Interviews
A step-by-step guide to preparing for a job interview, from researching the company to practicing answers, so you walk in calm and ready.
Most interview nerves come from one thing: walking in unprepared and hoping you'll improvise well. You won't, not reliably. The good news is that preparation is mostly mechanical, and an hour or two of focused work puts you ahead of most candidates.
This is the checklist I give every person I coach. Work through it in order and you'll show up ready to have a real conversation instead of a guessing game.
Read the job description twice. The first time, get the shape of it. The second time, highlight the words that repeat: the skills, tools, and responsibilities the employer clearly cares about. Those repeated phrases are a map of what they'll ask about and what your answers should reinforce.
Then spend twenty minutes on the company itself. Look at their website, their recent announcements, and how they describe themselves. You're hunting for two things: what they actually do, and what they seem to value. A company that talks constantly about "moving fast" wants different stories than one that emphasizes "craft" and "care." Match your examples to their language.
If you can find the names of the people interviewing you, a quick look at their roles helps. You don't need to memorize their career history. You just want to know whether you're talking to a future manager, a peer, or someone from a different team, because each one cares about different things.
You cannot prepare a unique answer for every possible question, and you shouldn't try. Instead, prepare a handful of strong stories from your experience and learn to adapt them.
Pick three to five moments from your work history that show you at your best: a problem you solved, a project you led, a conflict you handled, a time you failed and recovered, a result you're proud of. Write each one down in a few sentences using a simple structure: the situation, what you did, and what happened. These become raw material you can shape to fit "Tell me about a time you..." or "What's a challenge you faced?" or "What are you proud of?"
The candidates who interview well aren't the ones with the most experience. They're the ones who can describe their experience clearly under a little pressure.
The aim isn't to recite a script. It's to know your own stories well enough that you can pull the right one and tell it without scrambling. For the behavioral questions specifically, see how to handle behavioral interview questions, which goes deeper on structuring these answers.
This is the step almost everyone skips, and it's the one that matters most. Rehearsing in your head feels productive, but your head doesn't trip over words, lose its place, or ramble for two minutes. Your mouth does. You need to hear yourself.
Say your answers aloud, ideally to another person or a camera. Record one or two and play them back. It's uncomfortable, but you'll catch the things that undercut you: filler words, sentences that never end, an answer that sounds confident on paper but mumbly out loud. Practicing the awkwardness now means you won't meet it for the first time in the room.
Pay special attention to the questions you know are coming. Almost every interview opens with some version of "tell me about yourself," and a strong answer there sets the tone for everything after. It's worth rehearsing that one until it feels natural; how to answer "tell me about yourself" walks through exactly how. Same goes for the predictable favorites covered in common interview questions and how to answer them.
A few things worth practicing before the day:
Nothing wrecks your composure like arriving flustered. Sort the practical details in advance so they're a non-issue.
For an in-person interview, know exactly where you're going, how long it takes to get there, and plan to arrive about ten minutes early. Decide what you'll wear the night before and make sure it's clean and ready. Bring a couple of printed copies of your resume, a notebook, and a pen.
For a video interview, the prep is different but just as important. Test your camera, microphone, and internet connection ahead of time, not five minutes before. Check what's behind you and that your face is well lit. Close the apps and tabs that might ping you mid-sentence. Sit somewhere quiet where you won't be interrupted. Have your resume and a short list of notes nearby, just out of camera view, so a glance can steady you if you blank.
Either way, have the interviewer's name and the time written down, along with a phone number to call if something goes wrong. Knowing you can reach someone if the link breaks takes a surprising amount of stress off your shoulders.
When they ask "do you have any questions for us?" the answer is always yes. Saying no reads as indifference. Have three questions ready that you genuinely care about: how the team works, what success looks like in the first few months, what the person interviewing you enjoys about working there. Good questions show you're evaluating the fit too, not just hoping to be picked.
One last thing. Preparation isn't about turning yourself into a polished performance. It's about clearing away the friction so the real you can come through. When you've done the research, know your stories, practiced aloud, and handled the logistics, you free up your attention for the actual conversation. You can listen properly, respond to what's really being asked, and let a bit of warmth in.
No amount of prep guarantees an offer. Interviews involve other people's needs, timing, and budgets you can't see. But you can guarantee that you walked in clear, calm, and ready to make your case. Do the work the night before, get a decent night's sleep, and trust that you've earned the right to be in the room.
Elena is a former recruiter who has read tens of thousands of resumes and sat on both sides of the interview table. She writes about job searching with the bluntness of someone who knows exactly what gets a candidate shortlisted — and what gets them ignored. She's a firm believer that a good resume is edited, not written.
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