In some ways it is great because you can get excited about the opportunities you see and the possibilities that could come with the positions. Along with reviewing your previous experience and achievements. However, this initial excitement passes fairly quickly each time you have to re-fill in your persons details, employment and education history. With each form having a very, very slightly different formate, so there's no copy and paste option here.
If your proactive enough, you will get through a few of these forms and repeating your answers to the most basic questions can be extremely frustrating. Especially when you want to focus on the job specific questions and information.
Truthfully I am disappointed when you do not get confirmation emails, or messages to inform you that you have not been selected. These are template emails and could be sent with relative ease by the organisation. This interaction would cost very little time and does influence my view of organisations. On one occasion, even after an interview, I had to contact the organisation to find out if I had been successful (I assumed I had not been, but thought I deserved an email or phone call to inform me of this).
Interviews are definitely interesting. This is your opportunity to see if the job, and the organisation, is right for you. As well as the employer judging if you are the right person for them. Often this can be forgotten on the day as interview nerves kick in, particularly if you have a presentation or tasks to complete on the day.
Remember to look around, what are the facilities like, is it clean, would you be happy working in this environment? Talk to other employees, are they happy, friendly, positive? You may even have your own list of workplace / environment expectations. Of course still remember you have to impress to be offered the job!
Asking questions and showing a genuine interest is viewed favourably by interviewers. They may even ask the view of any other staff that have interacted with you throughout your visit, so always be pleasant and professional.
The journey to an interview can also have a huge impact on your experience and affect how you come across on the day. I like to review the route online a few days before, make sure I can locate a few parking options and allow plenty of time for traffic. Personally I would rather arrive an hour early than five minutes before. So I have plenty of time to relax and walk around. I have spoken to people previously who would travel to the interview venue prior to the day. For me, this a un-required expense and on occasion impractical given the distance involved. However if you require this or any other pre interview preparation you should do it.
I'm interested to hear what your pre interview prep includes, and what do you opinion of job applications is. Let me know by comment or tweet me @Mike_Douglas_
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