For the most part, with the exception of one nightmarish and cringe inducing interview last year of which I lacked preparation, I have a decent interview-to-offer conversion rate. So I stand by the adage that preparation is key. I devote at least 2 or 3 nights leading up to an interview for preparation, after all, a new position is an investment in your career and should not be approached without the due diligence you would undertake if it was, for example, a business you were purchasing.
The document below is my ‘Intensive Job Interview Preparation Guide‘, which assists me to methodically ensure that I have covered all bases that may be addressed at interview. I have this guide in a Word document, and type notes under each heading in a different colour as I go along, as if I were cramming for an exam. Once I’m done, I’ll print it out and revise it the night before the interview.
I hope this helps. Click below for a Word version if you’d like to use this guide/checklist structure for your interview preparation.
That Career Girl Intensive Job Interview Preparation Guide
That Career Girl
That Career Girl 
This is amazing! Thank you for all of the tips and advice 🙂
Very cool and helpful!!!
That means all the more coming from you!
Ooooooh… melting 🙂
nice piece……
Great advice. Love the house keeping tips. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in the interview portion thatv it’s easy to forget the little things like pen and paper.
Thank you! Yes, the amount of times I’ve found myself showing up to a meeting without a pen…
What a great way to prepare for an interview! Thanks for sharing it here!
No problem 🙂
This is awesome! Thanks for sharing!
I’m glad you liked it!
This is fantastic. Thank you for sharing.
This is awesome, thanks for the tips!
http://www.thinktravelcelebrate.wordpress.com
My pleasure!
Wow,
really amazing comprehensive guide. I keep this file in my career folder now, and actually can’t wait to put it in action.
Thank you so much for sharing the word file and not making us copy and paste everything by ourselves 🙂
This is the final kick in the butt I needed to apply to that job I have been oogling for months and would even leave grad school for!
Will come back and read the rest of your blog when my exams are over, I have the slight feeling it will take up more time than the hour I spare now every morning for blogging and reading awesome blogs 🙂
XXX Moi
Also, I just became your first bloglovin follower.
I don’t do the wordpress following thingy, because I find it very distracting to see all those great new posts whenever I just want to publish my posts. So bloglovin it is for me.
Thank you 🙂 I really need to take some time out to learn more about bloglovin.
Aw, you’re welcome and thanks for your lovely comment. Good luck with your exams 🙂
A good checklist for anyone.
I have a question though about phone interviews. Would you prepare just as much for a early level phone interview or less?
I’m always on the fence about phone interviews. They are often just pre-screening for background and salary, but occasionally they do become more in depth, which can catch you off guard.
I definitely wouldn’t prepare this much for a phone interview. I think provided that you have a general understanding of the role, your motivations, a summary of your relevant responsibilities and a response for a question about salary, that will be enough for a phone interview. But you are right, you can be caught off guard by the sneaky interviewers! However in that scenario, I don’t think there’s an expectation that you will know much about the employer, so as long as you are pretty self aware about your own situation, it should be fine. That said, I once turned up to a ‘casual coffee meeting’ only to be grilled for 2 hours. It was a rush!
Perfect timing with this post. I have a second level interview next Friday and the checklist you’ve provided is such a great resource to utilize. Thanks for the great tips!
This makes me very happy! Good luck!