So you’re prepping for your upcoming interview and want to make sure you nail it! Obviously your resume got you in the door, and they’re interested in you. Now it is time to impress them during the interview.Knowing how to dress can make your feel more confident and fit in better. It’s always awkward when you dress up in a full suit and tie, only to find out the office is a total flip flop environment. Our advice is to always dress one degree nicer than the normal dress standard. Great way to find out their normal dress standard is to jump on social media profiles Facebook and Instagram and see what pictures they might be posting of their office place. Look for signs of style and meeting attire.
If you come across some pictures of a conference room meeting where everyone is dressed in jeans and some polo shirts, follow the 1 step up rule. I’d imagine a good fit for this example is some slacks and a button down shirt, no tie. Ladies, keep the jewelry to a minimum in this example. You want them to be focused on your answers and personality, not anything else. Minimize distractions.
When following their twitter account, you’ll see some trends. Figure out what’s most important to the company. Find hashtags they are engaged in and dig deeper. This will give you some great insight to talking points and a deeper conversation about the company during your interview.Leveraging professional social media platform, Linkedin can give you a big boost. If you take the time to use some custom search filters, you can look for shared connections to the company.
Notice the screen shot I took for the company, Nextiva. If Mary was in the department where I was applying to, I would reach out to my connection we have in common and request an email recommendation.
If you find a 2nd degree connection with a hiring manager, this is a good chance to reach out to your first degree connection and request either a personal reference email or a public recommendation. This can help validate you’re as good of quality as your resume showed, but also assure them the decision to hire you minimizes risk.