Imagine the situation that you are looking for a job. One day you recieve a letter that says: Your resume was good enough to get the interview. You woke up feeling confident and happy about it. You are fifteen minutes early to your interview. You felt great as you chit chatted about the weekend and then answered all of the questions with ease. You were a blowout. Then why didn’t you get the job or even a second interview.

Let’s rewind.

You showed up fifteen minutes early. Awe-inspiring for you, regrettably not all employers feel the same way. It can be annoying for an employer to have an interview show up while they are still trying to finish off the interview before you. It’s good to be punctual, and even early in most cases. Five minutes early is satisfactory. If you show up earlier than that, just sit in your car for a couple of minutes. Listen to the radio set and chew over on why you are the best candidate for the job. And then five minutes earlier your scheduled interview, head on in.

Next, let’s address your interview dress up. Your hair is neat and combed; you put on your best shirt and favorite “nice” jeans! ok...Let’s talk about the “nice jeans”. I hate to break this to so many of you, but jeans are almost never satisfactory for an interview. It almost conventions you out before you even get a chance to say anything. Yes if you are applying for a job as a cowboy or related field it’s appropriate. For about every other job in the world it’s not. At the very lowest pull out a pair of khaki’s for the interview. Employer’s look at your appearance as a expression of how you may dress on the job or represent the company. You do not want to discover as too casual or haphazard. Even if you know the office is generally casual and the person interviewing you is wearing jeans, you don’t want to make any presumptions about anticipations for the interview process. After you have the job offer, ask what the appropriate dress is for the business concern. As a tip, it’s good to have a “go to” interview outfit and try to make it something that you feel comfortable in. 

Now let’s go on to the interview chit chatting. It is always a good idea to find something to link up to the interviewer about. This shows the interviewer that you would harmonize with the office. It’s not a good idea to absorb in overly long discussions that are unrelated to the position available. You only have a short time to impress someone adequate to be offered the job. Try not to waste too much time discussing items that are not attending get you the job. While they may “like” you, the job will wind up going to someone else that is more “qualified”. Let’s discuss the rules of interview chit chat. No politics, religious belief, or any type of a private story that is better left for happy hour with your friends. 

Now that you have these easy to follow rules for your next interview, get working on  your resume, pull your interview outfit together and practice for your next interview. Good luck on the job hunt.
