Top 5 Tips to Making a Great First Impression at Your Job Interview

By Michael Murray

In today's world of economic issues and high unemployment rates, it is absolutely essential to ensure that you work to make a great first impression at your job interview. In this career guide, you will learn the top 5 tips to ensuring your success at the interview that you are invited to. The job interview is the event in which an employer will evaluate you face to face to determine if you are the type of person that they require for their businesses overall success. It is important that you make the best impression possible. These steps will help you do just that!

1. The first step to ensuring job interview success is to become familiar with the types of interviews that employers now conduct. Typically, businesses will have more than one type of interview so that they are able to effectively focus on various aspects of a potential employee's background, expertise, and educational level. This process also assists in comparing numerous candidates against one another. Common examples of interview types include the "Screening", "Selection", "Group", "Panel", and "Stress". In order to be successful, study each of these types online so that you know and understand what will be evaluated at each.

2. Knowledge is absolutely essential when it comes to mastering a job interview. This does not mean that you have to have a high IQ. It simply means that you should have some working knowledge on the company that you are working for. It is likely that you will get the opportunity to share the knowledge that you have with the person that is interviewing you. If you show that you care enough about the position that you researched the company, you will gain favor points and will likely become one of the top candidates for the company.

3. While at your interview, it is important to avoid being "fake". It is true that engaging in the process of reflecting the interviewer's personality is important. This simply means that you should carefully evaluate the person that you are meeting with and determine what type of personality characteristics that they have. Once you have made this determination, start reflecting those characteristics back to the individual. It is quite common for individuals to be attracted to those that have the same type of personality.

The employer seeks individuals that are confident and are comfortable when it comes to adjusting to new situations, and by paying close attention to the way that you communicate nonverbally, you can easily show them that you are the person that they seek. "Mirroring" the personality of the interviewer is also considered to be appropriate and productive.

4. When preparing for your interview, it is important to ensure that you have certain types of documentation and materials with you. You should always ensure that you have an extra resume or two with you, as well as a list of references and any letters of recommendation that are necessary to provide to the interviewer for evaluation. You may also want to bring along a small notebook so that you are able to jot down any information that you deem appropriate during the interview.

5. Last but not least, when working to master your job interview, work to show the interviewer that you are the type of person that enjoys the task of solving problems. Highlight the fact that you enjoy developing action plans that will help to reach resolutions when it comes to the issues that companies experience. It is also important to bring along a set of questions with you that you may ask the person that is interviewing you.

There are many techniques that can be used to master your job interview. If you use the steps contained in this career guide, you will likely leave your interview as an employee of the company that invited you. Confidence, presentation, knowledge, and a general level of expertise is all it takes to make a great first impression with any business. - 31896

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