As someone who has mostly been on the other side of the table, here is a summary of what I learned from conducting about a dozen interviews.
- Small words of encouragement can help candidates perform their best.
- Your interviewer wants you to succeed (99% of the time).
- Little things you do during the interview can help you make the cut. For example, showing up late or chewing a gum during the interview is a BAD idea.
- Unless you’re applying for an executive position, your resume should never exceed 2 pages.
- Sending a small thank you note to your interviewer is NOT overrated.
- Bring a laptop to showcase the work you have done or bring printouts of whatever you’re most proud of. BONUS TIP: Take the time to censor any sensitive company information.
- Feel free to google something or ask for a hint rather than freezing up. Like I said, most interviewers want you to succeed.
- This one is a cliche – always communicate your thoughts to the interviewer
- IMPORTANT: Your interviewer (in most cases) does not expect a complete working solution. But if you’re going for a developer role, pseudo code isn’t enough. You need to show you can write code.
- FINALLY … being rejected doesn’t mean you were bad. It just means that someone did a little better than you on the interview.