Commit to 10 hours of preparation before a job interview

Given the recruiters are in control of the interview process, the ones asking the questions, there doesn’t seem all that much we can do in advance to increase our chances of getting the job.
That’s wrong, according to career coach Sam Owens. He wants you to spend 10 hours preparing by thinking carefully about the job description, developing answers to questions that are likely to flow from that indication of the organization’s needs and then practising in mock interviews. “I want you to bring a preparation bazooka to the interview knife fight,” he writes in I Hate Job Interviews.
It’s not just that you will be better armed and able to answer questions more effectively, you will also be more confidant. And that counts. In your own life, you likely weigh the confidence of the roofer or surgeon you are considering. Interviewers will consciously or unconsciously be picking up on your confidence level in the interview. Boost your confidence by bringing that bazooka with you.
Start with three hours of research, building a foundational knowledge of the organization and its products or services. The first hour can be spent researching on the Internet. But also get off your computer and speak to people familiar with the company. LinkedIn is an excellent source of people who now work for or did work for the company – perhaps even in the same department you are aiming for. Ask them for 15 minutes, which should be sufficient to get you inside information that will enhance your understanding of the organization. At the end of each chat, Mr. Owens recommends thanking them by indicating specifically what you have learned and also asking who else you might speak with.
In the next stage of preparation, formulation, you will spend three hours focused on the specifics of the job description, figuring out, with the help of your Internet research and interviews, how to communicate why you are the right candidate for the job. Too often, he says, candidates view the job description like a user manual for a product – something to be quickly looked at and discarded. “What a shame! If you carefully study the job description, you can easily detect what skills are required for the job and thus what types of questions you will be asked,” he says.
Once you have listed those skills, create ‘power’ examples from your past where you have successfully displayed those attributes. He says those examples should be tangible and specific, and demonstrate what a star you will be. “You should aim to have three power examples for every skill in the job description. This will give you flexibility in the interview because questions are often phrased in different ways,” he writes.
Some of your experiences may not line up perfectly with the job, but here he suggests using the technique of bridging to make it relevant. A friend of his landed a job in marketing with Disney while in business school by stressing that not only had he studied marketing, but his PhD in history helped him to understand human behaviour.
The final stage of preparation is where he warns most people give up – practising your responses out loud for four hours. It feels awkward. There can be a fear your responses might start to sound robotic. “But those who practise find the opposite to be true. It’s practice that allows responses to flow freely and allows you to improvise comfortably when needed,” he says.
Two hours will be by yourself, reading through and starting to memorize your answers. The final two hours will be with a friend, colleague or career coach who will take it seriously, stay in character throughout the session and hold off on feedback until the end. This simulation will iron out the kinks in your responses.
“Practice is the secret weapon to being better than your competition because your competition won’t want to practice,” he says.
Quick hits
Harvey Schachter is a Kingston-based writer specializing in management issues. He, along with Sheelagh Whittaker, former CEO of both EDS Canada and Cancom, are the authors of When Harvey Didn’t Meet Sheelagh: Emails on Leadership.