Preparing for the In-Person Interview

If you are invited for an in-person interview, you should take time to learn everything you can about the company ahead of time. This should go without saying, but you’d be surprised how many candidates I’ve seen who had no idea what my employers did.

Sometimes you’ll be interviewing at a small company or startup that exposes very little public information. Other times you may be talking to a department within a large company and have little idea what that team actually does. In both these cases you should pump your recruiter or HR contact for all the information you can get ahead of time.

Don’t forget to bring a couple of extra copies of your resume. Sometimes people get pulled into interviews at the last minute and may not have a copy of your resume already printed out.

The recruiter or HR rep will ask you when you are available to come in for the in-person interview. I would encourage you to be as flexible as possible when stating your availability. Often it’s a challenge for the company to schedule the interview around peoples’ calendars, and it doesn’t help if you’re only available from noon to 1 pm on Mondays and Fridays.

After the interview is scheduled, make sure you find out how long the interview is expected to take. This will determine whether you can do it over a long lunch, or else take a half day or full day off for the interview. You should also allow at least an hour of padding in case the interview runs late.

In most cases I would recommend you take a full day off to interview if you can manage it. I would also discourage you from taking a sick day. Not only is it dishonest, it’s possible you could be called at home if something comes up at work – and it would look bad if you’re not home.