This smooth 24 hours of preparation for your job interview should ensure a long run when you get that job offer. Here are last minute interview tips to hone your skills.
Use these last minute interview tips to hone your skills
You might remember the 2001-2010 TV series, “24,” in which something momentous was to happen within 24 hours. In the case of this article, the anticipated event is not a terrorist attack, but your job interview. And instead of 24 hours that unfold chaotically prior to the event, you know exactly what you’ll be doing in each of those hours. Here, we have some last minute interview tips for you that can help prepare for your upcoming interviews.
The scenario below assumes you can spend a large part of the day before your interview preparing. If you have other work or family obligations that keep you from following this preparation plan, do your best with it. You may need to spread the prep plan over several days rather than implementing it all the day before.
Here are the Last Minute Interview Tips For Your
The last minute tips start with an assumption, so try to follow all.
Let’s assume it’s 9 a.m., and your interview is in 24 hours. Now, let’s cheat a bit and begin our countdown 25 hours before the interview. The interview will be in your city but in an unfamiliar location. You believe the site to be about 45 minutes away.
8 a.m., 25 hours before your interview: Do a dry run to the interview location. By driving the route at exactly the same time as you’ll be doing the next day, you’ll simulate the same traffic and road conditions. Set up Google Maps, Apple Maps, or the Waze app (the fact that these maps are not always reliable is a good reason for your dry run).
Doing the dry run is among useful last minute interview tips that enable you to make sure you know how to get to the site, assures you’ve estimated the timing correctly, familiarizes you with traffic and other issues – such as road construction or unexpected toll booths. That could be obstacles and allows you to check out the scene at the interview site. Is it easy to park? Is there a security checkpoint that will take time to pass through?
9 a.m.: Ideally, you will have arrived at the site at 8:45. Go through the same parking routine you will do the next day and enter the building to see how easy it will be to find the interviewer’s office. If the timing of your dry run reveals problems with timing your drive to the site, plan to make adjustments tomorrow on interview day. You may need to leave the house earlier than planned.
Spend the drive home visualizing the interview to psych yourself up for it. Imagine it’s 24 hours later, and you’re on your way home from the interview. Imagine that it was a fantastic interview and spend your drive home basking in how well you performed. If you have any lingering questions about interview logistics, then one of the best last minute interview tips is calling the company as soon as you get home is a good idea.
10 a.m.: Back home, take out the outfit you plan to wear to the interview. Inspect every element of the outfit, including shoes, jewelry, hose, tie, accessories. Ensure that your outfit is clean and neatly pressed. Check for spots and remove them. Check for rips or tears; sew them or choose another outfit. Check for runs in your hose. Ensure that shoes are clean and polished. Have a Plan B for attire if you come across any disasters.
11 a.m.: Begin reviewing the research you’ve gathered about the organization you’re interviewing with, the industry, your interviewer, and the job itself. You will have previously collected this material, and this won’t be the first time you’re reviewing it.
Noon:
Relax over lunch. Even in the important hours before the interview, you need downtime so you don’t get yourself too worked up over the interview. Relaxing is one of the greatest last minute interview tips, don’t forget it. It will help you gain confidence.
1 p.m.: Review the questions you think you may be asked in the interview, as well as your planned responses to them. Your goal is not to memorize your responses but simply to be familiar and comfortable with them.
2 p.m.: With the questions fresh in your mind, enlist a friend or family member to do a mock interview with you. Consider making this trial run a full-blown dress rehearsal in your interview attire. Ask your “interviewer” to critique not only your content responses but your nonverbal demeanor: eye contact, voice, posture, hand gestures, facial expressions, nervous habits, use of “pause” words (such as “um,” “uh”), and handshake.
3 p.m.: Take another hour of downtime to do something you enjoy, preferably a relaxing activity such as reading, running, bicycling, yoga, meditation, listening to music, taking a hot bath, or the like.
4 p.m. to 6 p.m.: Make this your time for taking care of business – the activities you’d normally be doing if not preparing for an interview. Return phone calls, check e-mail, do household chores, spend time with family.
6 p.m.: Relax over dinner, remembering to eat a filling and nutritious meal and not something that will sit heavily on your stomach, give you indigestion, or keep you awake.
7 p.m.: Do a final review of your company research notes and your responses to interview questions.
8 p.m.: Do a visualization exercise in which you see yourself going through the full interview experience and performing magnificently. Imagine yourself confidently sailing through the interview.
9 p.m. to 11 p.m.: Indulge in a bit of brain candy, such as watching TV or playing a board game, to take your mind off the interview.
11 p.m.: Head to bed. You’ll need a good night’s sleep. If 11 is early for you, you’ll still want to go to bed now in case you’re anxious and have trouble sleeping (try reading if that’s the case). Of course, if you normally go to bed earlier than 11, adjust the plan accordingly.
6 a.m.: Wake up. Brush your teeth and use mouthwash. Bathe or shower. Use deodorant soap. Put on deodorant. For men, shave and trim your beard or mustache. Style your hair. Women, wear your hair up or back so it’s out of your face. Put on makeup conservatively.
7 a.m.: Breakfast in your bathrobe. You may have too many butterflies to eat breakfast, but give yourself a little something for energy and mental acuity, perhaps a piece of fruit, a protein bar, coffee if you can’t function without it.
Now, get dressed. Take your time. Make sure your outfit is perfect. A few last minute interview tips for you at this point is to check your briefcase for emergency-repair items you might need: a small sewing kit, extra pair of pantyhose, spot-remover wipes, tissues, comb and brush, hairspray or gel, makeup for touchups, breath mints. Bring extra copies of your resume in case you have more than one interviewer. Pack an umbrella, too.
8 a.m.: As you did 24 hours ago, head to the interview site. Leave a little earlier or later, depending on what you learned from your dry run. Be sure you have your cell phone so that if something totally unexpected happens on the way (such as a bad accident closing the road), you can call the employer to see if rescheduling is indicated.
8:45 a.m.: Arrive at the site. Once in the building, head directly to the restroom for one final inspection of your outfit. Employ your emergency-repair kit if needed. Then, head to the interviewer’s office. Pleasantly announce yourself to the gatekeeper – receptionist, secretary, assistant – and make friendly conversation with him or her; the interviewer will often ask this person’s impression of you. Then, wait calmly for the interviewer to be ready for you.
9 a.m.: Perform spectacularly in the interview.
10 a.m.: Spend your drive home basking in how well you performed.
This smooth 24 hours of preparation and the last minute interview tips for your job interview should ensure a long run when you get that job offer.
