10 job interview tips for students in Kenya and abroad.

How to make a good impression during job interview

Milton Berle once quoted, “if the opportunity doesn’t knock, then build a door.”

Interviews come just like any exam and need thorough preparation beforehand.

When you take time to prepare for one accurately, you are creating an opportunity for you to be hired.

Therefore, for those who have received terrible feedback after their interviews, this is for you.

This also will apply to those who hope on having more interviews in the future, which is probably all of us, I think.

Write a captivating resume

You do not need to be a proficient writer to make your curriculum vitae.

Include all relevant experiences, whether from internships and volunteer programs. Keep it short and precise.

Relevant personal information, education background, work experience, and referee contacts are the basic must-haves for your resume.

Check grammar and punctuation to avoid shoddy perspective.

If you must, attach links to your previous work and add your skills. Follow these tips on how to write a good resume for starters.

Practice over and over again

The perfect common saying goes … practice makes perfect!

A job interview is not similarly close to the one on television where you enter a room to speak your truthful mind.

No, not at all! You have to put to work on all the information you think is necessary for that position.

If you find yourself at fault, lie if you must. I repeat, if you must.

This is not necessary, but at times you may need to depend on your level of desperate.

If you tell a lie, make sure it’s not over something that you will need to prove later on like your academic grades and qualifications.

Again, I do not recommend this for starters. You can wrongly claim that you are well acquainted with a particular skill needed by the job.

When hired, go smart about it and make efficient practice and master that skill to overcome that venomous lie you previously told.

This will prove your worth. The overall fact is that if you have efficient practice, you won’t even need to tell lies and lay to waste your chances of being hired.

I will emphasize you should practice some more and more.

Have a personality

Be free and entertaining.

There is nothing as fun as engaging your interviewers other than throwing one-word monosyllabic responses that make you sound rude.

It shows that you fit in and can cope easily in new environments.

You never know, you just might win your interviewer’s heart with a good sense of humour.

However, be careful not to strike too many comic phrases as interviews are a formal affair.

Sometimes, you might carry dark humour that is insensitive to the other party, especially if you found them in a laid-back mood. Furthermore, be sure not to hold back.

Keeping to yourself might hide important information about you or paint you as mean and covetous.

Investigate the company like you are their personal hired detective

You have to make sure that you expose your interest in the company. Let’s be clear here, we all have that one thing we are obsessed about.

Be it movies, baking, photography, whatever it is.

By virtue, we are destined to know too much of both relevant and irrelevant information regarding our enthusiasm. The same way a professional poker player will disclose to you all his tricks is just about how you should be engrossed with the company you want to work for.

Most of these details can be accessed on the company website online and will give you a head start during the interview.

Stay calm, collected and refined

Your nervous characteristics are bound to show.

Leaving your bag on your shoulders through the interview like you are ready to take off in case of a minor catastrophe.

Shaking before the interview like the beaten tomtom drums of Western Guinea like you are having a hunger breakout because of anxiety?

We all probably get nervous and anxious sometimes. It could come with a little stuttering here and there or sweaty palms depending on anyone.

It’s wise to take a calm breathe-in-and-out session before you go into the interview.

Stay posed even though u are unfamiliar with the question asked.

You can choose to listen to calm music to refresh your unstable mind or even look through your phone for some memes to hype your spooked mood.

Which brings us to…

Be strikingly punctual

I wish there were a better way to emphasize this point other than just bolding and italicizing the words.

The whole point is not to show how time-bound you are. Okay, somehow it is because that also gives you credit.

But there is kind of an entire constructive package that comes with being early for your interviews.

You get ample time to calm those jittery nerves. You might get lucky and come across helpful information posted on the walls and office notice boards as you just sit there waiting for your time of judgment.

If you feel a need to, you can take this chance to practice one more time and build familiarity with the whole situation.

Note also that, punctuality does not mean that your desperate self turns up more than an hour before.

Estimate the time it will take you to transit from your home to the right interview premises considering traffic, bad weather, and any other unavoidable factors.

You should seriously take the initiative to find out where the interview will take place so that you avoid any unnecessary inconveniences.

Make early preparations

Most of us didn’t know this before at your stage.

Interviews require work like any other test. All this has to be done in time to allow your mind to saturate every preparation.

Early preparations are the right pill dosage for nervous and anxious breakdowns.

Early preparations will save you the burden of panicking and cramming answers you assume will be needed.

Prepare all relevant documents before-hand to avoid disorganisation.

Look presentable

You might not be comfortable cladding in official garments, but this is very essential. You might also have one challenge less in determining how to dress for job interviews and other occasions.

One of my previous interviewers once told me, “We are looking for beauty and brains… You are a good match, but unfortunately, you offer only the brains…”

Rude as it may sound, she was right to have narrated to me my weakness.

Probably I had not dressed well enough to beat her satisfaction, and I regretted but at the same time learned my harsh caterwauling lesson.

If you do not know what the company dress code might be, it is preferred to dress formal than emerge casually.

Importantly, have a proper posture to elevate your presence. Sit upright across your chair and relax your hands on your thighs.

Ask questions

It is essential to know what you are getting yourself into.

Try to find out as much as you want about the job.

In case you run out of questions, you can complement your interviewer genuinely.

Check here for a list of possible questions to ask your job interviewer. Also, acquaint yourself with issues not to ask your job interviewer.

Do a follow up with the interviewers.

Go ahead and ask how you did. Thank the interviewers for the opportunity they gave you. You can attach any relevant information you think you mistakenly left out during the interviews.

These could be links to your work, pictures and so on.

Note that you cannot be too much, but just enough. At times a genuine follow up might turn out terrible.

Here is why;