Speaker 1: Maybe you only have a day or heck, an hour to prepare for your job interview and you need the quickest prep. Well, I've got you. This video is like looking on the back of a frozen meal, seeing it's going to take 55 minutes to cook that bad boy in the oven and you're too hungry for that. So three and a half minutes in the microwave, it is. You'll learn the top three interview questions and answers you need to prepare and how to ace them, the four things you need to research and the three part checklist to make sure you are making a high impact impression. This will work for a video phone and in-person interviews. If you're new here, this is Self Made Millennial. I'm Madeline Mann. I am a human resources leader and job search strategist who has helped thousands of people land jobs. You may have seen me on ABC, Wall Street Journal, New York Times and more. Subscribe for bleeding edge career and job search strategies. I have done a video on interview prep before and received so many success stories such as this YouTube user, Steve Z, who after quitting a job of five years had an interview and was offered the job the same day. Be sure to stay to the end because I'll teach you to do something that so many people are afraid to do in the interview that actually dramatically makes the interviewer more impressed by you. Let's start with the top three interview questions to practice. You don't have much time, so let's master these three questions and then do our best to let the rest fall into place. Now, if you do have more time, I did put together a video playlist of the top interview questions and answers. Or if you want to have all the top 10 questions written down with formulas and examples, you can purchase the Job Interview Secrets ebook. These proceeds go towards funding this channel to bring you free content and it will truly speed up your preparation. All of those resources are linked below. So the first question you need to prepare for is, tell me about yourself. This can be asked as, walk me through your resume, give me a quick summary of your background, or the frustratingly vague, what's your story? You must be ready to answer this question flawlessly because nearly everyone insists on asking it and it sets the tone for the rest of the interview. What's so important here is that you keep your answer under two minutes. I cannot tell you how many times I've seen candidates drone on for five, 10, even 15 minutes answering this question. This question is not the main event, my friend. This is a quick, let's get warmed up, let my head get straight to figure out who the heck I'm interviewing before I dive in with more pertinent questions, so also make sure that your answer is hyper-focused on how your background is relevant to the role, not giving the six-part docuseries summary of your background. I do have a free worksheet that can help you to craft your answer using three steps that thousands of people have reported success stories with, so I will link that below. The second question you need to prepare for is what are your salary requirements? It is such a simple question, but your answer can change your life. Your answer could lose or gain you tens of thousands of dollars when it comes to the offer stage, so I want to make sure that you are ready to address this at any point. From working in human resources and being on the employer side of thousands of negotiations, and I've helped my clients negotiate a cumulative of millions of dollars in salary increases, trust what I'm about to say. Do everything in your power to not say a number. When they ask you for your requirements, say that you're flexible and looking for the best overall package. If they keep pushing, ask for their budget. If they still push, do not say what your previous salary was, and instead give your own researched range of what you want in the future. For more information on how to master this, I will link a video down below. The third question I want you to prepare for is what questions do you have for me? I cannot overemphasize how much hiring managers love candidates who ask good questions. I even asked three of them what they find most impactful in a job interview, and they were unanimous about it. What's more important in an interview, a candidate asking good questions or answering questions well? I think definitely asking good

Speaker 2: questions. It shows their level of preparation for the interview. I think I want them asking

Speaker 3: me questions. That shows interest. It shows self-confidence. It makes me realize that, hey, I'm not just interviewing them, but they're interviewing me, and that's the kind of person

Speaker 1: that I want. Absolutely ask good questions. No question about it. Now, the best way to ask questions is to study the job description and do good research, which I will show you how to do quick and effective research next. But you should always have a few go-tos, like how is performance in this role measured, and what are the biggest goals you want this role to accomplish? I have so many more in a video to give you more options, and so I will link that below. Now, let's walk through the four steps to take to quickly and effectively research the company. Step one, make sure you know what they do and who they do it for. For some companies, this will be painfully obvious, but for others, it may be a market niche that you're not very familiar with or a complex technology. I remember interviewing for a shipping logistics software company, and yeah, I had to watch a few videos, read a few articles to make sure I understood their technology and business model because I sure as heck wasn't their target demo. So make sure you can summarize out loud what they do. Step two, write down one reason why you would want to work for that company, and then weave this into the conversation, whether they ask you directly about it or not. Because here's something I know from leading the hiring of thousands of people. Hiring managers want you to want the job. I've seen so many hiring managers choose the candidate who is slightly less qualified than another because they display more passion and interest for the role. Why? Because managers want to hire people who enjoy their jobs and are intrinsically motivated, and they have a big fear that you're just going to leave once your real dream job becomes available. So don't you stop researching until you have a specific reason about how the role really fits with your career aspirations, what excites you about the product, the company culture, so on. Some resources I can recommend to find your answer is the company blog, either on their website or a site like Medium. You can read Glassdoor reviews and also check out their social media pages. Step three, get those stats down pat about the company. How big is the company? How much revenue do they make? How many cities are they in? None of your interview time should be taken up with you asking these researchable questions. Use these research tidbits to really customize the way you discuss the opportunity. Step four is to find a current piece of information, like a tweet, a piece of recent news, they launched a new product, they moved offices, they had a recent retreat, anything like that. Have that news in your back pocket to spur a great conversation, such as I see the company decided to adopt a hybrid work model. How is this affected the team? They are going to be so impressed that you did this research because most of your competition is not doing any of this. Now let's dive into three things you must do before you start the interview. And number three, blows my mind that people don't do this in an interview and yet hiring managers want you to. Number one, get your materials ready. If this is a virtual interview, get your computer camera set up so that it is at eye level. It's psychologically proven that having the camera at eye level helps them to see you as their equal. You don't want to look up at them and the worst is looking down at the camera, which subconsciously makes people a bit uncomfortable. Turn your computer and phone notifications off. The ding of that Google calendar or that incessant ping of your chat app is bound to throw you off if you aren't careful. And above all, set yourself up with good lighting. Ideally face a window if there is daylight. And I have a full video on how to prep for video interviews that has led to many success stories. So I will link it below. Now, if this is an in-person interview, bring printed copies of your resume. I like to put it on heavier paper. It just gives it that extra sense of quality. Never underestimate these small signals you're sending with every decision you make on how to present yourself. I wish it didn't matter and interviewers will say it doesn't matter, but this stuff is still influential. I'll link a resume writing workshop if you're looking to dramatically increase the response rates you get on your resume. Number two, get your interview outfit on. The rule of thumb is to dress one step up from what is the typical apparel at the company. If they're casual, then that means typically wearing a shirt with some buttons. If they are a little nicer, then throw a blazer on. I once had an interviewer specifically point out that the candidate was wearing some Nike workout shirt to the interview, and she was pretty disappointed by that. I dismissed that feedback and said, hey, let's not judge someone on their appearance. Then I personally had an interview with that candidate, and that candidate had on a big gray sweatshirt. It was several sizes too big for her, and this is the kind of outfit I would only wear to bed. And I am so lenient when it comes to clothing, and I understand everyone has unique life and financial situations, but I mean, this was pretty far off from professional. We feared how this person would represent the company. If this is the way they dress for an interview, how could we ever put them in front of leads, partners, or clients? In the end, of course, she was judged on her skill set, because I am hyper aware of appearance biases that are at play, but I can only imagine how many times she has subconsciously sabotaged herself because she appeared to not care much or seem not as professional to an interviewer. What do you typically wear to an interview? Let me know in the comments. One thing that I would do when I was interviewing as a candidate myself is I would have one main interview outfit, and I would wear that to every in-person interview, unless of course I was going to the same company multiple times. Don't worry, I would change my outfit. Just invest in one good power outfit that makes you feel confident, and wear that bad boy like you're a cartoon character in the same outfit every day. Number three, have notes. So many people are afraid to bring notes into the interview, but it's not only okay to do that, it's actually preferred by hiring managers. Take for instance these hiring managers who I asked. You bringing notes into a job interview cheating? I asked three CEOs. How would you react if a candidate brought notes into an interview? I would feel like that candidate was

Speaker 4: really invested in wanting to work for my company, and it would make me pay even closer attention to

Speaker 2: everything they had to share. That shows a level of preparedness. It shows that they thought ahead of time, and they want to know that they focus on the right things in the short amount of time that

Speaker 5: we have together. As an employer, I'd be completely flattered. Like what bigger flattery is for someone to come in having already taken time to learn about who you are and what your company

Speaker 1: stands for? Wi-Fi high five. The bottom line is an interview is not a memory test. This isn't school. In business, you're expected to go into a meeting with notes, documents, slides, and reference them. You also are expected to take notes. It shocks me when I'm interviewing someone, and I'm giving them in-depth information about the business, the goals, the roles, and they aren't taking a single note. I know they won't remember all of this, and so it doesn't seem like they're really utilizing the information. Now hurry, get to preparing, and put in the comments how soon your interview is. I'm excited to see at what point before the interview do you start panic prepping. Be sure to like this video and subscribe to this channel. You've got this. Wi-Fi high five.