Interview Skills
12 Preparation
Preparation ensures you are ready for the interview environment and present yourself professionally.
✔ Logistics: Make sure you know exactly where you need to be before your interview. This could mean mapping out your public transit or driving route, or making sure you have the right link and software ready for a virtual interview.
✔ Punctuality: Good planning helps you show up on time. Aim to join a virtual interview about 5 minutes early or arrive 10 minutes early for an in-person one. Being early gives you time to settle in, get comfortable, and make a positive first impression—even before the interview starts.
✔ Appearance: Preparing ahead ensures you look professional and put-together. Choose clean, appropriate clothing and make sure you’re well-groomed. This still matters just as much for virtual interviews as in-person ones.
✔ Essentials: Bring what you need to feel confident and prepared, such as water, a notepad, and a pen. Taking notes during an interview is completely acceptable and shows you’re engaged.
While some employers take an unstructured, informal approach to interviews, most employers use more structured, formal methods. This ensures that all questions they ask relate directly to the job at hand and that each candidate is evaluated in the same way.
- Research and prepare: This includes researching the company, reviewing the job posting, and preparing your responses to common interview questions.
- Check out the York U Career Centre resources to help prepare for an interview
- What to expect for each interview round (LinkedIn.com)
- Be prepared with authentic answers (linkedin.com)
Research the Employer
You can find great information about your target employer in a number of places, including:
- The job posting to understand the role: You should review the job description, noting relevant skills and experiences, and conduct research on the company to learn about the culture and upcoming initiatives.
- The company website and LinkedIn: Be sure to know the types of products and services the company offers, who their customers and target market are, and the company culture, including mission, vision, and values, as well as any recent news, expansions, or new products. Read sections including media releases and staff biographies
Analyze the Job Posting
Researching the job you are interviewing for is the most important step you will take to prepare for the interview. Employers tailor interviews to determine how good a fit the candidate is for the job in question.
You will get valuable clues about what is most important to the employer in a job candidate in the job posting.
Let’s say you have applied to the Shopify job posting below and have been called for an interview.
Answer the following questions based solely on information from the job posting:
Determine Likely Questions
One of the most valuable things a job posting can do is provide clues as to what the specific questions will be in the interview.
Below, you will see a number of quotes from the above posting. Before clicking them open to see what the likely question or topic is, see if you can guess them yourself.
Course
Advanced Interviewing Techniques (Coursera)
The last module of this five-week course explores strategies to help job seekers communicate clearly and confidently over the phone. The free course also covers other topics on answering popular interview questions.
