Following up on my previous blog post, I thought I would share a few tips on how to do well in interviews. I claim to be not expert and have been myself been successfully rejected from IBM and a few other web design firms I applied to before.

These are tips I would give myself, the next time I go for an interview.

Dress Appropriately

The way you dress speaks a whole lot about how you carry yourself and how well you look after yourself. I do not intend to say that you need to buy a expensive outfit for the interview. An attire which communicates well with the company's industry/culture.

Try and stay away from adult humor / offensive t-shirts. You don't know the person on the other end. He might not be ok with it.

Do not beat around the bush

Something I noticed in the interview I was recently a part of, applicants spoke about all things other than the answer we were looking for.

For e.g when the interviewer asks whats your favorite programming language, your answer needs be a direct reply to the question. Telling him that you know C, C++,VB.net, C#, ASP, ASP.net etc would just makes person interviewing loose interest.

Get to the point as quickly as possible and try not to loose the attention of the interviewer

Don't repeat yourself

You said it once and the interviewer heard it. Please don't keep repeating.If the interviewer missed some part of your answer, he will ask you to repeat.

Ask them questions about the company

How can you not have questions about the company? No one we interviewed asked any question about what the company did. This made me sad.

You are going to work with the company and people there for the next few months / year, and are going to spend considerable amount of time of your life with the company.

Ask them questions about what they do,how big the organization is, what their work hours are like, etc etc.

They are looking for a suitable candidate for the job, and they need you more than you need them. Hiring and interviewing people is incredibly time-consuming and expensive. It takes a lot of time for them to interview you than for you to go on the interview. They need to fill this position, but you don't need to be the one to fill it: you can just as easily take a different job.

Don't keep playing with your tie or brush your pant/T-shirt from time to time

It distracts the interviewers and makes them focus less on what you have to say. Remember what I said before about not loosing the attention of the interviewer.

Know how to market yourself

A advice I constantly give to all my friends. Being in a interview is much like marketing a product to someone. You have to tell them why you are better than everyone they have interviewed. If they like your sales pitch, you win. Good luck.

Hope this helps someone.