Fundamental Interview Mannerisms People Get Completely Wrong

One of the areas I can help you most is teaching you how to carry yourself in an interview. I've interviewed hundreds of students over the past three years, and the vast majority get extremely basic concepts very wrong. I highly recommend scheduling 2-3 hourly sessions to solely focus on this area, because it can easily win you offers (just as it can lose you them). I'll address the core issues below:

1. Under-Preparing

   1. Don’t come into your interview never having opened the resources they sent or without spending several hours on Google finding key questions. Treat this like a test you can’t flunk

2. Over-Preparing

   1. While under-preparing is horrible, over-preparing can be just as dangerous. Rehearse your answers, but don’t memorize them – it’s not impressive to interview a robot. Trust me, it’s obvious when you’ve heard the questions before or are simply regurgitating responses from memory

3. Only Preparing Technically

   1. Interviews are just as much behavioral as they are technical (arguably even more so). Spend time reviewing “tell me about a time when…” questions, preparing your “walk me through your resume”, listing reasons for why this job genuinely interests you, and reviewing your experiences/interests

4. No Due Diligence

   1. It’s always helpful to know your interviewer. Read a little bit about their background so you can ask relevant questions. DO NOT make it clear you creepily stalked them

5. Not Smiling

   1. The number one factor that makes or breaks a candidate in the first 2 minutes is energy. Smile, laugh, and sound positive in your interview – people like to hire others that are fun to be around

6. No Eye Contact

   1. This is one of the easiest ways to appear more confident (along with sitting up straight and not fidgeting)

7. No Enthusiasm

   1. Similar to smiling and laughing, having enthusiasm in your voice conveys genuine interest in both the job and the conversation. Don’t be monotonous or robotic, fluctuate your intonations

8. Asking Bad Questions

   1. Don’t ask about pay, hours worked, or other topics that you wouldn’t want to talk about if you were on the other side. Ask questions you’d enjoy answering. Message me for some of my personal favorites