Do you study for your job interviews or do you find yourself “winging it” each time? "Winging it" has probably worked in the past, but it's not the best way to approach a meeting with your potential employer.

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The one thing you should do before every interview is study for it.

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I’ve been asked, “why study for the interview? I know what I can do.”  The same way you practice before a basketball game and the same way you rehearse a choreographed dance – you must put in work to get the job.

What you don’t know about the other candidates is how qualified they are, so in addition to your own qualifications, make sure you are equipped with additional things like:

• knowing the company’s core values. If you can’t remember them all, keep at least two in your pocket so that you can use it in an answer to an interview question.
• knowing the problem that the company is in business to solve and how you (being in the role) might positively impact them achieving the goal. This is key! Hiring managers want to know what value YOU will bring to them. Why should they hire you?
• knowing their recent happenings in the media. Could you imagine interviewing for a job to work at Nike and not knowing about the controversy over their new campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick? The hiring manager may ask you your thoughts on it… or why you’re interested in joining a company during a public relations "crisis". It’s a good chance they’ll be really impressed if you a) know what’s going on and b) have an intelligent answer to the question.

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The best places to find information about the company you’re interviewing with are:

1. The company's website – check out their “about” section
2. Glassdoor.com <<< This is a good one. Salary information, interview questions from REAL interviews they’ve conducted in the past, AND employee reviews of the company can all be found here.
3. A simple Google search of the company will let you know if it has been mentioned in the news recently.

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Studying for the interview also gives you more confidence, simply because you'll know a little more than you did. Have you ever gotten an invitation to an event that did not specify the dress-code? That is annoying, because you don’t know whether you’ll be over-dressed, under-dressed, or off-dressed completely. So you call around and ask others, “what are you wearing to the party?” BUT if you knew the dress-code ahead of time, you’d be more confident (because you’re prepared). Same concept with interviewing.

Once you've studied, write the information down and stick it in a folder - to glance at while you wait for your interview to start. Your resume should also be in the folder (at least two copies) and a list of 3 or 4 strong follow-up questions. (Check out my article "You're Interviewing Them Too!" for a list of really good questions to ask at the end of your interview.)

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Study. Prepare. Tom-ay-toe. To-mah-toe. Embrace these study habits before your next interview so you can #arriveandthrive and #BeUnpologeticallyThriving.

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