A couple of days ago, I bundled a couple of tips for a better interview. Duco had a couple of additions, which I found really useful.

The fourth point I made in the first post, was “bring stuff to show”. Next to the work you’ve done, there are a couple of things you could prepare to tell a better story about yourself.

1. Prepare your “superman stories”. You’ll probably get the question why you are good at what you do. This is easy to prepare and structure, if you use the CAR method: give a little background (context, keep this short as it does not really matter), tell what you did to improve the situation (actions) and share the outcome of your work (results). Focus on the results, and be sure to quantify them as good as you can: know your numbers. Each of these stories should map to different qualifications that are asked. If “ambitious” and “teamplayer” are on top of the list and you are asked about that, tell the corresponding superman story.
2. List the reasons why they should hire you. Most interviews will be about things you did in the past, to figure out your level of skills. You can take matter into your own hand by preparing a list of reasons why the specific company should hire you. This could be in the form of “I know I can help you with advertising, because I read on a blog that you’re still figuring out what to do. [insert superman story about a marketing related situation]. I’m sure I can help you get to the next level”.

Interviewing is really hard, but the right preparation will get you a long way.