5 Tips to Arrive Calm and Prepared for an Interview or Even an Important Business Meeting  

Going back into the job market can feel like an overwhelming task; in fact, you may find yourself wondering if, once you’ve dusted off your resumé and landed that (coveted!) interview, do you remember how best to present yourself to a future employer? There’s so much advice out there on what to do and not to do that it can get a bit tricky to navigate best practices.

So, instead, keep it simple by mastering the basics. With these 5 key steps below, you will stand out from the crowd.

Tell Your Story
These days employers see hundreds, if not thousands of resumés. But during your interview, employers want to hear about you — not a summary of your resumé.

In fact, they pretty much want to know these three things:

• • • Do you have the skills to do the job?
    • Do you have experience doing at least most of the job?
    • Will you fit into the organization’s culture?

So the best way to prepare to share the above information is by telling your story in a way that a resumé cannot. They do not want to hear either a regurgitation of what they can read in front of them, or too-rehearsed answers to their questions.

Groundwork Essentials: Review the job description or job posting and be able to relate their required skills and experience to yours. Think of examples that showcase the skills you identify in your resumé. (Note: You should know your resumé well enough that you do not need a copy in front of you during the interview.)

Also, allow space for your personality to come through in your “spoken story.” Practice this by yourself or with someone in advance—it will help if you talk through any rough spots and edit unneeded details that aren’t crucial to your responses.

A word of caution though: don’t memorize your answers. An interview is a bit awkward for both parties — so don’t feel like you have to be perfect. Instead, be you. If you tell the story they think they want, rather than your story, even if you get the job, you may find later on that it’s not a great fit for either you or the employer.

Direct Your First Impressions
When thinking about what to wear, consider that the “interview uniform”  (a conservative blue/black suit) is generally no longer required. However, what you wear will speak to everyone you meet before you can utter your first words.

Groundwork Essentials: Ask yourself, “What message will my clothes say about me?” Think of two or three words that you want your first impression to reflect (i.e. confident, professional, poised) and then choose pieces that reflect those adjectives. It is not necessary to abandon your personality in this process. However, wearing what you wore out last Saturday night with your girlfriends might not be the message you want to communicate.

Another important tip is knowing the dress code of the industry and of the company (see “Do your Homework” below for more on how to do this). In fact, even if the company dress code is more casual, dressing a notch or two above this is typically expected and well-received by interviewers. It says, “I take this meeting seriously and want you to know I took the time to bring my best self to this interview.”

Lastly, what is your handshake like? This may sound trivial, but go ahead and practice with a friend. Non-verbal body language can be an underlying component to the success of an interview. So think Goldilocks here—i.e. not too soft, not too hard—somewhere in the middle. The limp fish (where your hand goes soft during the handshake) may reveal low self-confidence — probably not the impression you want to communicate.

Do Your Homework
There’s no excuse anymore not to know about the company with whom you are interviewing. There are several ways to do this and places to visit before you walk in to the interview. Weave this knowledge into your interview, and you will surely stand out.

Groundwork Essentials: Get on the web, and get very familiar with the company website and their social media presence. Take note of their mission and vision statements (if they are there), and any other pertinent information.

Then, go to LinkedIn to check out the profiles of the people with whom you will be interviewing.  Find out how long have they been at the company, what type of roles have they had while there, and what their current role and responsibilities are.

Also, visit sites like Glassdoor.com for company reviews from former and current employees. Then go even further by checking out their competitors— seeing how the company’s competition positions itself in the marketplace can be quite interesting and valuable.

Lastly, your “interview contact” at the company (think Executive Assistant/gatekeeper) can also be a resource—many times they will assist you with insider information that they think would be helpful (such as company dress code, full list of who you will be meeting, etc). And if you are using a recruiter, by all means, let him/her help you with the legwork. They can be your eyes and ears during the process.

Prepare Your Questions
Be prepared to put the employer on the hot seat with meaningful questions about the job, the company and its culture. Not only are you presenting yourself during the interview, but, ideally, the employer should also want to impress you.

Groundwork Essentials: Come prepared with questions that are insightful and reflect that you’ve thought both about the job, and about what is important to you in an employer. If you are interviewing with several people, have questions for each person.  This is a sure sign to an interviewer that you are interested, and you are carefully considering them in particular — versus desperately looking for any job opportunity.

Schedule a Dry Run
Groundwork Essentials: If your interview is onsite, schedule a dry run to the location—preferably around the same time as your upcoming interview. This way you are familiar with how to get there and how long it will take to get there on the day of the interview. The day of the interview can be a little nerve-wracking, so navigating a discrepancy on your GPS will be one less worry on that day.

For bonus points, always leave yourself an arrival buffer on the day of the interview (build in extra time for traffic or other unexpected delays) but don’t officially arrive until 15 minutes before your scheduled time. Doing so can be inconvenient to your future employer—especially if you are pulling someone away from their work to attend to you before they expect it.

Focus your energy on mastering these five basics, and you will find that it takes most of the stress out of the preparation steps. Stand out as someone who respects the interviewing process, and who has invested the time in truly getting to know the company well.