Making it through a job interview takes preparation — and sometimes nerve. If you find yourself getting a lot of interviews but not getting results, consider these three tips to avoid mistakes.

Have you ever felt like the interviewer is getting under your skin? If so, consider yourself normal. Most candidates will experience an intentionally difficult interview at some point during their working lives. If the interviewer is asking difficult (or even rude) questions with a critical tone, the problem can and should be handled professionally. Sometimes, all you have to do is calm your nerves and take a deep breath.

 You sent your resume to countless companies. After weeks of waiting, you finally get a call. Now, it’s up to you to dazzle the interviewer and get hired.

It’s no secret that preparation is crucial to acing an interview. Yet it’s funny how people neglect preparation and wonder why they don’t get hired.

Getting an interview is the easy part. Impressing and making an interviewer believe you’re the best person for the job is the hard part. But don’t fret—you can make the hard part easy. How? The answer is properly preparing for an interview.

Preparing for an interview takes time. You need to put in the time and effort to make sure everything goes  right for you on your big day.

What should your resume, your cover letter, your interview answers and your elevator pitch have in common?

Numbers.  Numbers are one way to prove that you are the real deal. And, they can seriously change your job search. Let me explain.  

Here are some typical examples of phrases that individuals use in job searches, and where a few numbers would make a difference:

"Improved company sales"
Was that by $500 or five million dollars? By 2% or 20%?

"Revitalized school, resulting in improved academic performance"
Did student academic achievement improve by 1/10th of a grade level or two full grade levels? Did graduation rates improve by one student or 100?

"Implemented stroke recovery best practices, expediting rehabilitation"
Did the stroke sufferers recover a day faster or a month faster? Did they return to 60% of pre-stroke functioning or 90% of pre-stroke functioning?

As you can tell, adding numbers makes your arguments a lot more persuasive. You move from being vague to being specific. More importantly, you move from seeming like a big talker to a big doer, someone who produces results.

If you are like many people, you're saying,
1.    "Numbers don't really apply to me," and
2.    "Even where they do apply, I don't know the exact numbers and I don't want to say something that would be dishonest."

Let's dispel each of these.