After sending your resume to a company, it is expected that you will get a response and an interview invitation. To make yourself ready for the job interview, here are some tips that we want to share with you.

1. Start with knowing who you are and what you want. The most question that an interviewer will ask you during an interview is ‘tell me about yourself’. You need to ensure that you can articulate a concise response to this question, you’ll be — and more importantly appear — more confident. For example : you can start briefly explaining your educational background and start with your working experience from past time to present time. If you do have a long career history, just focus to the ones within the last 5 years. You may want to highlight some of your achievement in your career.
2. Gather work samples. The typical interview session will talk about your work samples and achievements. Thus, you need to make an effort to gathered all of your samples before an interview session and ensure that you’ll be ready for the interview.
3. Develop and polish your success story in your career. The simplest method to develop your story is using the method of S-A-R (situation – action – result). So first you can lay out the situation that we’re facing at that time, how did you handle it and what was the result at that time. Or you can lay out your achievements and work on your explanation from there on how did you achieve it, what was the obstacles at that time and how did you overcome the obstacles.
4. Do you research in the company and the position that you’re applying. You can simply do the research over the internet, or if you are introduced by a recruitment consultant to the company, you can ask for more information on the company from the recruitment consultant. Another way is to find whether you have friends that are already working in that company. The more information that you have, the better it is.
5. Practice on your interview skill. Write out responses to typical interview questions (you can check on most common interview questions: http://www.apg-consult.com/news-article/acing-interview-common-interview-questions/), and ensure that you provide enough detail to properly answer the questions. Don’t memorize the responses, but do run through them a few times — after all, practice makes perfect.
6. Dress for success. The truth is that appearance does matter. When in doubt, always go to the safe side and go to the conservative side. It’s better to over dressed rather than to under dressed.
7. Plan to arrive a bit early to interview. Arriving 10-15 minutes before your interview. It will give you time to catch your breath, compose yourself, observe the place, do any last-minute grooming and you will need to have your time to prepare yourself mentally before starting the interview.
8. Greet everyone you meet with respect — and a smile. When you’re interviewing, everyone you speak with matters — from the receptionist to the assistant to the hiring manger. Simply, everyone…
9. Be ready with your body gesture. Making a great first impression begins with a firm handshake, smile, and eye contact. It’s important to show your enthusiasm and confidence in the interview.
10. Acing the job interview. This is the moment when all your preparation pays off. Using positive non verbals (good posture, eye contact, smile, strong speaking voice) and solid responses should help you through the interview successfully. Stay calm — even if thrown by an unexpected question.
11. Close the interview. As the interview winds down, now is the time to ask probing questions (unless you have done so already throughout the interview). Asking questions shows your interest. You can thank the interviewer (s) and ask them on how long they will be able to get the response from them.

Hope the articles help you ready for acing the interview.

Aprilia Patriani

Managing Partner – APG Consult