Interviews
How to prepare for a job interview
A practical guide for students and recent graduates, built around what preparation actually looks like rather than what it is supposed to feel like.
13 min read
Most interview advice tells you to be confident. This is not useful, because confidence is an outcome rather than an action. You cannot decide to be confident. What you can do is prepare thoroughly enough that the interview stops being a test of your composure and becomes a conversation you have already thought through.
That distinction matters most for early-career candidates, who are often competing against people with similar qualifications. Where two candidates are equally qualified, the one who prepared specifically for this employer and can speak in concrete detail about their own experience will usually be the one remembered.
Something worth knowing before you start: interviewers are not expecting a finished professional. For a first job or an internship, they expect to train you. What they are assessing is whether that training will go smoothly, which comes down to how clearly you think and how well you explain yourself.
Before the interview
Six things to do in advance
None of these take long individually. Together they are what separates a prepared candidate from a hopeful one.
Research the organization properly
Not the About page. Find out what they actually do, who they serve, how they make money, and what has happened to them recently. Read their last few public announcements. If they are a nonprofit, look at their annual report.
Interviewers can tell within two questions whether you looked beyond the homepage.
Understand the role, not just the title
Read the job description line by line and work out what the day-to-day actually involves. Most descriptions tell you the tasks but not the rhythm. Ask yourself what a typical Tuesday would look like in this job.
This is what lets you answer questions with relevant examples instead of generic ones.
Prepare specific stories, not general answers
Write down six to eight situations from work, study or volunteering where you handled something: solved a problem, worked with a difficult person, managed a deadline, learned something quickly, made a mistake and fixed it.
Most behavioural questions are asking for one of these. Having them ready is the whole game.
Practice out loud with a person
Reading your answers silently does not prepare you for saying them. The gap between knowing what you want to say and being able to say it smoothly under mild pressure is large, and it only closes with repetition.
If nobody is available, record yourself. It is uncomfortable and it works.
Know your own resume
Every line on it is fair game. Be ready to expand on anything you wrote, including the parts you wrote a long time ago. Interviewers frequently ask about the item you least expected them to notice.
Read it the night before. You will be surprised what you forgot you claimed.
Prepare your logistics
Route, timing, what you are wearing, and for video interviews, your camera angle, lighting and background. Test the technology in advance rather than at the moment it matters.
Logistics are the one part of an interview you fully control, so it is worth removing the risk.
The questions
What they are really asking
Every common interview question is measuring something specific. Knowing what that is changes how you answer it.
Tell me about yourself.
What they are assessing
An opening, not an invitation to narrate your life. They want a short, structured summary that ends where the job begins.
How to approach it
Present, past, future. Where you are now, what brought you here, why this role is the logical next step. Ninety seconds at most.
Why do you want this role?
What they are assessing
Whether you understand what the job is and have a real reason to want it specifically.
How to approach it
Connect something concrete about the organization or the work to something concrete about you. Generic enthusiasm is transparent.
Tell me about a time you handled a difficult situation.
What they are assessing
How you behave under pressure, and whether you take responsibility or deflect.
How to approach it
Use one of your prepared stories. Describe the situation, what you did, and what the outcome was. Be specific about your own actions rather than the group's.
What is your greatest weakness?
What they are assessing
Whether you can evaluate yourself honestly. The trap is either a fake weakness or one that disqualifies you.
How to approach it
Name something real that you are actively working on, then describe what you are doing about it. The second half is what they are actually assessing.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
What they are assessing
Whether your expectations are realistic and whether this role fits into a plausible path.
How to approach it
You do not need a precise plan. Describe a direction and show that this role is a sensible step in it. Admitting uncertainty about specifics is fine.
Why are you leaving your current role?
What they are assessing
Whether you will speak badly about a former employer, and whether your reasons are sound.
How to approach it
Stay factual and forward-looking. What you are moving toward matters more than what you are moving away from.
Do you have any questions for us?
What they are assessing
Genuine interest, and whether you have thought about the job beyond getting it.
How to approach it
Have three questions ready. Asking about the team, the work or what success looks like in the first six months reads well. Asking only about salary and holiday reads poorly at this stage.
Your turn
Questions you should be asking
The end of an interview is not a formality. What you ask signals how you think about work, and it is one of the few parts of the conversation you fully control.
Prepare three. Use two. Choose based on how the conversation actually went rather than reading from a list.
- What does success look like in this role in the first six months?
- What are the biggest challenges the team is facing right now?
- How is this role's performance evaluated?
- What is the team structure, and who would I work with most closely?
- What happened to the person who held this role before?
- What do you enjoy most about working here?
- Are there opportunities to develop skills outside my immediate role?
A note on salary
If you are asked about salary expectations early, it is reasonable to ask what range is budgeted for the role before giving a number. If you must give one, research typical pay for the position in Minnesota rather than guessing, and give a range you can justify. BLS wage data and Minnesota labour market information are both public and specific.
Afterwards
What to do after the interview
Send a short follow-up within a day. Reference something specific from the conversation rather than sending a template, and keep it to a few lines. Most candidates do not bother, which is exactly why it is worth doing.
Write down what you were asked while it is fresh. If you did not get the role, that record is the most useful preparation you will have for the next interview. Ask for feedback if the interviewer offered it, and treat a rejection as information rather than a verdict.
If you are interviewing at several places at once, keep a simple record of who asked what and what you said. It becomes difficult to keep straight by the fourth conversation.
