December 5- Be Prepared

#5- Interviews can be seen as a battle ground. Actually, that's not true, but you do still need to properly prepare yourself in order to set yourself up for success. My Dad always said "Proper Prior Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance"- I think its from his Navy days, but its just as true in an interview as it is in a plane.  Prepare your knowledge to ask relevant and specific questions at the end of the interview, hopefully tailored to the conversation you had. Prepare a portfolio with multiple copies of your resume. Prepare your expectaions of who you meeting with, what the company does, and what would be asked of you on your first day. If you can't know that before the interview, don't leave that meeting without some of those answers.  Be on time, be presentable (see #4), and be personable (for me that means I have to eat a banana if the interview is very early- or else I'm a zombie).  Some people will go on so many interviews during their job search that each interview is like the last, so they don't focus as much preparation time on the different meetings, and that may be the very reason they are going on so many interviews and not getting the offers. Each battle is unique, so you must arm yourself differently.