Some Job Interview Tips Every College Graduate Needs to Follow
As we mentioned before, the prospect of an upcoming job interview can be nerve-racking, but it doesn’t have to be. If you focus on the following job interview tips, you should feel much more confident about it and perform better, as well.
Do Your Homework
Just because you’re done with school doesn’t mean you’re done doing homework.
If you want to nail this upcoming interview, you’ll need to do a little homework about the employer.
At the bare minimum, this means checking out their website. It’s not uncommon for an interviewer to actually ask if the interviewee has done so. Tell them “no” and they might question how interested you really are in working for them.
Again, the website is the bare minimum.
Take some time to read up on your industry, as well. The interviewee might ask you about it, but it will also be very impressive if you’re able to work some relevant anecdotes into the conversation.
For example, if you’re a cosmetologist, you could mention certain trends in the industry that you know about because you were reading about or even attended a recent tradeshow.
Don’t Only Talk About Yourself
Far too often, job interview tips are all about you, the applicant. Obviously, you’re a very important part of the equation, but don’t forget about the actual business for which you hope to work.
The other reason you want to do your homework is so that you know how to talk about the employer. Specifically, you want to talk about how you can be an asset to their business.
Talking about your career ambitions and what you’re looking from an employer is certainly important. The first of our job interview tips was all about answering these types of questions.
Still, no one is going to hire you based on what you want. They also want to know why hiring you is going to be a good decision for them.
Highlight All of Your Relevant Skills
One challenge a lot of new college graduates face is trying to distinguish themselves from the rest of the talent pool, many of whom have also just graduated.
For most entry-level jobs, graduating from college will be enough to receive consideration. The interviewee will know you haven’t spent years in the field and that won’t be held against you.
Of course, you’ll still want to talk about all of the training you received during your college courses, both in the classroom and in job settings.
You should also talk about any other experience that may be relevant.
For example, if you used to work in customer service before you earned your Automotive Technician certificate, you’d want to bring up that you have a track record of working well with people.
Perhaps, in high school, you participated in extra-curricular activities that required a certain amount of organizational skill. That could be relevant, as well.
Don’t sell yourself short as a candidate just because you’ve only recently graduated from college. The more you can think of important factors that separate you from the crowd, the more you’ll appear valuable to the business.
Need More Job Interview Tips?
At IntelliTec, we pride ourselves on not just training our students in the skills they’ll need to find an enjoyable career but also in helping them plan for these all-important interviews. While we hope the above job interview tips for new college graduates, our career services department is always available to students who are preparing for this next step.
If you’d like to learn more about how IntelliTec can help you train for a promising career in a field you love, please contact us today.