by Melissa Holland-Forde

Created on: May 24, 2008   Last Updated: March 17, 2011

A job interview is the one opportunity to give your best presentation regarding your eligibility for employment. Appearance, intelligence, marketability, and a positive attitude are all areas that a recruiter will be evaluating as a basis to make a hiring decision.

Attire and Presentation

Come dressed professionally. Regardless of the position you wish to attain, a suit is always a good choice for men and women. If you do not own a suit, a pair of dress pants coupled with a shirt and tie is appropriate for men. A skirt and dress blouse is appropriate for women. Any jewelry or accessories should be conservative. Please remove any visible, non-traditional body piercings and cover up any visible tattoos. If and when you are hired, you can pursue whether or not your expressions of personal style are in line with company policy.

Give the recruiter your undivided attention. Turn off your cell phone. Maintain eye contact and answer questions directly without hesitation. Make sure to state facts without embellishment. Keep the dialog conversational in nature avoiding one word answers. Excellent listening skills are apparent when you avoid asking questions that were covered during the course of the interview.

Knowledge and Familiarity with Company

Prepare yourself with information about your potential employer. Do research about the history of the company. Learn about their various locations and how the employer compares to other companies in the same industry. Start with reviewing their website. Check to see if this employer has been in the national or local news recently and if so, for what reason. Share your thoughts with the recruiter on the issues that you researched. You want to show the interviewer that you have thought a great deal about why working for them will make a difference for you. It will also show that you keep up with current events.

Know and Market Thyself

You should also prepare yourself by being able to describe your accomplishments in detail. Give specific examples that show how you improved various situations in your department. Explain how you meet or even exceed certain goals and expectations. If you say that you are a great problem solver or that you saved your department money by cutting expenses, you should have specific examples of these items to explain to the recruiter. The information that you supply in the interview has to make a compelling case that hiring you will add value to the organization.

Review your resume so that you will

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