Best Practices for Interviewing

Scheduling the Interview

After applying to a job, the employer will contact you if they would like to invite you to interview for the position. During an initial conversation in which you're scheduling an interview, gather as much information about the interview as possible.

Date and Time

Keep the time zone in mind, especially if you will be interviewing by phone or video conference.

First round or screening interviews may be shorter and around 10-30 minutes. Interviews are often scheduled for 30, 45, or 60 minutes although some may differ.

Interview Format

Determine what to expect during the interview, including the number of interviewers and the interviewers' names, if possible. Examples of interview formats include:

One-on-one: You meet directly with one interviewer.
Panel: You meet with several individuals who interview you all at once.
Group: You and other candidates are interviewed at the same time. The interviewer(s) are interested in observing how candidates interact with one another.
Special types: For certain industries, you may be asked to complete other tasks, such as giving a presentation or completing a programming assignment, as a stage in the interview process.

Modality

Interviews are conducted in a variety of settings. Keep in mind that you may have multiple interviews with one organization. It's common to have a phone or virtual interview initially with later interview stages conducted in-person.

In-person: You meet with your interviewer(s) face-to-face. This usually includes you visiting the organization’s office space, but you might also meet with the interviewer at a coffee shop, restaurant, or other public location.
Phone: For phone interviews, find a quiet location and speak clearly. Because you can’t view the non-verbal communication of your interviewer(s), ask clarifying questions as needed.
Video Conference: Live virtual interviews conducted are often used for a long-distance job search. Find a quiet space with a clean backdrop to conduct the interview. Be sure to look at the camera periodically so you appear to be making eye contact.
Recorded: Recorded interviews are typically used as an efficient screening tool. You will be asked to record yourself answering questions. Much like video conferences, conduct your interview session in a quiet and clean location.

Logistics

For interviews at a physical location, determine where to park, if there are any security processes to enter the building, and who you should contact when you arrive. You should plan to arrive 5-10 minutes early, so make sure to account for changing traffic patterns or public transportation availability depending on the time of day your interview will take place.

For phone, video, or recorded interviews, clarify technology requirements, who will initiate the connection at the time of the interview, and identify who you can contact if you encounter issues during the interview. Test your technology and update platforms like Zoom as needed to ensure that you can connect at the time of your interview.

Preparing for the Interview

Review the Position Description

Go over the job posting for the position, identifying the skills and qualifications the employer is seeking in an ideal candidate.

Practice Your Responses

Note examples of your past work, academic, extra-curricular, or volunteer experiences that exemplify the skills the employer requested in the job posting or other skills that you’d like to highlight. Practice telling stories about these examples as well as your responses to common interviewing questions. Ask a friend or colleague to give you feedback or request a mock interview through Handshake with a career advisor for additional practice.

Complete a mock interview via My Interview Practice and share with a Career Advisor for feedback.

Get to Know the Organization

Gather information about the organization. The Webster University Library houses a variety of databases, publications, and resources to help you find information about organizations. You can also research via testimonial websites (e.g., Glassdoor), LinkedIn, or other online publications.

Mission, values, and culture
Company leaders (CEOs, directors, department heads, staff in similar roles)
Your interviewer(s)
Main functions, services, and/or clients
Structure and functions of your prospective department
Recent organizational news
Public impression on social media

Ready Your Attire

Select your interviewing attire, dressing professionally and in keeping with the standards of the organization you’ll be visiting. Learn more in our professional attire guide.

Gather Your Materials

Gather any of the items you’ll need to bring to the interview such as a pad of paper, pen, extra copies of your resume, and any portfolio materials that are relevant to the job. Consider carrying physical items in a padfolio or similar professional organization system. Avoid carrying unnecessary physical items, such as coffee cups or bulky bags, into the interview.

Communication Styles

Non-Verbal Communication

Throughout your interview, project positivity, confidence, and openness through your non-verbal communication (aka body language). Greet your interviewer(s) with a handshake, if acceptable in your culture. Use a pleasant expression, make good eye contact, and lean forward slightly to indicate interest in the conversation.

Verbal Communication

Maintain an even tone and use a medium rate of speech. Listen and answer the question being asked. Try to avoid using too many filler words such as "um," "ah," "hmm," "like," etc.

Interview Questions

Structured vs. Unstructured: Structured interviews require that the interviewer ask a specific set of questions to each candidate. The format will usually follow a “question, response” pattern. Unstructured interviews tend to be more conversational and free-flowing.

Common Types of Questions

Getting to Know You Questions: In an effort to understand your professional identity and motivation, interviewers will likely ask questions about your professional background, strengths/weaknesses, and interest in the position and organization. Here are some examples of "Getting to Know You" questions that you should be prepared to answer during most interviews:

Tell me about yourself?
What are your strengths?
What are your weaknesses?
What made you interested in this job?
Why do you want to work for our organization?

Behavioral Based Questions: Behavioral interview questions allow the interviewer to understand how you might address situations based on your past behavior. You will be asked to describe situations from your past experience that exhibit certain skills that are important for your prospective job. Address behavioral questions by crafting narrative examples using the STAR method.

Behavioral interview questions are easy to recognize and often have telltale openings like:

Tell me about a time when…
What do you do when…
Have you ever…
Give me an example of…
Describe a situation…

When formulating a response to behavioral interview questions, thinking of a fitting example for your response is just the start. You also need to share the details in a compelling and easy-to-understand way—without endless rambling. The STAR method is an effective technique to ace any behavioral interview question.

STAR Method

The STAR method is a structured way of responding to a behavioral interview question by discussing the specific situation, task, action, and result of the situation you are describing.

Situation: Set the scene and give the necessary details of your example.
Task: Describe what your responsibility was in that situation.
Action: Explain exactly what steps you took to address it.
Result: Share what outcomes your actions achieved.

STAR Method Examples

Tell me about a time when you achieved a goal that you initially thought was out of reach.

Situation: In my previous digital marketing role, my company made the decision to focus primarily on email marketing and was looking to increase their list of email subscribers pretty aggressively.
Task: As the email marketing manager, my target was to increase the size of our email list by at least 50% in just one quarter.
Action: I started by going back through our old blog posts and adding in content upgrades that incentivized email subscriptions—which immediately gave our list a boost. Next, I worked with the rest of the marketing team to plan and host a webinar that required an email address to register, which funneled more interested users into our list.
Results: As a result of those additions to our email strategy, I was able to increase our subscriber list from 25,000 subscribers to 40,000 subscribers in three months—which exceeded our goal by 20%. Webinars have now become a regular event to boost and maintain our email list.

Tell me about a time when you worked in a team setting to complete a project or task.

Situation: I volunteered for a political campaign under a staff member who was in charge of field organization and outreach. He wound up having to leave the job early for a family medical emergency.
Task: The remaining team needed to immediately go into crisis management mode and then divide his responsibilities to make sure that the campaign continued to run efficiently.
Action: I asked to take on field organization because I felt that it needed more focus than it had when it had been combined with social media and outreach under the previous staff member's role. I revised the training process for volunteers, managed the schedule, and recruited new volunteers.
Results: I was hired to the campaign and wound-up expanding field organization efforts. Overall, our decision to divide labor made the campaign more organized since we focused on specialization and allowed our campaign to have a stronger impact.

Describe a time when you had to deal with a dissatisfied customer.

Situation: At my current job, a customer called and was upset that he'd received incorrect information from a member of our sales team that impacted his account. He was angry and threatening to find another vendor.
Task: Customer retention is very important, so it was imperative that I tried to relieve the situation and keep his business.
Action: I spoke calmly and took responsibility as a company rep. I told him that I wanted to correct the error and repeated his concern back to him to make sure that I understood the problem and actually fixed the issue.
Results: After hearing that I owned the company's accountability for the problem, he started to calm down. I addressed the issue and honored the previous contract information he was given. Before we hung up, he apologized for getting upset and said that he was going to remain a customer.

Questions about Negative Situations

You may be asked about your weaknesses or challenging situations in your past. Choose something authentic, a narrow rather than broad issue, and something that is not a large component of the role. If you are interviewing for a data entry role, mentioning that you get nervous speaking in front of large groups would likely not be an issue for an employer while saying that you struggle with focusing would be a red flag. For these types of negative questions, discuss what you learned, how you’ve improved, or what you would do differently next time.

Inappropriate Interview Questions

It is possible that you may be asked an inappropriate or discriminatory question during an interview. There are federal laws to protect employees against employment discrimination. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission notes that you are protected from discrimination based on “your race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information.” You are protected while as an employee of a company and as a job applicant. Local and state laws regarding employment discrimination may also exist. Note that some very small businesses may not have to abide by every regulation.

There are several approaches you can take if asked an inappropriate question:

Answer the Question

Employers may be trying to get to know you and asked the question out of ignorance, not malice. If you want to answer the question, you are free to do so.

Interviewer: “Where is your family from?”
Job Seeker: “I grew up in Illinois and moved to St. Louis for college.”

Address the Concern

You can choose not to answer the question, but address what you think they are concerned about and the motivation behind the question.

Interviewer: “Are you a citizen?”
Job Seeker: “I am authorized to work in the United States.”

Decline to Answer

You should not feel obligated to answer an inappropriate or illegal question. You are perfectly within bounds to simply ignore the question, question the relevance, or let the interviewer know that is in fact an inappropriate question to ask you. If you see that other interviewers also realized the inappropriateness of the question, you could address the misstep in a gentler way, or the other interviewers may step in to redirect. Know that you can end the interview at any time especially if you feel that the interviewer is being hostile or biased. Consider that this may be an indication that this is not an environment that you want to work in and what steps, if any, you would want to take to report this behavior.

Interviewer: "So, what race are you?"
Job Seeker: "I fail to see how that is relevant to the job position. I’m not comfortable answering that question."

Reporting Discrimination

If you have experienced discrimination in an interview, there are several steps you can take. You can report this to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the appropriate state agency, and/or the Human Resources department of the company.

If you experienced an employer asking inappropriate interview questions or showing bias at a Webster affiliated career development event or through Handshake, please notify our office at careercn@webster.edu.

Wrapping Up the Interview

Asking Questions

You'll be given the opportunity to ask questions. Have several questions prepared to show that you’re thoughtful and interested in learning more about the role and the organization. These sample questions should be adapted to the specific position, industry, and/or organization for which you’re interviewing. Here are some examples of questions to ask an interviewer:

How does this position fit within the organization’s structure and/or mission?
What are some of the biggest challenges facing this position/department/organization?
How is performance/success evaluated for this position?
How would you describe your leadership style?
Can you tell me about the team dynamic?
How long have you been with the organization? What do you enjoy most about working for this organization?

Next Steps

Your last question should be focused on obtaining information about what will happen next in your application process. Ask what you should expect after the interview and when you should plan to receive the next communication from the organization. Gather contact information as needed.

After the Interview

Thank Your Interviewer(s)

Send separate, individualized thank you emails to anyone who participated in your interview. Personalize the note by including information about specific questions they answered or information they gave you that was helpful. This is your opportunity to reiterate your interest in the position.

Here’s a simple template to get you started. Again, don’t forget to include personal, specific details from your conversation to show that you were engaged and paying attention.

Example Thank You Email

Hi Name,

Thank you so much for taking the time to meet with me today. I enjoyed learning more about your team and the [job title] role. I’m very excited about the opportunity to join [company name] and help to [responsibilities you’d be handling].

I look forward to hearing from you about next steps soon. Please feel free to reach out if you have any additional questions in the meantime.

Have a great day!

Sincerely,

[Your name]

Follow-Up

At the end of your interview, you asked for a time frame for the organization’s next steps. If that time frame has passed, politely call or email your contact within the organization to request information about your status and determine whether there’s been a change to the organization’s timeline for making their hiring decision. If additional follow-up is needed, limit your outreach to one or two attempts to obtain a progress report.

Best Practices for Interviewing WEBSTER UNIVERSITY | CAREER PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT CENTER

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