Did your new and updated resume just get you an invite to a job interview? Great! That’s the first step, but few challenges lie ahead.

Firstly, you should start with the essentials: proper dress code, punctuality, and turning your phone on silent. If you nail these basics, the next step is to nail your interview.

Our partners at Kickresume will tell you how:

1. Learn as much as possible about the company

Knowing who is the founder and CEO and having a certain familiarity with the company’s history and achievements will help your answers sound more proficient.

You can easily research the company on Google, social media, their website sections to learn more about their products and services. It could be useful to read possible reviews on Glassdoors or recent blog posts.

2. Reviews the job position in detail

Be on top of your game by researching the skills and responsibilities that comes with the offered position. It will help you be ready to fit your competences and experience to the job and appear suited for the position.

Based on your research, provide examples of how you displayed your skills and duties in past volunteer activities, school projects or internship.

3. Be ready to answer the most common questions

You most likely cannot anticipate what they are going to ask you, however, there are many frequently asked questions that you can prepare for:

Can you tell me a little bit more about yourself?
What interests you about this role?
What are you passionate about?
Why are you leaving your current job?
What are your greatest strengths?
What are your greatest weaknesses?
What are your goals for the future?
Can you tell me about the last time that you faced a difficult situation and how you solved it?

If you prepare your answers in advance, you will feel and sound more confident durinf the interview.

4. Have your questions ready as well

“Do you have any questions for us?”. You will probably hear this at the end of the job interview. Answering “no” is not an option, by asking question it will show that you are interested and curious about the job.

Try asking these questions:

What do you like the most about working at your company?
Do you offer any additional training?
Can you tell me something about the team I would be joining? 4. What will be the greatest challenge for me if I’m hired for this position?

5. Send a thank you email after the interview

Experts recommend to do one more thing once the interview is over – to send a thank you note to the hiring managers. Most of them pay close attention to how well and how swiftly you write a thank you email after the interview.

Thank them for their time and try to summarize your conversation highlighting all the positive moments of the job interview. Here’s a useful template.

The thank you email is an excellent way to make yourself more memorable and stand out. The job market is highly competitive and it favors the bold!