Perhaps you’ve worked really hard this school year or maybe you did more socializing than homework. Regardless of which of these categories you fall under, you can’t stay in the dorm forever. This means you have no choice but to head back home.
But do your parents see how hard you work when you’re away at school or how much time and effort you put into your studies? The answer is no. All they see is a lazy youth slouched over on the couch all day in front of the television set and going through all of the snacks that they’ve paid for. It doesn’t take long before most attentive parents realize that they can’t allow for this behavior to continue on for the rest of the summer months. They want to see some productivity and so now you have no choice but to look for a summer job.
Now that you’ve finished filling out and turning in all of the job applications, it’s time to prepare yourself for an interview. If this is your first job interview, don’t worry about being nervous. It happens to everyone and it happened to me. I can guarantee, however, that if you prepare yourself ahead of time and you know what to expect, it should be a piece of cake.
What To Expect
If you’re looking for a minimum wage job, that’s something I can help you with. At most interviews, the representative of the business will usually ask you questions that will put your trust and honesty to the test. Additionally, some of them ask you to specifically list up to five things that you like about the place you’re interviewing for. And still other questions have to do with how you would handle yourself in certain situations and what your strengths and weakness are.
I believe a great way to prepare yourself for this is by writing them down first in a notebook at home. Furthermore, recite the words in your head over and over until you have them memorized. Take into account all of the questions I mentioned above and prepare them accordingly. However, do not fall into the temptation of taking the easy way out by simply using the same answers for each job, regardless of what type of job it is. It’s important to sound genuine and intelligent, so only use those answers and statements that apply to that particular field of work. For example, if your interview is for a restaurant, it’s fine to list “cleanliness” as being one of your favorite qualities about the place. However, if your interviewing for a position as a garbage man, you may want to leave that part out at your interview. Otherwise, it will probably make you sound pretty stupid.
How To Act
Some people have a hard time figuring out how they should present themselves at a job interview. Well, for the three job interviews I’ve had, I can say that two of them went well. And here I will tell you why. Even though I was friendly at all three of my interviews, I came across as needy and insecure at my first one. A big one is to never tell your interviewer that you would rather not do certain parts of the job or that handling money or anything else about the job terrifies you. I will admit however, even though this interview had been very humiliating for me at the time, it was a great learning lesson. I thought over what I said for a long time and knew what I should avoid saying and acting like for my next interview. And it worked.
At the other two interviews I had afterwards, I made a conscious effort to act both friendly and confident. First, I started off by greeting my interviewers respectfully by shaking their hands. I won both of my interviewers over in an instant. Now you might think its fairly easy to appear confident, but you need to be careful that your confidence doesn’t make you appear cocky since there is a big difference between the two. Try to be yourself as you are among friends, but don’t act stupid or giddy. This way you’re keeping a good level between being overly formal and overly informal. As a reminder, this tip probably won’t work for jobs at a more professional level, but for minimum wage jobs, it’s important to show that you’re a promising prospect for good customer service once you’re hired.
Interviews are only intimidating if you go there totally unprepared. Do yourself a favor and start preparing for your interview now while you still have time.
