How to Nail a Job Interview

This week has been entirely consumed with round four of six in the interview process for a very exciting position at an amazing company.

I made a comment about something to my husband last night and he responded with, "You have a lot of pent up blogging, don't you?"

I can be very self-disciplined when I want to be so I was on very strict orders from myself not to blog this week or get distracted by anything other than preparing for the interview.

"Just one teensy little post?" I pleaded with myself.

"No!" barked the drill-sargent-me.

"Not even to publish a post I already had drafted?"

"No! You know it's a slippery slope. Next thing you'll be wasting away hours on Pinterest."

So I guess I meant business.

But now that the hurdle is behind me and I have a few days before I'll likely hear regarding round five, I'm back and ready to indulge.

Want to hear a few interview tips I learned along the way (mostly from my husband -- my biggest critic)?

• Be genuine. Sometimes that will mean you have to write and re-write the perfect response to each potential interview question over and over until you sound natural when you deliver it, which seems like the opposite of being genuine, but that's just how these things work.
• Confidence -- not cockiness -- is king. You know you're amazing, and you want the hiring manager to know you are too, but reign it in just a bit and convey the message factually without sounding braggy and annoying.
• Make a list of all your major accomplishments (there has to be something you've done at work that you're proud of). You can pull from these as examples to use in your responses, because showing that you've done something well in the past is the best way for potential employers to see that you'll likely achieve the same successes for them.
• You're not supposed to answer interview questions literally! Each response is your chance to sell yourself and why you're the best person for the job. That's it. Trust me, they don't really want to know the details about that challenging situation, but the way you explain what you did to overcome the challenge should give them insight into what kind of an employee you will be.

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