring managers interviewing you to have the best experience possible, right? Without further ado, here are my top tips for acing your interview that doesn't have to do with not chewing gum, but spoiler alert, don't chew gum in your interview, even if you're interviewing for a GM company, it's just a bad idea.
The first thing when that email invitation lands in your inbox, or when you get that phone call that you got that interview, be as prompt as you possibly can and your responses, do everything that they asked you to do before the interview in a prompt, efficient and effective fashion. This shows that you're interested this shows that you value the time of the employer. And this shows that you understand the steps that are needed in the interview process. After you've responded, you have it on your calendar. The next point is to again do your research. Now I know we talked about this in the cover letter episode. If you haven't listened to that, definitely make sure you go back and listen.
But you not only want to research the company in this case, hopefully, you've already done that when you wrote Your cover letter, but you want to research the individuals who are going to be dedicating their time to conducting this interview, you want to note any past achievement, you want to maybe look at their LinkedIn and see if they have any career placements that are aligned with anything that you've either done in the past or that you're currently doing. And absolutely, if you can find news about that particular department that you're interviewing for, in the media, you know, that is wonderful if you can bring that up as well because that just gives you more research.
In some cases, it gives you a quote from the person that is interviewing you. So definitely do your research on not only the company, but the individual or individuals interviewing you, it really helps to approach it as having a conversation with a person or a group of people. Because that's what it is, at the end of the day. It is, for all intents and purposes, a conversation where you want to be as prepared as possible because you want to show that other person that you understand the goal of the conversation. Now, after you've done your research on the company, and the individuals within the company, the next thing that you want to do is anticipate the questions that will be asked in the interview and have answers to them. So we all know that there are popular interview questions, if you've done enough interviews, you know, a few of them, I wanted to give you a few of them here, just so if you have that interview booked, you can think about your answers to them and start to formulate it. So what career accomplishment makes you the proudest? Tell me something about yourself that isn't on your resume. Why do you want to work here? What made you want to apply for this position? What are your greatest weaknesses? And what are your greatest strengths? Those are a couple of popular questions. But most of us don't have the luxury of getting the questions beforehand. If you can have general answers to most of the popular questions, you will be lightyears ahead of most other people, even just a list of talking points is truly key. And it helps you feel extremely prepared. The other thing is when you're researching questions, as questions come up about the company, write those down, right?
That is part of the interview at the end of the interview. Typically, after you've exhausted talking about yourself, then they say okay, do you have any questions for us? And if you say no, a lot of the time, even if you're just nervous, which happens to me, it looks like you haven't done your research or you don't care enough about the process to have specific questions. So even if you have three questions, absolutely recommend compiling your own list of questions. Along the lines of questions, make sure you know your rights of what not to answer both in the application process. And in the interview. A lot of people have asked me what my current salary is when I'm looking for new roles.
And that process is most of the time illegal. So if this happens, I have a tip from a very phenomenal HR and the consultant shout out to Caleb like Calum. Let me know to ask what the salary range is for the position as opposed to responding with your current salary. That's really none of their business, current salary, and current position aside, you're looking for what this new role in this new company and this new position is going to bring you both from a workload perspective, and what you're going to be getting out of it from a salary and benefits perspective. So make sure that you know your rights when it comes to which questions they are allowed to ask.
Similarly, I've also been asked if I want to have children, and I have been asked if I was married. These again, have no bearing on any sort of workplace environment interview situation. So make sure that you know what not to answer and have a way to answer it reframe without coming off rude or interrupting the general feeling of the interview. Obviously, if they're out of turn, that's one thing but make sure that you know how to shut down questions that shouldn't be answered. If you want to really get some confidence, conducting a mock interview with a mentor with someone in the industry that you know, with a friend or partner, of course, ideally, if you know someone in the company, great, it really will help you to get that confidence and you can get that real-time feedback in a much less stressful environment.
So now the day of the interview has come right you haven't been on your couch Under hopefully, you've not packed your day as I did, hopefully, you've left your government home, hopefully, you're not going to get stuck in traffic. So before you get to the interview, whether you're physically going to an interview, or you're on a zoom, get pumped up, and get that anxiety out, I am a person that's very anxious all the time, you all know this, that Type A+, have it all.
But if I don't sort of get the anxiety physically out of my body, I definitely come off differently in interviews some of the common ways that I do this, are I get pumped up for interviews, I love just putting on music and dancing, right? I mean, put on the Beyonce Renaissance album and go to town, I sometimes just stand up and I shake off my entire body, almost as if I was like, shaking water droplets off of myself, that really shakes that energy, it gets the energy moving around, and helps me to feel more competent. Meditation is really amazing. If that's something that you practice, even affirmations, right, that can be really great. Having that couple of minutes just to focus on what you're doing.
Bonus, if you could schedule a walk, run, or time at the gym beforehand, I always find that if I can kind of get out of my head and into my body, I am much more prepared. Okay, so the interview is done. You have aced it, you have impressed the heck out of all of the people on the panel or the hiring manager or whomever you're interviewing with. The first thing that I do is follow up and I say thank you promptly. I do it via email, right after the interview, I want to stay top of mind for the recruiter. I want to make sure that they know that I'm interested in the role. And I want to make sure that I don't get lost in a sea of calendar invitations. Right. If you show up in someone's inbox right after the meeting, it's much different than showing up in someone's inbox 10 days later. I really think that that one aspect has really helped me show the companies that I'm interested in working for that I am in fact interested and that I value their time.
If you don't know, the next steps in the process, I would absolutely ask the next steps in the process. If you didn't in your interview, verbally, I would definitely do it in the follow-up email. It's going to really help assuage any anxiety or fear that you have over the process. And give your brain a little container or a timeline with which to conceptualize what's going to happen next. A lot of us especially those of us that have anxiety, really get lost in the what if of it all.
So if we can have a 123 what we can expect next? Poof, just like a deep breath. Right. So those are my interview tips. If you have any other interview tips if you are listening, and you're like Becky forgot this one, and it really has helped me ace every interview, feel free to DM us at The Type A+ podcast on Instagram. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn. I will put my profile in the show notes.
As always, I would love to hear from you. Hiring managers, and recruiters, give me your tips I would love to share with the community and Type A+ listeners. You've got this. I know that you can do it. And I know that it's really nerve-wracking. But if the role is right for you, it's not going to miss you. And just remember that I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week. We will be back next week with some really exciting stuff including a new subject matter for March and a brand new podcast theme. Stay tuned. Thanks for listening.
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Type A+ podcast by me Beth Lawrence. New episodes will be released each week. Don't forget to find us on Instagram at the Type A plus podcast and slide into our DMS with questions episode ideas and introduce yourself. If you liked this podcast, please share, give us a five-star rating, and subscribe. I'll see you next time.