New to the working world? Here’s how to nail a job interview

Sign up for CNN’s Adulthood, But Better newsletter series. Our seven-part guide has tips to help you make more informed decisions around personal finance, career, wellness and personal connections.

Megan Rathmell thought she’d bombed her job interview earlier this year, assuming her nervousness and lack of preparation had cost her the opportunity.  

The 20-year-old later found out she got the job as a paralegal — and what made her stand out was her ability to do two important things: maintain eye contact and carry on a conversation. 

“My boss told me that I was a good communicator and that I was able to make strong eye contact, and that he hasn’t seen this from a lot of my peers,” said Rathmell, who is based in Virginia. “That was really surprising to me.”

What Rathmell learned from her boss mirrors what hiring managers say: Some Gen Z college graduates are unprepared for job interviews or behave unprofessionally during job interviews. They bring parents to in-person interviews, refuse to turn the camera on during virtual interviews, use inappropriate language, dress unprofessionally and struggle to make eye contact.

While there have always been people who interviewed badly for jobs, “it does seem to be more prevalent today,” said Dr. Nathan Mondragon, chief innovation officer at the hiring platform HireVue.

There could be several factors contributing to the problem. The digital age has made many people less experienced with in-person interactions and therefore less comfortable with them especially challenging ones. Pandemic safety precautions only made that worse, Mondragon said. And while some parents are overinvolved in their child’s professional pursuits, others aren’t teaching them how to navigate the professional world without parental handholding.

Some people think they can just wing a job interview, said Stacie Haller, chief career advisor at ResumeBuilder. But just like anything else you want to be successful at, getting a job also requires preparation.

There will be plenty of competition for those jobs, as new employment data released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday shows.

The number of employed people increased by 254,000 in September, and the unemployment rate dropped to 4.1% from 4.2%, according to BLS data on nonfarm payroll employment. (That excludes people working as farmers, nonprofit or private household employees, and more.)

There are about 6.8 million people who currently want a job — so here’s what you should do before, during and after an interview to stand out and get the job you want.

Before you get an interview, you need to stand out from hundreds of other applicants, and you have about six seconds to catch a recruiter’s eye using your resume, Haller said. Therefore, your resume should be one compelling, clear and uncrowded page that is tailored to the position and highlights why you’re the best candidate.

Be careful who you get advice from, Haller said. If you know other people who work at the company or in similar industries, consulting them could be good. Parents and other people their age, however, likely have good intentions but may have not interviewed for a job in decades or ever worked in your industry, and the workforce is different now.

Unless you’ve gone to a specialty school, your college or graduate school career center may not have employees with any experience in hiring people, so it’s not always helpful, Haller said. Look the career center employees up online to see if they have a relevant track record.

Do your research

One of the biggest mistakes some interviewees make is asking questions about things they could have easily found by looking at just the homepage of a company’s website, said Dr. Nicolas Roulin, professor of industrial/organizational psychology at Saint Mary’s University in Canada. That, as well as not asking any questions at all, tells the interviewer you haven’t done your homework and probably don’t care about the job.

Thoroughly research the company, experts said. You must be able to answer the question, “Why do you want to work here?” and express how you can contribute to the company’s values, culture, strategies, goals and more.

By researching the interviewers, as well — if you have their names — you can ask them more in-depth questions about their job, goals and lives, and you may even find you have a fun personal connection to bring up, such as having attended the same school.

Websites such as LinkedIn or Glassdoor can help you find some of this information. Glassdoor reviews are typically left by current or former employees.

Write down your answers in advance

During the interview, you’ll also need to demonstrate how well you fit, and can perform, the job description.

You can prepare by writing down your success stories for each requirement within that description, using the STAR technique. That acronym stands for situation, task, action and result — define the situation, what task needed to be accomplished, what actions you took alone or as part of a team to do so, and what the results were.

Prepare your questions

Your questions are just as important as your answers, and they should show interest, motivation and care, as well as what’s important to you, experts said. Here are some examples, which you can practice on your own or in mock interviews with friends or family:

If you struggle with nervousness before interviews, relaxation or breathing techniques can help, Roulin said. Experiencing more severe anxiety may require therapy.

How to handle the actual job interview

Dressing professionally for both in-person and virtual interviews is important regardless of whether it’s for a fast-food restaurant, retail store or office job, experts said. Business casual is usually best — no jeans, shorts, flip-flops or overly revealing clothing.

If the company culture is more casual, that doesn’t automatically mean you should dress like them for your interview, Haller said. Those employees have already had the chance to show over time that they do great work despite how they’re dressed, but they don’t know you yet. You need to make a good impression that shows you’re respectful and serious.

At the same time, don’t go overboard by wearing a three-piece suit and appearing totally out of touch, Haller said — unless that’s the dress code.

Bring all those notes you prepared to the interview, but don’t bring your parents. That can imply immaturity and incapability, and you’re the one who needs to be able to do the job without them.

Where you do the interview is also important. The setting should be as distraction- and noise-free as possible, so avoid conducting it from a public space, such as a coffeeshop. Turning your camera off is generally inappropriate, experts said, and it can suggest you’re hiding something or uncomfortable dealing with people — which is obviously a concerning red flag since most jobs require dealing with people.

Life lessons from 6 money and lifestyle coaches

If you don’t have an answer for a question, ask the interviewer to rephrase or say “I don’t have much experience with that particular issue, but I can tell you about a time when X.” You can also say you would like an opportunity to really think about the question if they would let you get back to them with an answer. These alternatives show you’re adaptable, and they allow you to show off in other ways.

When you’re given the chance to ask questions, ask what you’ve prepared. But save questions about salary, availability expectations and vacation benefits for a point towards the end of the interview, Mondragon said. These questions are important for your survival and quality of life, something Gen Z cares more about than previous generations — which is a great thing, he added. Some states, such as Colorado and New York, have even required that job postings state the salary. But you don’t want to appear to care more about not working than working. 

How you ask also matters. “Can you tell me about the company’s benefits packages for employees at this level?” sounds better than “How many days off do I get?”

At the end, ask if there’s anything else you could provide to show you’re a great candidate for the position, Haller said. “You want to overcome any objections. And then you always want to ask about the next steps and express your interest.”

Within 24 hours after the interview, email a thank you note expressing gratitude for the interviewer’s time and the opportunity, Haller said. But know that your message is more than a thank you note — it’s also an indirect reminder to hire you.

If you get a call for another interview or a job offer, respond as immediately as possible, experts said. Even if you’re no longer interested, you should still quickly communicate that, too — it’s the respectful thing to do, and you don’t want to burn any bridges you may need to cross again in the future.

Do not follow up with an employer about whether there’s any news before the time they said they’ll be in touch, Roulin said. After that is when you can check in once a week. If a month or two go by, no response from them is your answer, Haller said — and you shouldn’t work for companies that treat people that way.

For more resources on creating resumes and interviewing well, you can visit the United Kingdom’s National Career Services site, Glassdoor and ResumeBuilder.