Below are ten tips to having more effective answers to interview questions. While these tips are pretty simple, making mistakes on simple things could mean missing out on the job offer.
Tip 1 – Make sure you know how to pronounce the name of the company. Search for YouTube videos or double-check with the security guard or receptionist to make sure you say it right in an interview.
Tip 2 – Review your resume for each interview. Your answers need to accurately reflect what the interviewer sees when looking at your resume.
Tip 3 – Make eye contact with the interviewer when delivering responses. If you look at the desk or out the window, it will hurt your chances.
Tip 4 – Make sure you understand the question you are answering. If you’re not sure, ask for clarification.
Tip 5 – If the interviewer isn’t paying attention to you, pause until he has returned his attention back to you. Also, make sure your answers aren’t too long, and ask the interviewer questions.
Tip 6 – Breathe. An interview can be stressful, so you may forget to breathe. You need air to think, and pausing to breathe will slow the pace of your responses.
Tip 7 – Don’t assume too much. If you are twice as fast as the average person at typing, don’t just say, “I type 60 words per minute” and assume the interviewer knows that’s twice the average speed. Instead, tell the interviewer, “I type 60 words per minute, which is twice as fast as the average person.”
Tip 8 – Be careful of acronyms. Make sure your interviewer understands what your saying. Even within an industry some acronyms are different in each company.
Tip 9 – Ask questions. Don’t make the interviewer feel like he or she is doing hard work. Make it a conversation by following up some of your responses with relevant questions: “… Have you all faced something similar to my experience?”
Tip 10 – Don’t let your answers run too long. Try to keep them under two minutes. When you feel like you’ve answered the key parts of the question, there’s no need to keep on talking. Just wrap it up.
