Have you prepared for that job interview?

If you’ve ever felt like that, I have good news for you. You are not alone. People who go into important interviews completely self-assured and not nervous are in the minority. Everyone questions themselves. Everyone suffers from imposter syndrome. Its normal to experience some amount of nerves and anxiety when peppered by question after unrelenting question from people you've never met.

I have more good news, there are some practical things you can do, both in preparation for the interview and during it, that will set you apart from other candidates. I’ve personally interviewed hundreds of people. I’ve also coached people who succeeded in landing senior leadership roles at Fortune 500 companies and MBA scholarships. Believe me, this advice works:

1. Read up on the industry and the company

Would you buy a car without knowing if it’s a petrol, diesel, hybrid or electric vehicle? Heck no. What about automatic or manual? Would you buy a car where you didn’t know what colour it was going to be until they gave you the keys? No and no.

So why would you want to work somewhere if you don’t understand anything about the industry that the company operates in? And doesn’t in matter to you if the company is a start-up or a 100-year-old established corporate? Have they recently merged with someone? If it’s a public company, you even have access to their financial performance over the last few years.

It doesn’t matter what kind of job you are applying for - from IT to finance and everything in between - you should know something about the company and its industry before you decide you want to work there. So, do that research before the interview. The more relevant understanding you have before the interview, the more confident you will be in the interview. And your answers will be better too.

2. Study the job description carefully

Now I know many job descriptions are poorly written and its hard to make good sense of the role from them. But there is usually some value to be gained. Even if the value you gain is just seeing what is not clear about the role, that is still worth it. Let’s be brutally honest with each other, part of why you end up going into the interview tentatively is because you don’t know enough about the job. So, fix that beforehand!

Bonus points if you’ve read the job description multiple times to try make sense of it. Made notes about important details you think are missing or things that are not clear, and then turned those notes into questions and sent them to the recruiter. Just say: “I’ve been working through the job description and I wanted to ask some clarifying questions.”

The worst that can happen is they don’t have answers. Hint: You might want to go work somewhere where people know what they are looking for. But, it’s more likely they will send you some helpful info. And best-case scenario, you have just jumped to the top of their list because guess what? 99% of their applicants will not have done this. Congratulations, you are now the stand out candidate and the interview has not even happened yet.

3. Work through sample questions and do practice interviews with friends

Now that you understand the industry, the company and the job itself, you are ready to work through sample questions. These days you can use Google to find some good sets of sample questions with answers for just about any job. This process serves two purposes: It can show you that you are not qualified for the job or it can give you a sense of comfort going into the inevitable barrage of questions you will face.

Why do I say it might show you that you are not qualified? Suppose you are really, really struggling to answer the sample questions. This is a sign that you are not ready for this job. It doesn’t mean you will never be ready. It just means you should consider withdrawing your application and put in some effort to gain additional understanding, skills and experience and then try again later.

But assuming you are a realistic candidate for the role, going through sample questions will get you in the groove. Interviews can feel weird for even highly skilled candidates because they try to determine one's suitability using questions and answers. But most skills don’t express themselves as questions and answers in real life. A programmer writing a piece of code is not doing it in Q & A format. Doing sample questions forces you to translate what has become second nature and intuitive to you into a more discreet and communicable form.

The final step in preparation is to ask some fellow professionals to do mock interviews with you. Ask your toughest, smartest and most skilled peers to do the practice interview with you. And tell them to be as brutal as possible. You can also ask friends and family to help you.

You ideally want to do more than one and preferably spread out over a few days to give your brain time to adapt and learn during sleep. That’s a whole other topic which I cannot address in this article, but trust me, sleep is critical. Do not do all this preparation work the day of the interview. Spread it out over the days leading up to the interview.

This was part one. In the next article I will talk about what to do in the interview. Especially when you are asked questions where you are unsure of the answer or don’t have a clue.