"No-No's" and "Yes-Yes's" for the interview

So hopefully your cover letter and resume rose to the top of the pile. Wonderful news!

Now it's time to prepare for the interview. No, I don't mean brush your teeth. I mean prepare. No chess player goes out to challenge their opponent and plans to crush them without prepping. Ok, you don't want to crush your opponent, and the interviewer isn't your opponent. Often it may be a 'gatekeeper' to stop the flow of people who eased through the qualification process because their resume really did glow, only to be put on the spot and have some glaring omissions all reveal themselves in a few short minutes. Many times it will be the person who will oversee you - regardless, if you go in thinking you'll ace it on a whim, then you may be surprised to hear that's not entirely likely. It's more than brushing your hair back, putting on a tie or ironing a shirt that gets you a job. However, those are very important.

For some of the No-no's, this is a good list as any. 15 ways to annoy your job interviewer. Yep, that just about sums it up! It should be thorough though, it was written by the well known 'Working Girl' Karen Burns.

Now, on to what you should do, by a fairly well written list on the sometimes overly rudimentary, but very useful if you need that sort of thing, website eHow entitled, quite properly, How to impress at a job interview!

On a side note, when you hear people say 'maintain eye contact' it doesn't mean you want to have a staring contest and loudly proclaim, 'I win! Does that mean I get the job?' if you force them to blink or look away. It means don't focus on how crooked your laces are, stare at the odd broken fingernail on your left hand or look out the window the entire time. Just make sure that you are focusing on them a good majority of the time. Another piece of advice I'll add directly is that you'll want to talk about the job as if it is yours, don't preface every response with, 'If I got the job I would...' or 'When you hire me I would...' Just state how you, a qualified candidate, would deal with the difficult situations they present you with.

By the way, if you have to ask,'Does that mean I get the job?', then you probably didn't.

Happy Hunting!