interview

I used to have trouble interviewing. I got much better at it by practicing. I started out by writing out my "pitch" or "elevator speech" in bullet point format focusing on the main concepts or themes I wanted to get across.

I then practiced saying my pitch out loud and then practiced responding to potential questions. After I felt comfortable doing this, I went to a number of mock interviews - I even actually used some real interviews as mock interviews (its best to not have your dream job be your first interview).

It helped me get much better and allowed me to land 4 investment banking offers in NYC coming out of undergrad in the fall of 2007 (and I was coming out of a non-target school).

And to answer the question about taking notes - you can do it just ask them if its ok. That being said, you should research the position extensively before the interview.

I'm not sure if this applies, but I'd say talk confidently no matter what you say. I was talking to this person from Chevron and he threw a technical question at me and I completed messed up the answer but I must have said it so confidently that he just smiled. I didn't realize this after I came back home and was like "Crap!". But guess what? I got second round calls. Didn't get the job because I am a foreign national but it works

Go there, know what you're talking about or be sincere and fake the knowledge. Practice with a friend if that helps. I'm never afraid of speaking in public so that hasn't been a problem. Just practice and it's all good. You need to think that they want you

Posted from GMAT ToolKit

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faking knowledge can be a double-edged sword - figure out how much the interviewer knows or cares before talking something totally "out there"!...

i am so so with interview. sometimes i get nervous and have bad habit of scratching my head. i did go through gauntlets of 5 person vs 1 interviews and got my current job so i guess i did something right. not sure how the coll interviews gonna be like though..

I just went to the interview. i did bad at the beginning and got better later. however, i think i messed up by doing one of the math questions that the interviewer gave me. i misunderstood the question...damn...i am really interested in the position. do you think i should send him the "thank you" letter even though i have a feeling that i will not get the job (becasue the interviewer told me he is still interviewing other people. according to my experience, when an interviwer told me that at the end of the interview, i interpreted as " you are not the candidate that we are looking for")...i feel frustrated since i consider it my dream job...

it is common courtesy to do so and it takes like a min so do it.

I had an interview at a hedge fund where i was interviewed by 6 guys one at a time - it really sucked because from the questions they asked there was one question i didnt know the answer to and they all asked it! i guess i am glad i didnt get it because after the crash i heard that company shed like 50% workforce and i wouldve been in the mix....

I would definitely send a thank you as well as maybe a phone call. On the call you can express your frustration with the interview and make a case how you just interviewed bad and are normally better. Also try to take initiative and make it obvious that you are the logical candidate.

Make a search for that company, nature of business and take a note of some possible questions. Its better to have knowledge of possible questions to arrange your delivery.

the position is internal. i already sent the thank you letter...but just keep thinking about the position since i really want it and i kept thinking about the interview...

hi,
i am currently employed and i am looking for another job. the first question that interviewer or recruiter asked me was why i wanted to leave my current position. i told them that i consider it career movement. that it seems like they were not convinced with the reason i gave them. any idea how to answer this question? thanks!

You need to provide more detail on why its logical career movement. The more detailed you can be the better. For example - at my current position there is not room for promotion and my current responsibilities are not utilizing my full talent set thereby stifling my development. Or some similar type of answer would suffice.

Make sure that any reason you give for not liking your current position is one that the position you are interviewing for can fulfill.

Career movement is a bit vague imo. What is your REAL reason - money? promotion opportunities? Work not challenging/sucks? etc. etc. If you can't make a list of why you dont like your current job who can?

u0422811,
i am going to send out a thank you letter to the interviewer that i just spoke with over the phone. i didn't do well on the interview because i am nervous. also, i was not able to answer the technecal questions that he asked even though it's from the CFA program. that's because i don't use those concepts on my job and forgot them. how can i express this in the thank you letter and ask him to re-consider me because i am very interested in the job? please help!!

I would try to be a little self-deprecating in the letter when talking about how nervous you were in the interview. During interviews whenever people ask "What are your three greatest weaknesses?" I always start off with, at this point I think its pretty obvious that I am terrible at interviewing. Not only does it lighten the air but it also isn't a real weakness. Interviewers understand that people get nervous.

I would not mention that you flubbed the technical question because you essentially worked it out of your memory. I would instead position it like in my nervous state I fumbled what is an easy answer, that I had seen on the CFA test (or wherever), an how under normal circumstances you could have easily figured it out.

Assuming your current position is in a relevant field to your desired one, I would then talk about how your skills you learned here may differentiate you from other candidates. You need to actually find something worth mentioning here that really differentiates you.

Then you want to tie it all in together by saying how you would love the opportunity to just get together and casually chat that way they could get to know the real you.

There are a bunch of ways to posture this, but this is the first that came to mind.

Let me know what you think.

i wrote to the interviewer that i may not be the best interviewee, but i am an excellent worker and he is welcome to read my performance reviews (since it's internal). i also stated how interested i am in the position after he explained the position to me. what do you think?

I wouldn't go overboard with the "my current job is boring/too easy/etc.", especially for an internal job interview. It could very easily be interpreted as you bad-mouthing the group you're currently in. I'd frame your desire to move more in terms of how much more you'd be able to contribute to the company in the new position because of skills you have, or whatever. Make it seem like a win-win, rather than just being all about you.