Interviews

While on Twitter, I came across a tweet by Heather Huhman about creating great interview conversation. Usually I just glance by her tweets because she has tons, but this one caught my eye. To get a great job one has to have a killer portfolio, great recommendations and an amazing interview. Out of all of those criteria the latter scares me the most. A public relations person is supposed to come with great communication skills, and I have that. But when in a small, confined room with potential coworkers and bosses I get extremely nervous and often do not do my best. This is obviously an area that needs improvement. 

Heather posts ten ways to nail an interview according to Rick Probstein, founder of TopJobLeads, on this site: http://tinyurl.com/dnlt5p.  These tips taught me a lot of important skills I will be needing in the near future. 

The most unexpected tip I read was number five. I assume the interview would be in a professional setting and complementing outside of the job topic would be inappropriate. I understand complementing on the interviewers past work but not on other matters. 

Numbers one, two and seven I have heard before this article, but the others were relatively new to me. After reading this article, I understand you should be confident, welcoming, professional and agreeable. For myself, I think a mock interview would be a useful tool to better prepare. So, I am not completely taken back by an interviewers question.

Interviews are a scary, uncharted territory that hopefully with practice and experience will not seem so bad.