Prepping for a job interview is a studying course of. There are a couple of insights from the psychology of studying that may make your interview preparation simpler and simpler.
With out realizing it, typically we consider studying in mechanical phrases, as if it have been a matter of shoving data right into a container. After all, studying is rather more natural than that. Right here’s how one can work with your mind, reasonably than towards it.
Give your self time.
Analysis has proven that data and expertise realized over a time period are higher remembered than for those who “cram” in a single lengthy session. Determine what it is advisable to work on, then schedule a number of periods.
For instance, let’s say it’s Friday and also you’ve simply been requested to interview on Tuesday. You may schedule 20-minute studying periods each night, plus 1- or 2-hour periods at three or 4 factors through the weekend.
Your studying may embrace researching the corporate and the interviewer, finding out the corporate’s web site and any interview prep directions they’ve supplied, clarifying the key promoting factors you need to emphasize, making ready tales, and working towards solutions to probably questions.
Not the whole lot it is advisable to be taught consists of information. You additionally have to be taught to be assured, relaxed and alert through the interview. Visualization is a beneficial instrument for this non-conceptual sort of studying.
Check your self.
Testing your self by way of mock interviewing is efficient, even if you mess up a solution, in keeping with psychology professor Regan Gurung, PhD quoted in an American Psychological Affiliation article. “Simply making an attempt to retrieve one thing helps you solidify it in your reminiscence.”
It’s superb to stipulate your interview solutions on paper, and to observe answering aloud whereas glancing at your outlines, however in some unspecified time in the future it is advisable to put apart your notes. Do a mock interview with a coach, a good friend or your webcam. When your reply isn’t going effectively, drive your self to proceed as finest you may (with a smile, even!), reasonably than beginning over, as a result of pondering in your toes and dealing with sudden issues are an important interview expertise.
Don’t do all of your interview prep in the identical place.
“The mind needs variation,” stated Benedict Carey, creator of How We Be taught: The Shocking Reality About When, The place, and Why It Occurs. Doing a few of your interview prep at house and a few in one other location might create new associations in your mind and make it simpler to recall data later. It might additionally reduce fatigue and make your preparation extra pleasurable.
Get sufficient sleep earlier than and after studying periods.
Getting a great night time’s sleep earlier than a day of studying helps put together your mind to kind recollections, in keeping with Matthew Walker, a UC Berkeley sleep scientist. Researchers have additionally discovered that sleeping after finding out helps solidify the educational. That is another excuse to unfold the educational out over a number of days if in any respect potential, so that you don’t find yourself pulling late-nighters.
Harmonize your interview prep with these insights from the science of studying, and also you’ll be extra able to ace that interview. (This beforehand printed publish has been up to date in 2025.)
