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Help! I’ve got an interview!

Your resume gets you in the door but your interview gets you the job.

Here are the top ten things you need to do to be interview ready:

  1.  Find out where it will be.  Exactly where it will be.  Don’t leave this to chance.  Location mistakes make you sweaty.
  2.  Get a haircut and deal with those dark roots. (you know what I mean)
  3.  Who will you be meeting?  Look them up on LinkedIn, Wikipedia or Google.  Try to find things you might have in common with them.
  4. Calculate how long it will take to get there.  Add 15 minutes.
  5. Iron your shirt.  Lay out the right accessories (necklace, pen, tissue, tic tacs)
  6. Leave your coffee in the car or failing that, in the lobby.  Do not bring coffee to an interview unless you are bringing one for the interviewer too.
  7. Prepare five or six stories from your career.  They can be examples of challenge, success, teamwork, deadline, project management.  Anything really.  The point is to practice telling each story so that it will come across with confidence and grace, even when you are nervous.
  8. Check your hands.  When you are getting settled in the interview room, take a look at your hands.  If they are clenched together, undo them and shake them under the table or at your sides.
  9. Write the name and address of the interviewer on an envelope and put a stamp on it.  Take the card and envelope with you.  Jot down a few lines of thanks in the card and mail it at the nearest box when you leave the building.
  10. Take your brain!  Breathe.  Listen.  Think.  They invited you to meet with them for a reason.  Remember that.