When you’re interviewing for an internship, knowing how to put your best foot forward is a key part of getting hired. As CEO of WayUp, I often get asked by students about what they can do to stand out from the crowd. Here are my top four tips for nailing any interview. You can remember them through the acronym, REAF :
1. R: Do your research.
Having a great interview experience begins with doing your research on three things: the company, the position and the person you’re interviewing with. Start by taking a look at the company’s website and social media pages and learning everything you can about the company culture and its mission. To really impress the interviewer, you’ll want to make note of any unique things you find out and mention those during your interview. For example, if you’re interviewing for a marketing role and you find out a cool fact about one of the company’s branding campaigns, be sure to bring this up and to explain why it’s important. This will show the interviewer that you care about the company and that you’re passionate about their work.
Once you have a sense of what the company is all about, it’s time to learn about the role. A great place to start is the job listing. This will give you an overview of the position as well as highlighting key responsibilities. You can also take a look at the company’s career page and make note of any team members who are currently in that position and who may have specific projects listed in their bios.
Last but not least, if you get the interviewer’s name ahead of time (it never hurts to ask!), it’s important to research the person you’ll be meeting with. In addition to reading the person’s bio on the company page, I recommend looking at their Twitter, Instagram or Facebook to learn more about who they are as a person. This is also a good way to identify whether you have anything in common with them which might help you establish a connection during the interview.
2. E: Be enthusiastic.
Being enthusiastic is a great way to show the interviewer that you’re excited about the role and grateful for the opportunity to meet with them. Some key things to focus on are your body language and facial expressions. Be sure to smile when they walk into the room and to let them know right away that you appreciate their time. You can say something like, “I’m so excited to meet you! Thank you so much for taking the time.” People who interview candidates are generally taking time out of their busy schedules to do so and they always appreciate it when candidates are appreciative and enthusiastic about the process. Plus, enthusiasm shows you want the job, and showing you want the job is one of the most crucial steps in an interview process.
3. A: Ask questions.
At the end of every interview, the interviewer will typically say, “We have about 5 to 10 minutes for questions. Is there anything you’d like to ask me?” Your answer should always be yes. This will show the interviewer that you’re truly interested in the company and that you want to find out as much as possible about the role. I recommend having three questions handy that the interviewer in unlikely to cover on their own. A couple of my favorites are, “What keeps you up at night?” and “What are the most challenging parts of this role?” And if you really want to stand out, I recommend asking what key attributes the company’s all-stars have in common. Interviewers remember candidates who are engaging and these types of questions can do a lot to establish great rapport.
4. F: Follow up.
Once the interview is over, I recommend following up via email within 12 hours to thank the interviewers for their time and to highlight one or two key things that you enjoyed about the interview. Assuming that the HR professional who set up the interview is different from the main interviewer (as is often the case with most companies), it’s important to send a separate note to each person. The emails themselves should be short — never more than five sentences — and should focus on thanking the person for their time, mentioning something specific that you discussed during your interview and expressing your continued interest in the position.
My final tip: Don’t be disappointed if you don’t hear back right away. This doesn’t mean that you didn’t get the job, it just means that the hiring managers are interviewing multiple candidates and they need time to make their decision.
Reprinted from: Forbes – http://www.forbes.com – 1.5.17
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