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Prepare for an Interview: Overview
In this lesson, we will talk about a few things you can do to prepare for an interview. You can start to prepare for an interview by thinking about your travel to and from the interview. Once the interview is scheduled, put the interview location into an Internet map site, and ask yourself the following questions: Are you familiar with the location? If you will be driving to the interview, is there construction happening on your route, or are there parts of the route that tend to develop traffic jams? How long should it take to drive to the location? Once you arrive at the interview location, is there on-site parking, or will you have to find a parking lot? If the parking is metered, what is the maximum amount of time that you can stay at a meter? How much is parking likely to cost, and will you need to have coins handy in case of metered parking? If you are using mass transit to get to your job interview, how often do the trains or busses run? How much will the round-trip fare be, and will you have to pay it in cash? You should be able to find the answers to all of these questions online, or by calling the local city hall in the town where you are interviewing.
Prepare for an Interview- Tutorial: A picture of the list of travel-related questions you should consider before an interview.
Another thing to do to prepare for an interview, once you have got an interview scheduled, is create a printed list of your professional references, and a printed copy of your resume. Do not assume that the interviewer will have your resume sitting in front of him or her. Remember, the person interviewing you will most likely be the head of the department to which you are applying- in other words, your next boss. Anything you can do to make his or her life easier during the interview is going to have a positive impact. As far as the references are concerned, print them out on their own sheet, with something like “Personal References for Mary Cessna” at the top.
Finally, check the weather forecast. Will you need an umbrella or a hat? It is often helpful to put together a small “interview emergency pack” to take with you. Include breath mints, tissue, lip balm, a few coins, a bandage, a toothpick, and so forth. By thinking in advance about those little things that go wrong in life, you can avoid them- or at least be prepared when they happen.
Prepare for an Interview: Video Lesson
The following video lesson, titled “Prepare for the Interview,” discusses tips on how to prepare for an interview. This video on how to prepare for an interview is from our course, titled “Mastering Your Interview Made Easy v.1.0.”
