haha. since i have run the gamut from lameduck interviewee to awesome interviewee, and from incompetent interviewer to recognizedly competent one (seriously; i have Very Important Folks (tm) who ask me to participate in their hiring loops), i'll toss out my advice in handy enumerated form and in such a way that broader social skills beyond decent dress, a firm handshake, and the occasional look in the eye aren't necessary:
1. the day before the interview, review the job description and review your resume. seriously; sit down at a table with printouts of both and ask yourself a) "can i really do this job based solely on what i have commicated in my resume and what is stated in the job description" and b) "am i actually interested in this job or do i just need/want the money"
2. once you've answered both those questions with YES and I AM INTERESTED respectively, you should have two new questions in your mind. one is "what is this job REALLY about" and the other is "although i know i can do the job, how do i convince them that i can compensate for the deltas between what they want and what i can provide?" (if you don't have to ask the second question, rock on. the longer you are in any given biz, the quicker you see just how basic and silly most so-called "requirements" are.)
3. go about answering question one for yourself. read up on the role on the internet. the questions you have about the job that you can't resolve are now your new interview questions. write 'em on a piece of paper and put them in the cute little leather binder or notepad you'll bring. (you are gonna take notes, right? notes are not to look like you care; they're for you because if you bomb you'll want a relative fresh recollection of where things went south.) interviewers LOVE deep questions about the job, and not because they show you to be perceptive or interested -- although they do -- but because they fill time in a way that doesn't put the entire onus of sustained conversation on the interviewer.
4. you now have: 1) a good idea of what the job is about; 2) how you realistically might fit into the role; and 3) a mental assessment of your shotcomings. ask yourself one last question: "am i full of fucking shit? seriously, am i a good candidate for this job?" if you are not, write down why you might NOT get the job, put that in your notes, and go into the interview anyway. use this to remind yourself IMMEDIATELY BEFORE THE INTERVIEW of issues and questions that might cause you to look like a fuckwit. trust me; your chances are reduced when you answer a critical technical question with "i don't know," but they are not reduced even 1/10th as badly as when you try to blow smoke up the interviewer's ass. you do NOT know the weight placed on any individual question. remind yourself of what traps look like before you start walking. congratulations, btw; you have now prepared for an interview in a way a good 50+% of your competition has not.
5. the NARRATIVE. make a quick outline in your head or on paper of your career. remember ONE professional high point and ONE low point. repeat them to yourself in the words you would choose if you weren't under pressure. do not worry about their immediate applicability. remind yourself exactly WHY they were high and low points respectively. remember why you changed jobs (if you did), and then ask yourself why you REALLY changed jobs. here's the hard part: do not assign blame, either to others or to yourself. discuss the SITUATION, not the PERSONALITIES. in fact, that's just a good interview approach all around: discuss situations and scenarios (and their resolutions), not people and personalities.
6. the interview! bad interviewers ramble and are easily segued. do not mistake their bad style for naivete or idiocy, though. there's still (usually) an astute mind behind that awkward delivery. good interviewers are like stone walls. they are precise and interrogatory. in both cases, answer in an earnest, straightforward style.
7. BEHAVIORAL QUESTIONS (i.e. "tell me about how you suck"). you should now be somewhat mentally prepared to answer these by having examples ready. it's usually fine to recycle situations, especially if you are a nub. talk through WHAT HAPPENED. don't presume the follow-ups to any question; let the interviewer ask you first. be concise. your answers here can cause you to fail an interview faster than the following types of questions...
8. TECHNICAL QUESTIONS (i.e. "which ports do you open to enable a SIP proxy" or "reverse a zero-delimited Unicode string using three or less instructions"). this depends on your interviewer. even the nerdiest alpha-male interviewer doesn't weigh these very heavily, or at leat not individually. these are used to test for resume bullshit first and to amuse the interviewer second. you can safely bomb a couple of these unless the job is specifically "Webchat Client Firewall Administrator" or "Unicode String Test Engineer," respectively. the big trick is saying "i don't know." specifically, this does NOT mean saying "i don't know, but it sounds a lot like x, which is..." you would be amazed at how many times what you just described is nothing like x and how much you sound like you REALLY don't know what you're talking about. just say "i don't know," and, if you're cheeky, followup with "can you tell me more about it?" do note that if you say you know basic technologies like xml, shell scripting, or other general purpose technical skills, we WILL ask questions about them. be sure you know what these things actually ARE, 'kay?
9. INTELLECTUAL QUESTIONS (i.e. "why is a manhole cover round") these are crap, but people ask 'em anyway. just take a deep breath, try to clear your mind, take a stab at it, and do NOT be afraid to ask questions to stimulate the ol' noggin. again, these are bullshit and have a negative effect on folks who might be brilliant but can't calm the ol' nerves long enough to let their faculties kick in properly. still, you gotta try anyway. recognize test anxiety in yourself and try try TRY to find a technique to mitigate it. i hate asking these because i watch smart people freeze up and kill the momentum of an interview, but you gotta be prepared for them. sorry! blame the dipshit interviewer after the fact.
10. when the interviewer asks DO YOU HAVE QUESTIONS ask your prepared questions! also ask some hard questions of the interviewer like "how would you describe your management style" or "tell me about some regular conflicts that have happened on this team". turn our shit back on us! also ask for clarification on the role, and about day-to-day tasks on the job -- have them step you through a complete day (or week). if you do not have prepared questions, EPIC FAIL.
more later; gotta leave
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