1. First of all, know who the company are and what they do. You’ll be asked, “Have you heard of us?” and it is better to be able to respond in the positive. You can use the Internet to find out something about them. It looks as if you haven’t prepared if you haven’t done this.
2. Make sure that you can remember what you did on your last few jobs. It doesn’t look good if you are asked what the project was on a job you worked on three years ago and you can’t even remember what the project did, or the name of it (been there).
3. Study up on the skills that you know that they are looking for. You may well be questioned or even tested on those skills. Sometimes it’s difficult to remember too much about something that you did two years ago, but you’re going to have to. You’ll have to swat up on it again.
4. Make sure that you are dressed well but not flashily. A suit is good, but a Rolex watch and big flashy rings aren’t. It goes without saying that an open-necked short with your chest hair hanging out will not look good (men or women).
5. Don’t set out for your interview in a Porsche or a sports car. If you have to, borrow someone else’s more sedate car. If you’re a contractor, you will probably earn more money than your prospective boss but don’t shove it in his face.
6. Don’t wait to leave home till five or ten minutes before you have to. You don’t want to be late. It’s the first rule of salesmen not to be late, and you are selling yourself, your services and your capabilities.
7. Find out from the agency if they have sent someone else there for an interview and ask them to find out what the interview and the interviewers are like. The agent will be willing to help you even if they have put someone else in. They are also likely to have spoken to the interviewers and can give you an opinion on them.
8. If you know someone at the site, contact them to get the rundown on the place and the people interviewing. You might be able to look on NamesFacesPlaces to see if there is anyone at the site that you know. Barring that, the agency might know someone there and allow you to talk to them before the interview. If the agent has had someone fail the interview, find out the reasons why.
9. Don’t go out on the booze the night before, or to an Indian restaurant. You’re likely to be nervous and might have had to rush to get there on time. You never know what is seeping through your pores and into the interviewer’s nostrils in the small enclosed room where you are being interviewed. Some non-intrusive aftershave or perfume might be good.
10. Convince yourself that you are the best person for the job and that they will be lucky to get you. Your confidence will come through. You will get this confidence through thorough preparation for the interview. There’s nothing more irritating than failing an interview through not being able to answer something that you should have known – especially if you have been out of work for a while.
Extra tip: Use the Internet to get as much background information as you can. Remember IBM, Sun, Microsoft, etc all have sites. Don’t do your Internet investigation the night before the interview. You might find more information than you can cope with, or you may have an ISP problem and get nothing at all.
2. Make sure that you can remember what you did on your last few jobs. It doesn’t look good if you are asked what the project was on a job you worked on three years ago and you can’t even remember what the project did, or the name of it (been there).
3. Study up on the skills that you know that they are looking for. You may well be questioned or even tested on those skills. Sometimes it’s difficult to remember too much about something that you did two years ago, but you’re going to have to. You’ll have to swat up on it again.
4. Make sure that you are dressed well but not flashily. A suit is good, but a Rolex watch and big flashy rings aren’t. It goes without saying that an open-necked short with your chest hair hanging out will not look good (men or women).
5. Don’t set out for your interview in a Porsche or a sports car. If you have to, borrow someone else’s more sedate car. If you’re a contractor, you will probably earn more money than your prospective boss but don’t shove it in his face.
6. Don’t wait to leave home till five or ten minutes before you have to. You don’t want to be late. It’s the first rule of salesmen not to be late, and you are selling yourself, your services and your capabilities.
7. Find out from the agency if they have sent someone else there for an interview and ask them to find out what the interview and the interviewers are like. The agent will be willing to help you even if they have put someone else in. They are also likely to have spoken to the interviewers and can give you an opinion on them.
8. If you know someone at the site, contact them to get the rundown on the place and the people interviewing. You might be able to look on NamesFacesPlaces to see if there is anyone at the site that you know. Barring that, the agency might know someone there and allow you to talk to them before the interview. If the agent has had someone fail the interview, find out the reasons why.
9. Don’t go out on the booze the night before, or to an Indian restaurant. You’re likely to be nervous and might have had to rush to get there on time. You never know what is seeping through your pores and into the interviewer’s nostrils in the small enclosed room where you are being interviewed. Some non-intrusive aftershave or perfume might be good.
10. Convince yourself that you are the best person for the job and that they will be lucky to get you. Your confidence will come through. You will get this confidence through thorough preparation for the interview. There’s nothing more irritating than failing an interview through not being able to answer something that you should have known – especially if you have been out of work for a while.
Extra tip: Use the Internet to get as much background information as you can. Remember IBM, Sun, Microsoft, etc all have sites. Don’t do your Internet investigation the night before the interview. You might find more information than you can cope with, or you may have an ISP problem and get nothing at all.
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