Interviews make all the difference in career trajectory for candidates and managers alike. Every conversation between new hires and hiring managers can feel like a chess game. But it should never feel overwhelming! To make this easier on both sides, Top Applicant is sharing the most important interview tips to keep in mind for every stage of the interview process.
Even the best interviewers can get better. That’s why our platform has ways to get to know employers and potential employees with transparent communication already built in. To start using these tools to your advantage, sign in and explore all the tools that make nailing your next interview easy!
Before the Interview
To successfully land that job or fill that position, you need the right preparation. For both applicants and hiring managers, best practices actually aren’t so different! These are the top interview tips both sides can follow to set the stage for success.
1. Act Quickly
Swift action can make or break the hiring process. No candidate likes to wait for weeks to get a response back about their application. And no employer likes to wait for a candidate to accept an invitation to interview!
Top Applicant makes outreach easy with direct messaging built into our platform. Employers, you can even send job seekers an invitation to apply if you think they’d be a great fit for a role!
2. Do Your Homework
To walk into each interview confidently, we always recommend doing your homework on your potential employee or employer. On our platform, Top Applicants can see who has read their resume and who may be interviewing them. To use this info to its fullest advantage, we recommend finding bios on the company website and learning key aspects about the business on their Top Applicant profile!
3. Set Your Expectations
With 2-way transparency, it’s easier than ever to set expectations for successful interactions! For applicants, we recommend looking deeper into the role on the company profile and cross-referencing each position with similar roles and companies. On the employer side of the equation, clearly share about the responsibilities of the role and the company culture. That way, you can find candidates who fit for the long-term!
During the Interview
On the day of an interview, tensions can be high on both sides of the table. If managers really need to fill a role, they view candidates through rose-colored glasses. On the other hand, what may seem like a dream opportunity for an applicant can make them overlook red flags throughout the interview. Remember, both the interviewer and the interviewee evaluate the other in this process! Our interview tips surround what to do (and what not to do) during your meeting.
Don’t…
1. Show Up Late
Even with a perfect resume or a hectic commute, there’s no excuse for poor punctuality. To make sure things go smoothly, we recommend planning your schedule to leave 15 minutes open before everything.
Managers, if you have to take a meeting earlier in the day, make sure you plan a hard end 15 minutes before your agreed upon time. Candidates, if your meeting is scheduled for 10, make sure you arrive ready to knock their socks off by 9:45 at the latest. Both applicants and employers should remember this quote about punctuality.
“To be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be late, and to be late is to be forgotten.”
2. Forget Your Needs
In the excitement of finding “the perfect fit” of a candidate or a position, it can be easy to compromise your original intentions. Rookie hiring managers may often feel like they’ll miss out if they don’t land their top choice. Culture fit is equally important to applicants and employers, so never compromise your core needs just to check some boxes!
3. Over Ask
While we never recommend compromising on your core needs, it’s also important to build healthy expectations for both sides of the hiring process! For both applicants and employers, we recommend separating your needs into 3 categories.
- Non-negotiables
- Potential compromises
- Fully flexible expectations
Pay, benefits, and balance top the list of reasons that people change their careers. To ensure a successful interview, we recommend outlining your hard expectations so you don’t settle, but you should stay flexible on the things that matter less. Sometimes, flexibility creates unexpected opportunities to land top talent or stay satisfied in a new position!
4. Psych Yourself Out
In any career building endeavor, it’s all too easy to let your situation dictate your self-worth.. But this is one of the fastest ways to stagnate your career as an applicant—and as a manager! Minimizing what you have to offer and showing up without confidence doesn’t speak well for an interviewee or an employer. So from the moment you confirm that interview request, keep your eyes on the prize, your head in a positive place, and relax!
Do…
1. Plan Your Progress
What’s your 5-year plan? How does this role fit into that plan? Prepare to answer key questions like these as you go through any interview! Both employers and applicants should always have a clear plan for professional development, starting from the first point of connection.
A clear plan not only tells applicants that a company is serious about growth, it also shows forethought to an employer! To learn more about the subtext surrounding the most common interview questions, check out this related read.
Deciphering Our Top 10 Interview Questions
2. Write Everything Down
Taking notes in every interview is crucial for everyone involved! No one can be expected to remember every detail about their new role or new hire after just an hour together. By writing down key points from the interview, applicants and employers can connect details and compare opportunities. Detailed notes are especially helpful for multiple rounds of interviews!
3. Set the Tone
Setting a confident, positive tone is crucial in everything you say and do during an interview. Managers can have rough days around interviews, just like applicants can have tough experiences that lead them to apply for a new position.
From the second you walk in, lock in an aura of positivity, friendliness, and confidence on both sides of an interview. Focus on these 3 things to present yourself in a positive manner:
- Body Language: Stand up straight, shake hands, and relax—you’ve got this!
- What You Say: Avoid negative words, unfamiliar slang, and badmouthing other jobs.
- How You Say It: Consistent cadence, clear tone, and confident projection are key.
4. Stand Out
Whether you’re an applicant or a hiring manager, everyone needs to stand out to be successful these days! You wouldn’t settle for your second-choice job, or the second-best candidate. So why would you ever put your second-best foot forward in an interview? To truly be a Top Applicant or a Top Employer, our platform gives everyone involved in the interview process the tools they need to be a first-round pick!
From video sharing to fully customizable portfolios and more, Top Applicant is revolutionizing the hiring process, one feature at a time. To stand out even quicker, applicants can use tokens to boost their application to the top of an employer’s view.
On the other side of things, employers can use paid tokens to boost job postings and fill their position. But to get in front of enticing prospects even quicker, hiring managers can directly invite top talent for free! Top Employers budget for these benefits with paid packages starting from $50 to $500 depending on their needs.
After the Interview
We make it easy for everyone to stand out as a Top Applicant or Employer. To go above and beyond other opportunities or candidates, there are 3 easy interview tips everyone can do.
1. Say Thank You
You’d be surprised how far a simple thank you can go in garnering a sense of respect. And we’re not just talking to applicants here! It’s certainly good form for a candidate to send a thank you email, but employers should also send thank you notes to candidates. Interviewing asks for a big time commitment from candidates, and sometimes even requires them to take PTO from a current role.
2. Improve Your Process
Whether you land that opportunity or applicant, there are always areas to improve your interview process. This is why note-taking is so important. Maybe there was a question that could have been asked or answered better. Or maybe you just need to remind yourself to chew a stick of gum if your interview falls after lunch! Regardless of the outcome of an interview, these are valuable opportunities to improve your skills.
3. Keep Looking!
Even if you nail that interview or land that ideal applicant, you should never stop looking for new opportunities! You never know where your next Top Applicant or Employer may come from. So keep your options open, stay interviewing, and stay improving. For every step of your career-building or business-building journey, Top Applicant is the platform designed to grow with you!
Grow with Every Interview
With Top Applicant’s innovative tools, we make it easy to keep the human element in every aspect of the hiring process. To grow professionally and personally your interviews, track your progress and continue to build your profile with the human way to hire! Get started with a quick sign in, or subscribe to our newsletter to get more insights like this sent right to your inbox.
