After leaving a job interview, rate your performance with an after-interview checklist. Following a post-interview checklist can help you curb bad habits and become an expert at wooing hiring managers.
Here are the basic points to check:
Were you on time?
Was your personal grooming immaculate? Were you dressed like company employees?
Did the opening of the interview go smoothly?
Did you display high energy? Flexibility? Interest in learning new things?
Did you smile? Did you make eye contact?
Did you frequently make a strong connection between the job’s requirements and your qualifications?
Did you forget any important selling points? If so, did you put them in a follow-up e-mail, letter, or call-back?
Did you convey at least five major qualities the interviewer should remember about you?
Did you use storytelling, examples, results, and measurement of achievements to back up your claims and convince the questioner that you have the skills to do the job?
Did you make clear your understanding of the work involved in the job?
Did you show your understanding of the strategies required to reach company goals?
Did you use enthusiasm and motivation to indicate that you’re willing to do the job?
Did you find some common ground to establish that you’ll fit well into the company?
Did you take the interviewer’s clues to wrap it up?
Did you find out the next step and leave the door open for your follow-up?
After the interview, did you write down names and points discussed?
Think about the following questions to help you clearly identify your strengths and weaknesses on the job interview stage:
What did you do or say that the interviewer obviously liked?
Did you hijack the interview by grabbing control or speaking too much (more than half the time)?
Would you have done something differently if you could replay the interview?
Keep following up until you get another job or until you’re told you aren’t a good match for the position — or that while your qualifications were good, another candidate’s were better.
Even then, write yet one more thank-you note, expressing your hope that you may work together in the future. Sometimes the first choice declines the job offer, and the employer moves on to the next name — perhaps yours.