Interview tips for your big day

Are you looking for a job right now?

If you’ve gotten to the interview stage, WAHOO! This is fabulous! Your resume was good enough! Your cover letter was good enough! Now we’re getting to the good stuff!

Here are some tips to make sure you ace this interview.

1. Don’t be forgettable. If they ask you if you work well with others, and if you learn quickly, make sure you find something else better to say. Like, make a What-How-Wow Story.
2. Make it strong! Hiring managers will definitely note if you have a weak handshake. Try to practice if you’re worried it’s not strong enough.
3. If you are in an interview and the hiring manager spends 30 minutes talking about themselves, you are totally killing it. People love to talk about themselves, and if you nod and smile at the right moments, they’ll think you’re a good candidate.
4. Do not come in without researching the organization. You need to have perused their website, their 990, and even some old annual reports to at least get a grasp on what their challenges are right now, and hopefully how you can help solve their challenges.  Ideally you’ve been at a networking event, met someone and followed up with an informational interview, so you can show you went above and beyond to find out more about the workplace culture and their current issues.
5. People don’t want to hire people with young kids. They are trying to find out if you have young kids. Or if you plan to get pregnant. I actually got asked this in an interview once. It’s such a shame the way our society punishes women who want to have kids. Other countries don’t do this. Anyway if they try to get you to reveal that you have kids, you can just sort of deflect. Don’t put that you like playing with your kids on your resume, obviously. I know, this is terrible. But this is the world we live in.
6. You may be more out there than you know. Google yourself before coming into the interview. Find out what people are finding out about you. Does your linkedin profile look good? Are your facebook profile posts coming up, with something awful that you’d rather strangers didn’t know? Are your tweets going to affect you being hired? What about your instagram profile? Do you see how big of a liability social media is? Definitely either lock down your profiles or use a pseudonym if you are worried about potential employers seeing something.

Do you have other interview tips to share?

Please leave a comment!

If you want more interview tips, then please come to the Fundraising Career Conference 2018!

When is it? April 2, 4 and 6, 2018

Where is it?  Online

Can you get the recordings? YES!

How to sign up? GO HERE