Interviewing: 5 Things To Do

I recently concluded interviews for an available position on my team and thought…Wouldn’t it be great to give prospective candidate tips on what to do when interviewing? Yep. So, that’s what inspired this post.

I last interviewed in May of last year so I’m relatively new to the job and can speak from personal experience on what you should do when interviewing. I’m a big proponent of number 5, but trust me that I know and think about all these items. Here’s my list of 5 Things To Do When Interviewing.

1. Don’t Wear Lipstick and Not Check Your Teeth. Okay, you may be laughing and think that this doesn’t happen, but more often than not it does. I love a good lipstick. Remember my red lip in NYC on date night with Mr. C? But, if you wear lipstick on an interview, make sure that it doesn’t rub off on your teeth. Check your teeth and blot your lips before going on an interview. I’m so distracted if you talk and all I see is your front teeth covered in lipstick. Personally, I tend to wear a light gloss on an interview, but if you don’t make sure you’re interview ready by doing a grooming check.
2. Don’t Wear Loud Colors. Things have definitely changed from when I graduated college and interviewed. Women can wear pant suits instead of a skirt set. I love that. More flexibility. But, please stick to the basic colors of suits when interviewing. The basics are: black, brown, tan, grey and blue. Please don’t do a red, turquoise or orange suit on an interview unless you are interviewing in an environment where that would be acceptable.
3. Check your hygiene. I’m not just referring to taking a shower that morning and washing your body, I’m speaking of any strong scents. If you’re a smoker and you smoke, please know that nothing you can do will cover that scent. If you smoke in your house or car, you will smell that smoke in your clothes and it will linger in every room you enter whether you know that or not. That scent is not pleasant. The smell of smoke can be nauseating combine it with the fact that your interviewer may have allergies and you’ve just indicated that they will be allergic to you. Be considerate.
4. Proofread your application/resume. Most employers require you to submit your resume through an on-line portal. Please make sure that your application is free of misspellings or typos. This is a big no-no. Print it out and review it before clicking submit. If you are applying for an analyst job, how can we trust you to be analyze data and your resume has typos? Take the time to be thorough.
5. Sell yourself. This is probably one of the hardest things for people to do, but the most important. You need to be able to sell yourself in an interview. Talk about what you do and your accomplishments. Make sure they align with the job. Know what you’re talking about, but you have to be able to sell yourself by letting us know what you bring to the table. How can we know if you can do the job if you don’t talk about your accomplishments in the interview?  We won’t.

So, those are my tips. What are some of the things you would recommend to interviewers?

Want to keep in touch? You can find me on social media at the following links: Twitter @mskeeinmd, Facebook page A Thomas Point of View and my Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/mskeeinmd/.