When you’re getting yourself ready for an interview, you wouldn’t expect the interviewer to care about your preparation process. But what should you do when your interviewer asks you about it?
It’s a question that may catch you off guard: “How did you prepare for this interview?”
According to entrepreneur John Rampton, this question is used to suss out whether a job applicant genuinely cares about the position or not. He’d know because he has asked this question in interviews before.
If you are confronted with this question at an interview, Rampton advises that you show that you’ve invested the time in researching the company and industry as part of your preparations. You should also talk about how you can contribute positively to the company based on your research:
“To give you an example of the last person I hired. When I asked this person, he began to describe our ecash product. He went into a level of detail that even I didn’t know. He also pointed out three potential problems that neither I nor my team had thought about. That is being very prepared for the question.”
How would you tackle this question? Let us know in the comments.
Comments
4 responses to “Killer Interview Question: How Did You Prepare For This Interview?”
I’d probably fail the interview, because:
Unless you are offering to pay me for it, how I spend my time is None Of Your Damn Business.
Because:
Are you trying to find out how much crap I’ll do, in my own time, for zero compensation? Do you have a culture of expecting me to put in unpaid overtime? Just how much of my personal life do you feel entitled to, on top of the hours expected of me on the job?
Or, they could be trying to find out if you want the job just because of the rectangular bits of plastic you get each week, or whether you actually are interested in what they do.
If its more than just a paycheck, you’ll do more to prepare than if its just a means to an end, and thats part of what they are trying to figure out.
I got this question at my last job interview!
Because I wanted the job, really badly, I was able to answer it effectively.
I was convinced we were a great match, so I did my homework beforehand.
I answered by telling them that I had researched the company, and familiarised myself with their website, products, mission, and history before the interview. I’d also networked in LinkedIn contacts to find any connections. Turns out a friend of a friend was good mates with one of the Directors, so I’d been able to get a real feel for the company before the interview. Yes, I got the job, and it is everything I had hoped for, and more.
That’s awesome! And congratulations! Thank you for sharing your story with us! 😀