Praxis has taught me a plethora of useful career advice. Every week all the Praxis students attend a live session and occasionally they bring in a guest speaker who specializes in a particular topic, in this case, interviewing skills.
Last week’s guest was Johnny Roccia and he is the go-to guy for learning interview skills. Johnny has done thousands of interviews when he worked in HR so he was a perfect fit to teach Praxians.
Here are a few tips he gave:
- After the interview I follow-up with an email thanking the person for taking time out of their day. This is best done before you leave the interview location because it shows initiative. According to Johnny, 99% of people don’t bother with a follow-up email but it’s one of the easiest ways to get noticed and increase your chances of getting hired.
- If you receive a rejection email stating you didn’t get the job, ask what you can improve.
- During the interview if you’re asked something like, “Name a time…” Or “Tell me about yourself” be able to recall a specific example from past work experience and tell it like a short story.
Good luck if you’re job seeking and remember these tips. If all else fails just smile and be honest, your interviewer is also human and they want to get to know you. Think of interviews like speed dating.