The Best Ways to Prepare for a Last-Minute Job Interview

The Best Ways to Prepare for a Last-Minute Job Interview The Best Ways to Prepare for a Last-Minute Job Interview In an attempt to make your job search as succinct as possible (i.e., get it over with fast and get hired), you blasted out a barrage of job applications to every potential organization that you thought you could be a fit for. And your hard work paid off, since you suddenly got a last-minute job interview. Thing is, you don’t have a ton of time to do your due diligence on the company. If you have a last-minute job interview, here are some of the best ways to prepin under an hour: 1. Find out who you’re interviewing with. There’s something to be said for not sounding rehearsed during a job interview- but you still need to know who you’re going to be interviewing with. (Try to find out ahead of time if you’ll be meeting with more than one person.) Then hit up LinkedIn and read up on their profiles to find out more about the person beyond their job title. You may discover that you share the same alma mater or that you both have a passion for, say, bocce ball. 2. Brush up on current events. It’s not enough to know that the company was founded five years ago. You need to know what’s currently happening with the business- and more importantly, where it’s headed. So peruse the company’s website and read up on any press releases issued by the organization as a way to debrief yourself on the company’s current standing. It will impress an employer to know that you’re aware that the company is the leader in its industry because of its stellar marketing campaigns, and so on. 3. Understand the company’s mission. Today, employers aren’t looking so much to fill a job position as they are to hire someone that they can invest in- and who is also invested in their company. Read up on the company’s About Us page to discover more about what the company truly believes in, why it operates the way it does, and how it pays it forward with its humanitarian efforts. And ideally, its mission should resonate with you, too, to ensure this is a company that you truly want to work for, because that will come across in the job interview. 4. Learn about the culture. Sure, you know that the company you’re interviewing with believes in workplace flexibility, but what else do you know? Beyond flexible schedules, maybe the office environment is one that favors jeans and tees (and stays away from three-piece suits), and also believes strongly in open spaces and not cubicles or offices. Look online to find out what you can about the company’s culture as well as its stance on things like dress code, work flex, etc., so you can see if your personality and professional background will match this new work situation. 5. Tie it all together. Employers aren’t interested in knowing that you simply want to work for their organization. They want to know how you’re going to solve their problems. Show your interviewer that you’ve done your research by understanding the company’s pain points- and how your experience and expertise can help you fix it. Use specific examples from your work history to show how you’ve dealt with similar situations and been able to handle them successfully. Getting a job interview can be exciting, but when it’s last minute, it can also be super stressful. Keep the five key components above in mind when doing last-minute research on a company, and you’ll ace your job interview as if you had weeks to prepare! Looking for more advice? Check out our job interview tips section.