At my office we are currently standardizing our interviewing process. This got me thinking about the subject in general, and so I thought I would share some things that I've learned over the years from being on both sides of the interviewing table. Once a year I set aside a day of class with my students and discuss nothing but interviewing skills (along with salary negotiation tactics, and how to live off of entry level salaries). In this series of articles I will document that and expand upon it for both sides of the interview process, how to interview as a candidate and how to interview as an employer evaluating candidates.

How to Interview (as a candidate)

Interviewing is a learned skill, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. The more you do it, the better you get at it, the more comfortable you are doing it. Likewise, if you go through a long period of not interviewing the skill begins to atrophy and you will need a few interviews to really get back your stride.

Confidence
The biggest asset you can have in an interview is confidence. You were granted an interview for a reason. Your resume gives the impression that you might be able to do the job, but if you come in and don't believe in yourself, no one else will believe that you can do it.

That's not to say false confidence will get you far in the long run, but trust in your experience and your ability. Convey that you are more than up for the task at hand.

I once took a role as a senior developer in a shop that exclusively did ASP.net intranet applications. Before that role the only Microsoft-centric development I'd done Windows forms development in .net and classic ASP, but not only was I hired at a senior level with a technology I had never used but I quickly moved to a position of technical leadership.

True confidence in our field comes from knowing that you can handle anything thrown at you, adapt to any technology and situation. Five years in the marketing and advertising field had shown me that there was literally nothing I couldn't do.

That confidence needs to be conveyed and then proven.

Discuss past experience in a conversational manner
Be able to sit and talk. It's natural to be nervous, but fight past it. If you're coming from a place of power, and you should be - meaning you already have a job and don't need the position you are interviewing for to survive - there really is no need to be nervous.

Interpersonal skills are very important at every level, if you can't sit and talk you won't get the job. By talk I mean be engaged, speak at the level of your audience and give real answers to the questions posed to you. Don't give canned answers, don't ramble.

Discuss past projects you've worked, speak comfortably and confidently about them. If your audience is technical, diagram on a white board, get granular. If your audience isn't technical, then talk low level at your own risk. Instead opt for how your previous roles interfaced outside of your own department and impacted the business.

In the next part I will continue to discuss how to interview as a candidate.

Read more from Tom Barker.