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| INTERVIEWING WITH CONFIDENCE |
Put forth your most confident, capable and polished self during your interview.
Here are five tips to help ensure that your air of self-confidence won't cross the line into arrogance.
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Talk teamwork
Avoid overstating your role in team projects. Be clear about what the team accomplished and about your role. An effective person on a successful team is the best of both worlds.
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Engage everyone
Show the ability to engage and manage a diverse group of people, including those in the ranks below you. It indicates you can get things done in an organization.
Your social interactions through the interview process will be observed, chit-chat when being escorted from an interview tells about your social skills and whether you’re enthusiastic about the company.
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Convey interest with questions
Knowing little about a company suggests you thought you didn't need to bother. Asking detailed, pointed questions about the company is a good way to show that you've done your homework. The questions will show when you know nothing about a company, too, don’t ask questions are easily answered by looking at the company's Web site.
Asking questions about the company's culture indicates that you're looking for the job that will fit you best, rather than one that will provide the most prestige or biggest paycheck.
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Don't fixate on your job title
Chances are that your job is going to change after you join a company. Your supervisor will move on, the job will grow or shrink, or you'll be promoted quickly because you're a great talent. As a result, be most concerned with how you will fit with the firm in general rather than your initial title or exact role.
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Have realistic expectations
Employers who recruit college grads and MBAs want people who see themselves at the beginning of their career. The job isn't necessarily going to be at the bottom, but there is room to develop before you manage.
Grads and MBAs who believe they'll immediately get to use the management skills they learned in class to run a big-business division need to adjust their expectations. This is particularly important when changing careers, and especially if you're also changing industries. Just because you were a manager in engineering doesn't mean you're ready to be put in charge of another department immediately
Spend time talking to alumni about their career paths, to gain a realistic idea of what your first job after graduation might be and where they might go from there.
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