Since coming to the US, I have been interviewed many times for internships, awards, and university applications. On multiple occasions, I have been told by the interviewer, that my interview was one of the best interviews they’ve had – if not, the best. How did I go from being useless at interviews to succeeding at them? What is the secret formula?
Successful interview = Relaxation x Preparedness
Relaxation
The first secret to succeeding in an interview is to relax. When you are relaxed, you can treat the interview as a conversation and you can engage the interviewer sincerely. Often, we may be nervous for an interview because we really want the offer. I will admit that I found out about the ‘relaxation’ step by being super relaxed in an interview. I had a return offer from my previous internship and was interviewing with Goldman Sachs for an internship. I said to myself ‘Well if I don’t get this internship, I have a great option B’. So I went into the interview super relaxed and treated it as a conversation. I ended up talking about special relativity and quantum computing with my interviewers and even started teaching them special relativity by drawing analogies on pieces of paper – this all occurred in an investment banking interview at Goldman Sachs. Yes, special relativity was irrelevant to the work that they do, but it was relevant to who I was as a person. It was the natural flow of the conversation, and the interviewers had a great conversation (and learned some special relativity too!).
Often, the best interviews I’ve had are where I am sincerely interested in the interviewer as a person and want to have a good conversation with them. For example, I was having an interview with McKinsey for an Award. I found out my interviewer studied Astrophysics and Philosophy. Intrigued by that combination, I began to ask questions; we ended up having conversations about the meaning of our lives, Socrates and galaxies. What is the takeaway? If you are interested in something that the interviewer said, ask more questions! (just like you would in a conversation).
Now, you shouldn’t steer the conversation into some random topic intentionally. Rather, you should go off-topic if it happens naturally in the conversation. Sometimes people worry that talking about something else other than the job is bad. That’s not true. It can be good. If you feel that you are spending a lot of time talking about something random, you can always connect it back to the job. For example, when I started talking about physics in my Goldman Sachs interview (that topic was probed by a question they asked me), I connected it back to investment banking. I talked about how physics tried to explain the physical world around us, whereas finance tried to explain the economical/financial world around us.
Preparedness
Sometimes, the perception is that being relaxed is correlated with not working hard. Some people may think that being relaxed means that you shouldn’t prepare for the interview. That is, however, completely false. In fact, the secret to ‘wow-ing’ your interviewer is to be completely relaxed but surprisingly very prepared. Just being prepared for an interview can make you a much stronger candidate.
How should you prepare? First of all, make sure that you are prepared in terms of knowledge for whatever you are doing. For example, for my investment banking interview, I did a ‘crash course’ in finance a week before. I learned about a DCF, income statement and financial definitions. You can read more about learning about finance. For my technical interview with Morgan Stanley (to be a quant), I prepared by practising brainteaser and programming questions (check out tips for brainteaser questions). Another way to be prepared is to practice behavioural questions (here is a list of behavioural questions) and be ready with examples of things you’ve done that might relate to a question they ask. For example, I have a standard answer to the question ‘tell me about yourself’ that I can give right away. Moreover, you can be prepared by researching more about your interviewer if you know who he/she will be, and when it is your time to ask the interviewer questions, you can ask about specific things they’ve done that you’ve researched about.
If you are relaxed with no preparation, then you could give the impression that you are not interested for the job or award. This is definitely a vibe you do not want to give. If you are relaxed, prepared and give off a vibe that shows you are very interested in the position, you will impress your interviewer.
There are lots of ways to prepare for an interview. Overall, you want to give them the impression that you know what you are talking about, and you are qualified for the job or award or whatever. But being relaxed makes sure that the interviewer also enjoys the interview and prevents you from behaving robot-like. If you follow these tips well, you should have a successful interview!