Our Experts | Charleah Trombitas
It is imperative to learn interview skills early on in your career – and throughout your career! As you are entering the workforce, you will need to practice interview skills to prepare for your job search. But what happens when you’ve been in the workforce, and possibly with the same company, for years? It’s important to keep your interview skills sharp, whether you’re new to the game or not. Here are a couple reasons why:
You never know when you’ll be in another interview
Even when your job is going well and you are happy, you never know when an interview opportunity will arise. What if a company reaches out to you and it’s a great offer? What if something drastically changes in your life, forcing a job change? Though these circumstances are unlikely, they can happen.
You won’t have to start from scratch
If you keep your interview skills sharp consistently, the next time you’re preparing for an interview will be a lot less daunting. If you can think back to the first time you walked into an interview, though you may have prepped beforehand, the experience was probably nerve-wracking. Though nerves may still arise as you advance in your career and continue to interview, keeping up with your interview skills can help dull those nerves.
Tips for keeping up with your interview skills:
- Keep your resume up-to-date. If your resume is current, you already have talking points and solid information to work off of for interviews.
- Create an elevator pitch and practice it at networking events. Interviews are obviously more in-depth, but being able to list off what is great about you and your career in an efficient manner is a good start.
- Keep up with the latest in your industry through continued education. This will not only help you in your current career, it will give you fresh things to talk about in any interviews.
- Besides your resume, keep a list of important projects you’ve headed or worked on with talking points about each project. This will be especially helpful if you have years of time between interviews.
Even if you’re not in the middle of a job search, keeping your interview skills sharp is important so you’re ready for anything. The professional world can be fast-moving and hard to keep up with. Preparedness is your friend and will benefit you in the long run.
If you are in the process of searching for a new job or wanting to work on your interview skills, contact an Alliance Solutions Group recruiter to help with your job search or interview needs.
