If you want the job offer, you have to be just a little bit better than everyone else. However, that doesn’t mean that you necessarily have to be more qualified, more educated, or even more skilled. Below are 5 tips that will help you beat out everyone else and get the job offer.
- Research the Company
The more you know about the company and the job, the better off you will be. Start with the company website, and then go to Google. Find their mission statement, values, products, marketing strategy, competitors, recent news, plans for growth, and so on–anything you can find to make you more informed about this company.
Then, check out the company’s Facebook and LinkedIn page, as well as the social media pages of the executives and managers who currently work there. Social media sites will give you different information about the company, and individual pages will fill you in on things like background and career path of their top execs.
If you haven’t done this job before, consider arranging a job shadow to get a better grasp of the day-to-day details.
2. Write a 30-60-90-Day Plan
Use your new knowledge to create a 30/60/90-day plan, which is an outline of what you intend to do your first 3 months on the job. Talking about your plan in the interview will allow you to communicate much more effectively and stand out from all the other candidates. Even if you didn’t bring it to the interview (although you absolutely should), your interview answers will be better as a result of creating this plan.
We have templates and coaching for all career levels:
30-60-90-Day Sales Plans for Sales Jobs
30-60-90-Day Action Plans for everyone else (people always ask if these plans are worth it if you’re not in sales, but actually they’re even more impressive outside of sales jobs)
30-60-90-Day Plan for Managers for any management-level job
30-60-90-Day Plan for Executives for any Director, President, VP, or C-Level position
3. Prepare Your Brag Book
Hopefully, your brag book is something that you regularly update (like your resume). If not, do it now. Not only will this boost your confidence considerably before the interview, if you bring it and show key parts to the interviewer, it acts like another reference for you. It’s a very impressive way to add ‘evidence’ of what you’ve done.
4. Coach Your References
You should take care to choose great references (see who makes the best references) AND you should give them a heads up that you are about to interview for this job. Tell them about the job, the company, and even remind them of something you did that you think would be helpful to mention. They will appreciate you making this task easier for them.
5. Practice Answering Interview Questions
Practice your answers to as many interview questions as you can. When you deliver them in the interview, you will come across as more confident and self-assured–and, you will be less likely to forget an important point. You can practice in a mirror or with a friend, you can use our interview question and answer video series, or you can even make the investment in a session with an interview coach. Any investment of time or money here will always be worth it, because you will perform at higher levels than you would without it–which makes you more likely to get the offer.
* Download a Free 20-Page Job Interview Preparation Guide and Worksheet