Four Tips for Doing Your Homework Before a Tough Interview

Joseph Rios EdD
5 min readFeb 4, 2022

You have a first or second-round interview for a job that seems out of reach — what do you do? Take the time to do some homework to alleviate some of the stress by answering questions that feel tough or unanswerable.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Recently, one of my friends told me about an interview he had scored that was for a dream job he really wanted. I took the opportunity to speak with him about preparing for the interview and help him put his past experiences into perspective to answer the questions we figured would come up. I should know — almost all of my interviews for jobs I landed were for jobs that were just ahead of my confidence in my skills. But I had a few tips that helped me land each one. I want to share some of the tips I gave him that I believe will work for most others.

Preparation is Your Best Way to Ease Interview Jitters

Maya Angelou once said, “Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between.” Interviews for jobs we are suited for seem like a piece of cake. But interviews for jobs just out of our comfort zone can fill us with unease and doubt. I really do believe we can prepare for the tough questions we believe will come up, have prepared responses that we can recall in real-time, and still remain authentic to our skills…

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Joseph Rios EdD

I believe leadership is the expression of values. Career Coach | Educator | Writer | Social Justice Advocate | Trainer. leadershipandvaluesinaction.com