Job interviews can be one of the most stressful things in life for certain people, for others, it may come naturally. However, no matter how good you are at talking, how good your resume looks, or even how serious the interview is, preparing for a job interview is one of the biggest steps when looking for work. Here are a few helpful tips to help you prepare.

One of the most important steps in preparing for a job interview that not many people realize is research. Doing research on the company and the role they are hiring for is one of the easiest ways to make yourself stand out compared to other candidates. Whether it's talking about the company's involvement in the community, their values, or talking about specific skills you saw in the job posting, having knowledge about these topics and talking about them shows that you are interested and care.

Another very important step is familiarizing yourself with common questions and knowing how to answer them while referencing your resume. Practicing common interview questions before an interview is one of the easiest ways to get yourself more prepared. I have participated in countless interviews, and I can confirm that lots of companies ask the same behavioral questions. Having knowledge and exposure to these questions and how to answer them will save you in future interviews. Referencing your resume is also a nice trick to do while answering questions. Talking about experiences on your resume helps the interviewers remember your answers and helps them follow along with the story you are about to tell.

The final tip is to be yourself and don’t try too hard. It’s easy to stress over interviews, lose sleep thinking about what to say, and spend hours trying to figure out the perfect answers. The truth of it all is, you are never going to be 100% prepared and do perfect. You’ll never go into an interview knowing every question and having a perfect answer to every question. However, if you can be yourself and stay calm, the interview is bound to go better than you think a majority of the time.

At the end of the day, nobody is perfect at interviews. You could follow all these tips, spend countless hours preparing, and pull your hair out stressing and overthinking, but nothing is guaranteed. If you are going to take anything from this entire blog, let it be this: Be yourself, make eye contact, dress to impress, and remember that all it takes is the right company, at the right time, to never have to prepare for a job interview again.

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