You got the interview! Now what?

Are you nervous? You’re going to do so well!

So remember, this is a TWO-Way interview. You’re hiring them, not just the other way around.
How do you know this will be a positive working environment for you? Ask these questions from my blog post.

THEN

ANTICIPATE their questions

Start to look over the job description. Aside from the basic ones that have to do with your job description, they’ll probably ask you “Life Mission” questions, such as:

Do you work better on a flexible or structured time schedule?
(The answer to that is STRUCTURED.) Just trust me on this one.

Why did you leave your last position?
(You could say, um… Personality conflict. Don’t go into details. Trust me, you want to say this, especially if your last boss was a complete asshole who never listened to you, and only yelled at you, and was abusive and sleeping with staff or running a brothel on the side. They don’t want to hear about that, for some reason.)

What’s a good quality you have?
(Out of the hundreds of good qualities that you have, they want you to pick ONE! It boggles me why they ask this question, but they do.)

What’s your greatest challenge?
(I guess you could say, I am too punctual, or too meticulous, or something like that.)

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
(God I hate this question! Say, “Sitting behind your desk, with YOUR job.” hahaha. Just kidding. Say, “Working to make the X cause succeed.”) I wrote a whole blog post about this question actually.

Are you a good team player?
(This too is such a meaningless question. Say, “I love working with people and I’m also very focused on my work when I need to get the job done.” Or something like that.)

Why do you want this job? How does this fit into your plans for life?
(I want to get into the nonprofit world, I’m very interested in helping X corp’s mission.)

What are your hobbies?
(You could pick something innocuous like “attending networking meetings” and “lifelong learning” and “reading” and “learning more about the nonprofit world” because I assume all of those are true.)

Day of the interview,

Take a nice hot shower when you wake up. Drink some tea, not coffee. Try not have sugar.
Take your time getting dressed, brushing your teeth, eating a little breakfast (nothing too acidic, maybe some oatmeal?)

See if you can arrive early and sit quietly in your car for at least 5 minutes before the interview.
No strong perfumes, No excessive jewelry, dress up with a blazer, button down shirt, closed toe shoes.

Pay attention to your body language when you’re nervous.

Do you tap your pen? Wring your hands? Cross and uncross your legs? Watch yourself for these behaviors. If you find yourself doing them, take a deep breath, stop, and continue.

Each time they ask you a question, pause for a second, and then speak.

Be honest when they ask, “How are you?” You say, “A bit nervous, to be honest!” And they’ll appreciate that you actually answered the question.

At the end of the interview, ask them, “Is there anything I could say that would make you want to hire me more? Any question you’d like to ask?” and, very important, “When will I hear back from you?”

Hope these help you in your interview process!

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