Everyone knows that the best way to survive an interview is to be well prepared for it. Hiring managers, after years of experience, can easily see if somebody is not prepared for an interview. While some interviewers tend to overlook that nervousness factor, some may not.
How to be more prepared for interviews?
One of the best job interview tips is to conduct mock interviews. Conducting a mock interview is a great method to prepare yourself for a job interview. Mock interviews are simply doing the interview with a friend or colleague in a safe and controlled environment.
Mock interviews can also give you the feedback that you’re looking for because a lot of companies don’t provide feedback after an actual interview. Doing mock interviews ensure that you are more prepared for the actual interview while providing you with the feedback you need.
Mock Interview Tips
PREPARE SOME NOTES
You want to have some information on the company, the industry, the job you’re applying to, or anything that makes you feel confident. By having this information, you are helping your mock interviewer position themselves when they conduct the interviews. This helps them prepare the interview questions to ask.
General knowledge of how big the company is, the culture of the company, and the nature of the work can be included when you discuss this with your interviewer. This helps them come up with a persona (the right frame of mind) to use when conducting the mock interview.
You also need to have a prepared list of questions to help your interviewer. In order for you to adequately have a good mock interview, you need to have a good list of questions. Do not forget to add unique interview questions that will help you be more prepared. You can download a list of sample interview questions and answers here: 40 Questions to ask in an Interview.
By preparing a proper briefer about the company and a list of questions, you are helping out your interviewer nicely. That way, they don’t have to make up questions on the fly.
FIND A PROPER INTERVIEWER
Once you have your list of questions you can go ahead and pick one to two people for your mock interview. Make sure that this person will be able to give you some honest feedback. There are different people you can ask help from, like friends and family members, or even a co-worker whom you think are qualified to give you a mock interview.
A great person you can choose to conduct mock interviews is someone who is a professional – someone who can conduct a mock interview properly and give you some honest, professional feedback. That way, you can improve your chances of getting the job.
If the person you’re doing the mock interview with is a friend – make sure that you tell them to give you the truth on how you performed. Inform them that you need them to be brutally honest so that the interview will yield proper results.
To be clear, you are not giving people a free pass to be reckless and say things that will put you down. You are looking for objective and professional feedback.
For many people, this is a tough step! It definitely was for me. When I looked at this feedback objectively, I was able to improve my interviewing skills dramatically. The best advice is just to keep this in mind when you are mock interviewing.
Remind your interviewer that the main reason why you asked for a mock interview is so that you don’t bomb the actual interview. You want to get as much practice in as possible so you can impress the interview panel and land the job.
Alternatively, you can also contact me to give you practical feedback and conduct mock interviews for you. A professional is usually the best route for this since family members or colleagues may still be wary of hurting your relationship, hence sugar coating the feedback.
Do mock interviews really make a difference?
Let me tell you about a mock interview that I did about several years ago when I was aspiring to move several levels up. I knew if I really wanted to get to that level, I would really need to step up my game and take the interview seriously.
I went to one of my friends who was a senior manager at the same company and asked this person to give me a mock interview. It was a real experience since I was interviewed professionally and properly. At the end of the interview, he went back to all the questions and discussed it with me.
My friend took notes as if he was really interviewing me for the job and he gave me some amazing feedback on things that I didn’t even recognize that I was doing in the interview.
It really helped me step up my game tremendously. The end of the story, having that mock interview prepared me for the real thing and…I got the job (a 2-level promotion)!
RECORD YOURSELF
During your mock interview, make sure that you also record the whole thing. Set up your phone and take a video of yourself. You can easily then check out your body language, your mannerisms, pauses, and gaps.
By recording yourself, you will become aware of how you act during your interview. You want to make sure that you eliminate unnecessary movements as much as possible and appear at ease.
However, do remember that some mannerisms cannot be removed at will, so do not strive for perfection, but focus on improving what you can. Recording yourself is the best way to catch that.
PRACTICE AGAIN AND AGAIN
Lastly, before going to your mock interview, make sure that you practice. You actually asked someone to give their time to you, so respect it. You need to practice your mock interview answers and questions as much as possible.
Treat the mock interview as if this was the actual interview, look nice, and have a mindset that you will do this as professionally as possible. Practice answering specific and general interview questions. Practice speaking in a confident way. Practice sitting properly, and practice maintaining eye contact by looking at a mirror.
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In conclusion, mock interviews or sample interviews are not foolproof ways for you to get the job, but there is still such a great benefit of mock interviews for your big interview. Having a proper mock interview and practice will definitely increase your chances of landing your dream job.
And if you’re looking for more interview tips, go ahead and check out the videos below.
Tell Me About Yourself Interview Question and Answer.
Best Questions to Ask at the End of a Behavioral Interview.
What are your biggest weaknesses.
