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Hello, Hello, Hello, Welcome
back to another episode of the Straight Shooter

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Recruiter podcast. I am your host, Emilie Durham. I have been a

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careers coach for many a year.
I've worked in recruiting for like seven almost

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eight years. I'm a writer for
Canadian business. You know the drill,

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like, if you're here, you
know the shit is about to be fire.

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And today I want to give you
a nobs straight to the point,

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how to prep for an interview when
you only have a couple of hours or

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a very limited amount of time.
I am not going to answer any questions

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in this episode because this is designed
to be a freaking crash course. Like,

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you just got a call, you
have an interview tomorrow, you don't

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know where to start. You don't
have time for me to answer your questions

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of the week. Okay, you
want the answers and you want to keep

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it moving. So that's the intention
of this episode. It is designed to

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make your life a lot easier.
If you want me to answer your question

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in next week's episode, click the
link in the description. If you want

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to rock the merch, because baby, this merch goes crazy. It is

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so cute. I'm literally wearing the
off the Clock T shirt right now,

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and I always get compliments on it
because the quality is fantastic. The black

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stitching is so chic, and it's
just fun to wear, especially on a

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casual Friday, like when I'm recording
this. But that's neither here nor there.

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I feel like I'm operating in freaking
turbo speed. Let's get your ass

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prep for that interview. Let's get
into it all right, Besty. You've

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just got the call. You have
an interview today or tomorrow. This is

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specifically what I want you to do. Now. How you prepare for an

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interview does vary based on what round
it is, so let me give you

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a quick overview of what the expectations
are for each round of different interviews.

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All of these tips are industry agnostic, which means they're going to apply no

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matter what industry you work in,
and it doesn't matter if this is your

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first internship or if you are much
more senior in your career. These tips

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are going to transfer to every single
thing that you do. When it comes

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to the first round interview, the
recruiter or the hiring manager is typically looking

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to understand if you are a general
fit for the company, and if you

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have the general skills required for the
role, it's probably not the interview where

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they're going super in depth on your
technical skills and experience. And we'll break

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that down more in just a second
for your second round interview or your third

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round interview. So whether it's your
final round or it's your second meeting with

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the team, this is where they're
going to get really nitty gritty about the

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specifics of the job to see if
you actually know how to do the job.

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So the questions get a lot more
nitty gritty. Let's break into this

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a little bit more so for the
first round interview. No matter what,

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you can be expected to answer questions
like tell me a little bit about yourself.

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You're also going to be asked why
do you want this job or why

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are you looking for your next job. You're probably going to be asked to

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explain a breakdown of the day to
day work you do in your current position,

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or if you're a new grad,
talking about what you're looking for in

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that next position, and they're likely
going to break down a couple of questions

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based on the job description. So
every single time you apply for a job,

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make sure you take a screenshot of
the jobs and pop it into a

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folder on your phone just in case
the position gets unposted at any point in

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time, Because the job description is
the best way to anticipate what questions you're

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going to be asked in the interview. For example, if you're interviewing for

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a recruiter position, let's say,
and the job posting talks a lot about

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needing to understand how to do technology
recruiting and working with data, you bet

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your sweet honey buns, I've never
said that before. Don't know where that

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came from, but you bet your
sweet old honey buns that they're going to

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ask you a question based on data
and based on how to recruit for technology.

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So it gives you a starting point
to know specifically what you're going to

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do. So the first step is
to not only prepare for the basics like

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answering, tell me about yourself and
why do you want to work here,

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which I won't break down in this
episode because I have so much content on

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that, both on the podcast but
most specifically on my YouTube channel. I

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have a whole playlist on how to
answer commonly asked interview questions. So just

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go there. But the next thing
that you are going to have to do

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is think about how you're going to
answer job specific examples. And the best

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way to do this is create a
literal list of the skills they're looking for

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in the job description that they've posted, and have a couple of examples written

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next to it of work you've done
that demonstrates that. Maybe it's a school

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project you worked on, maybe it's
I don't know, like a thing you

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built, whatever it is, you
know what I'm talking about. Have a

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couple of examples that are aligned to
each of those core skills, and what

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I want you to do is practice
answering a variety of questions tied to that

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skill, specifically using the Star method. So the Star method is a method

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of answering interview questions that is really
structured and make sure you're giving the interviewer

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or the recruiter the right amount of
information. The S stands for situation,

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the T stands for task, the
A stands for action, the R stands

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for result. I just left an
executive interview, executive, I am talking

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C suite executive interview, and you
want to know what the feedback is that

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we gave to the candidate who's getting
the job. We said, you answered

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everything with the star method. It
was great. So it doesn't matter what

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level you're at. This is what
people want to see. So practice.

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For example, if you're asked about
how you work with data, tell me

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tell me a time you've worked with
data. I might say when I first

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started working at into It, I
noticed we had a huge opportunity to hire

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more account managers in sales. There's
a situation the task. So I started

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doing a complete, in depth analysis
about the talent market and the areas of

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opportunity across our different territories. The
action the data showed me that we had

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an opportunity to hire more in Quebec
to better serve that market. The result,

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we ended up adding thirty percent additional
customers in less than six months and

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hired fifteen people. Boom, I
just gave you five sentences that told me,

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or told you rather exactly what you
needed to hear. But another call

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out. Do you notice that I'm
only talking about me in this interview.

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It's super important that you are calling
out the winds of other people and talking

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about teamwork and collaboration, but specifically
when it comes to you answering tough to

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answer interview questions. We don't want
to hear what your team did. Yeah,

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I want to hear what you did, So don't say we did this,

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we did this. What you would
say is our team was working on

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this, and here specifically how I
contributed. And to be honest, these

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tips carry really well into second round
interviews as well, but it's almost a

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guarantee you're going to get these style
of questions in both. So it's just

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good to know, and I also
find it helps you like mentally prepare.

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Now, what I think is the
most important differentiator between preparing for a first

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round and like a second round or
final round interview is how much they expect

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of you. In the first round
interview, the recruiter is typically looking to

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learn more about your general experience and
general fit for the company, but maybe

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not nitty gritty. That changes when
you get to the second round. So

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here's a key difference. When you
are entering that first round interview, it's

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a really good idea for you to
have an understanding of what that company does

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and their values because you're probably going
to be asked why do you want to

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work here, and you saying something
like, oh, I love your commercials

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on TV like that's it's just not
enough. You know, I need you

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to step it up, step it
up. And you know how we do

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that. You go to their career
website. You look up their values.

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Yes, companies love when you butter
them up with their values. Okay,

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and you say, oh, I
saw this as a value of yours.

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I saw you volunteer here and that
you invest in here. That means a

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lot to me because of blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah. And you

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want to make sure like it's authentic. You don't want to just make shit

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up. But you call on those
specific things listed on their website when they

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ask you why you want to work
there, because it proves that you do

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research. In that second round interview, you got to take it a step

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further. In the first round,
you know they're getting it's like a vibe

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check. You know, it's a
first date. They're trying to see is

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this person the right fit. The
second round interview, they want to see

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you show the hell up. And
how you do that is the next time

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they say, you know, tell
me about yourself, because chances are you're

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going to meet with a second person
who has not heard that spiel. You're

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going to say the same thing you
did before, using that amazing YouTube video

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that I've put together, but you're
going to add on this sentence, and

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you're going to say, after speaking
to the recruiter last week, I was

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so invested. I went to your
career website. I learned a little bit

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more about your investment strategy and your
product, and did some more research on

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people who've been in this role previously, and I just think I'm an amazing

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fit. It shows you do research
and it further cements the idea that you

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are the ideal candidate. Second round
interviews tend to get a little bit more

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technical. So the same way you
prepared to answer basic questions around the job

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description in the first round, get
ready for them to drill a lot deeper.

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So in your second round interview,
in addition to preparing information on why

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you want to work at that company, I need you to go deeper on

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why you are specifically qualified for that
role, backed by data. It might

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not be as necessary in round one, but round two, when they say,

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talk to me about how you grow
teams, have numbers to back up

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your experience. If it's your first
job, and they're asking you how you

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collaborate. I want you to talk
about the size of the projects you've worked

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on. How many people did you
partner with. That's the stuff that really

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matters. So it's important to click
down, go deep on data. This

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is a tip that's important for every
interview, but it's particularly important to further

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along you get in the process,
and it's something that's really overlooked. So

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at this stage, you would have
prepared to answer tell me about yourself.

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You're prepared to talk a bit about
the company and why you're a fit for

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the job. You have some examples
ready to go to share using the Star

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method. The last thing I need
you to do is come prepared with amazing

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questions to ask in that interview.
I also just left an interview, actually

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yesterday I left this interview and the
feedback from the team was I don't think

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this person wants the job. They
didn't ask me any questions, and I'm

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like, oh my god, this
person is an amazing fit for the role.

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I don't want you to shoot yourself
in the foot by not having these

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things. So at the end of
the interview, when the person is asking

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you, do you have questions.
For me, always say yes, And

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this is why your research is important. If you found that a value aligned

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to you are aligned with your values
on their career website, say, I

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see your value is being bold.
Can you talk to me about how that

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shows up in your team? I
see on the website you have invested in

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this. How does that impact our
team? Like? Those are the questions

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that make you stand out, and
those are so easy to prepare because literally

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you just need to go on the
career website like it really is as simple

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as that. Other quick fire tips
for preparing for an interview, go to

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LinkedIn and take a little creepy creep
of the individual you're speaking to. See

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what school they went to, what
companies they worked for. That's another great

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way to ask really thoughtful and impactful
questions. At the end of the day,

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preparing for an interview, yes,
is stressful, but it's not rocket

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science. You just need to be
prepared to answer some basic questions about who

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you are, why you want that
job, and have really great structure in

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terms of how you are answering those
questions. Now, if you feel like

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you prepare for interviews and maybe you
still get nervous It's a great idea to

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have notes with you, not a
script, because you don't want to over

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prepare and feel like you're not yourself
and that you're not organic. Another great

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tip to prepare for an interview is
practice. I just literally kissed my microphone

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by accident. Whoopsies, I hope
you didn't hear that. I was like

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right up in my MIC's face.
Another great tip is to record yourself answering

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commonly asked interview questions. It'll help
you get a flavor of what your communication

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style is like, and then it'll
help you adjust and correct for body language,

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your pace, all of those good
things. But I do have a

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full episode on this podcast about communication
and how to be a clear and direct

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communicator, especially in interviews, as
well as some content on YouTube if you

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prefer a visual for that one,
so definitely check that out. But this

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is short, this is sweet,
and the reason for that is it doesn't

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need to be complicated. Anyone telling
you it needs to be complicated, frankly,

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is trying to stress you out and
make you feel like you need to

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spend money on a career coach to
prep for an interview. And it ain't

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like that it's simple. It's clear. You make bullet point notes, you

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practice, you practice, you practice, You're going to be fine. I

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believe on you. If you have
an interview this week, DM me let

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me know how it goes. I
care about you, mutually. Talk to

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you next Sunday. Bestie,