Interviewing 101: 5 Tips for Better Performance
It’s fair to say that job interviews make most of us a little nervous.
It’s no easy task trying to fight through the nerves and anxiety, while demonstrating that you’re the ideal candidate for the role.
The experience is even more daunting for women of color (WOC) and other marginalized folks, who are often faced with additional barriers. In other words, the odds are against us.
In a Catalyst media release by Dr. Dnika J. Travis, she says “women of color continue to deal with some of the workplace’s most entrenched hurdles such as pay inequalities and near invisibility in top leadership roles.” If WOC are not included in leadership roles, then they are often also not part of interview panels. This reinforces a cycle of discrimination and unconscious bias during interviews that shows up when panels are all-male and all-white.
We’ve had our fair share of interviews, offers, and rejections, and throughout the years, have acquired our own tips and lessons learned that we want to share with you. Let’s get started.
Illustration by Liu Liu
1/ Do your homework
There’s a lot that’s out of our hands when it comes to interviews. But, we can prepare ahead of time so that we enter the interview space having an idea about what to expect.
Doing your homework means gathering as much information about the organization as you can. Check out their website, find out about their mission, past clients, team, and internal culture. Dig deeper into their social media accounts to learn how they talk about their work and what matters to them.
In a system with barriers stacked against us, the more information we have, the better. We also recommend asking these initial questions:
What will the entire interview process look like?
Who will be on the panel?
What is your timeline for filling the role?
What is the salary range?
These questions will allow you to prepare even more. One thing we like to do is look up the individuals on the panel on LinkedIn to learn more about their roles and how long they have been with the company.
Lastly, we’ll leave you with a previous blog on the importance of vetting our employers as WOC. Check it out to learn more about how to prepare for interviews.
“Doing your homework means gathering as much information about the organization as you can. Check out their website, find out about their mission, past clients, team, and internal culture.”
2/ Rehearse through mock interviews
From preparing for my PhD defense to showing up to my first academic job interview, I can’t recommend the usefulness of a mock interview enough. For the first interview, you’re likely to want to think about rehearsing the following:
Summary of your professional experience
Why you’re an ideal candidate for the role
The value you add to the organization
What makes the mock interview really helpful is that it provides you a chance to rehearse your answers with someone who either knows you or the field very well, or both. This means you can really think about your wording, how your responses resonate, and unpack the kind of patterns you fall into.
Here’s a quick tip: select someone you feel comfortable around, so they can be honest with you and provide you with constructive feedback.
3/ Pause, and take a breath
Interviews are nerve wracking because we’re expected to offer the most intelligent and polished answers out there. After all, we’re there to impress. Undoubtedly, this adds extra pressure. We’ve observed over the years that when we’re nervous, we tend to speak faster, forget important parts of our response, and at times, to ramble, without actually responding to the question. This means we often don’t convey our ideas clearly.
We know better now. One of our biggest pieces of advice to you is to pause. Take a breath. Don’t rush your answers. Remember, you’re never going to lose marks for taking a minute to think. There is something truly powerful that happens to your mind and body when you take a second to pause and take a deep breath, before continuing. All of a sudden, you are able to proceed with more clarity and confidence.
More importantly, pausing between sentences has shown that responses resonate more with people, as it signals that they need to tune in, and pay attention. In the article ‘The Power Of The Pause’, Adrian Dearness says that the pause is “the audience’s friend, and it’s the friend of our memory too, giving the brain an extra sliver of time to continue more steadily on the right narrative path.”
4/ Don’t be on time, be early
When we started our careers, interviews were all in person. One of the things that made me most nervous was trying to find the interview location; I recall getting lost a few times, and panicking about making it there on time. Over the years and decades, we’ve seen a huge shift from in-person interviews to virtual ones. But to be honest, the same rule applies.
Give yourself time to arrive, if the interview is in-person. If it’s online, give yourself time to sort out your tech, lighting, background, and wifi.
Interviews are already stressful enough. And when we’re nervous and crunched for time, trouble-shooting becomes more challenging. Ground yourself by showing up early and getting yourself a drink of choice.
5/ Ask good questions
Asking questions is extremely important, but asking good questions will set you apart. Always come prepared with a few questions to ask at the end of the interview. Never say you don’t have any questions, and let the interview end on that note.
“Asking questions is extremely important, but asking good questions will set you apart. Always come prepared with a few questions to ask at the end of the interview.”
Asking good questions achieve two things:
It gives you further valuable information about the role, organization, and team;
It communicates your curiosity, knowledge, and value to the potential employer.
Reinvention Coach, Dr. Jasmine Escalera provides a list of 5 questions every WOC should ask during interviews. Check out the article to review them in detail, but here’s a sneak peak:
How are promotions and pay rises decided?
Do you have a budget for training/development?
What is your management style like?
Are any leadership positions held by people of colour?
How do you define diversity and inclusion?
Asking the right questions, Escalera argues, is how we ensure that as WOC we don’t just start a new job, but that we plan for our careers.
What interview tips and tricks have you learned along the way? Let us know in the comments.
Coming up Next
In our final blog for 2024, we will share 6 lessons learned. Written from our perspective as WOC, and taking into account our experiences at work and in our personal lives, we will reflect on a challenging and eye-opening year.