A common challenge we find when it comes to jobs in technology is the ability to properly prepare for interviews.

The difficulty is fairly reasonable; however, the chances of success can be negatively skewed.

There are reasons for this which we won’t cover as it’s not fit for this blog.

But have identified a bias, that shows the need to mitigate any impeding obstacles that are created to block or deter your chances of a successful result.

Knowing how to prepare for an interview is the first step to securing your spot.

If you plan and prepare well, chances are you’re doing what needs to be done to end with a successful outcome.

Some common trips and falls people are exposed to come as a result of overthinking, pressure, failure to understand expectations, not knowing what to do exactly, and poor prep.

Ultimately, what is needed is a simple but effective approach to preparing for interviews, that effectively shifts the power from the employer to the interviewee.

This blog post aims to provide a new way to view what you can do; a real perspective, that will enhance your interview preparation.

So without further ado let’s get into part one of the 12 tips to prep for interviews in the tech industry.

It’s important to have a feel of what the real thing will be like, so doing mock interviews is a great way to practice.

Practice makes perfect, take the time to practice as much as you feel is necessary.

The more we do something, the more we get comfortable with it.

The idea behind doing mock interviews is to prepare yourself in a way that’s closest to the real thing.

You can not down and reflect upon your strengths and weaknesses; by looking at how strong you are at interviews.

This will give you a good indication as to how much prep you think you need going forward.

The other good thing is that it’s not the real thing, so you can practice all the more comfortably – this takes the pressure off significantly.

As mentioned already, you want to get a feel of what it’s like and the best way for this is mock interviews – so where do you start?

Some useful sites will help you know more about mock interviews, such as Glassdoor, CV Library, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

These are great places where you can check out content related to doing mock interviews.

Another good tip to help prepare for a tech interview is recording yourself. It’s not as weird as it sounds, just hear me out.

It’s good to record yourself when doing mock interviews and more importantly, when you’re practicing your responses to interview questions.

Having recordings of yourself, whether video or voice recording, is a great way to review your performance and quickly spot anything you like, dislike, etc.

The idea of this shouldn’t put you off, it’s practical. And if you’re comfortable being in front of a camera or like the sound of your voice, then I’d definitely recommend it.

You’ll get the chance to hear how you sound when answering certain questions, you’ll also get the chance to go over what you’d like to improve, and over time you’ll build confidence.

Ideally, you want to get to a point where you’ve accumulated so much confidence that when it comes to interviews, you’re more than ready for it.

Also, think about it… how many people do you think are making this much of an effort to prepare for an interview?

I like the saying go hard or go home. You want to be walking out of that interview knowing you’ve guaranteed yourself an offer.

The truth is people don’t always do it themselves, sometimes they get help.

It’s always good to ask for help when preparing for an interview, whether that’s through some sort of agency, affiliate, workshop, or job center.

There are different ways you can get support to meet your needs.

You may feel that asking for help is not what you want to do as it suggests you’re not capable of achieving something on your own accord – or whatever the assumption may be.

However, this cannot be any further from the truth, which is that asking for help allows you to leverage support that will better your chances for success.

Looking at some of the success stories from some of the world’s most reputable individuals, we find that they collaborated with others on their path to success.

Warren Buffet had Ben Graham, he taught him the philosophy of value investing – and nothing was the same (shout out to Drake).

In many cases, it’s never a single race to the top – people will be willing to support you along the way, you just need to ask and it shall be given to you.

The way you ask for help can be in the form of advice, specific knowledge on a subject, or simply time!

Advice is best got from specific people – you only want to receive it from people who know what they’re talking about.

Knowledge of a specific subject area is also crucial to your success in an interview as this gives you background on what may or may not come up as topics in an interview.

You also save a considerable amount of time figuring things out yourself and leveraging knowledge from a subject matter expert instead.

Lastly, someone’s time is priceless. Having the time to spend with someone who can potentially help upskill and prepare you for an interview is worth all the trouble.

You’ll find that getting people’s time can be a difficult task, as not everyone has the capacity.

So if you have the opportunity to get time with someone, it’s a convenient position to be in.

You want to know a great tip when preparing for an interview the most underrated of them all – relax!

That’s it, you need to take time out and relax. It’s not healthy to stress, overthink, and get your mind all tied up in nonsense.

You want to make sure you’re in the best state of mind in the run-up to an interview.

You want to always show that you’ve got yourself together – being relaxed in an environment where most people fail to and instead become frail separates you from them.

The impression received based on your calm energy is refreshing for the interviewer.

It’s also a mind game if you think about it…

You want to have the upper hand and show you feel no pressure; your relaxed demeanour puts everyone in the room at ease.

People will notice it and this will develop into a trait you can harness – being very complimentary and beneficial.

Lastly, you got this. This will not be your first or last time prepping for an interview.

The first one may throw you off, and that’s ok! But your next one might not be a loss.

Just take it one step at a time, relax, and take a chill pill – you got this!

There’s that myth of staying up to get things done, last-minute cramming the night before your interview will better your chances. I strongly disagree with that.

You should never jeopardise your sleep – all that’s going to happen are you feeling tired and groggy.

Don’t believe the hype – I think on average it’s better to have a good night’s sleep.

Wake up fresh for the morning, energised and ready to smash your interview.

Some people like doing all-nighters, but it’s not for everybody.

Take care of your body, health is wealth – you don’t want it to come back and bite you in the future.

I read a book about a guy who became one of the first black billionaire in America, Reginald F. Lewis, a real inspiring guy – rest in peace! He had a disgusting work ethic.

When I say disgusting, yeah, I mean crazy work ethic – like out of this world crazy. He worked so hard that he barely got any sleep.

Sadly it caught up to him as he got diagnosed with brain cancer and passed away no later than fifty years of age.

My point is don’t play with sleep. Something sacred and vital for your mind, body, and spirit to rest, rejuvenate, and reset.

We can’t go round the clock 24/7, no way, we require restoration.

Sleep is underrated, have enough of it for yourself to avoid any health complications later down the line. No one wants that so be serious.

You can always get an early night’s sleep then wake earlier than usual and start your day early.

You’re able to get everything done early on too.

I understand in our economy it’s not always easy, as we have night shift workers, people who work all hours of the day, but that’s not what you can expect in tech.

So try and get good sleep it will help in the long run.

You’d want to avoid showing any signs of weakness.

Overthinking is one of them.

If you’re doing too much thinking, how will you properly prepare for an interview – your mind’s all over the place.

It’s not always easy to do but you must stay positive. You can’t spend your time thinking about worst-case scenarios.

How will that help you at the moment, when you need to focus your energy on passing your interview?

To those out there who like to create/think about problems that don’t exist but disguise them by saying “I like to think of worst-case scenarios”.

You’re a negative force, plain and simple.

The goal is to do well in an interview, that’s it!

So it’s simple – remove yourself from any negative force, whether that be people, music, TV shows…

Whatever isn’t serving you right now that will help you prep for interviews, put that aside for the time being.

What do you think is the trick that winners use? They don’t think about losing. Why? Because it’s never an option.

That’s the difference between the one pushing through versus the one’s spending hours and days overthinking.

Good luck to them, genuinely!

I don’t drink coffee, but when I’m not feeling 100% in the morning I damn sure kick-start the day with a motivational video to remind me to get up and win.

Motivational videos are great drivers to boost overall morale, energy, and productivity.

My favourite motivational speaker is Dr. Eric Thomas.

He’s the type of guy that makes you feel like someone’s given you a kick up the backside – sometimes we need that.

Look, interview prep can feel very daunting, everyone’s different and some of us may get cold feet.

That’s where I think watching / listening to motivational videos helps – it could be a subject about anything.

If you’re down about money, there’s a video for that; if you’re feeling anxious about getting rejected, there’s a video out there to help us get through that.

What I’ve come to realise is that some good people in the world have shared their love for the greater good and well-being of everyone.

The person who made a video on how to overcome addictions or the person who shared how they overcame depression, didn’t have to share anything, but they did you see.

People have shared personal experiences, although sensitive, to help someone else who’s potentially going through the same thing.

I think motivational videos are great and I highly recommend utilising them.

If not the most, then arguably one of the most powerful things you can do is speak words of affirmation to yourself.

This is powerful.

A real uncut gem.

The psychological impact this has on your mental state and overall well-being is what’s interesting. Your whole mood is affected.

Your mindset transformed, you believe you can win – and that’s what you want, to come out of an interview winning.

Say a few positive words to yourself every morning, at least two weeks before your interview.

Think positive say positive things and look at everything else positively., with grace and gratitude.

This energy will move you towards things of a similar nature.

If you’re speaking positively consistently then surely some good will come from it. You’re not losing anything.

There are some powerful quotes out there I like to say to myself at times when things get tough or I need to speak positively to myself.

All you want to be doing is maintaining a healthy state of mind.

Words of affirmation are a nice way to nourish this, especially when it comes to the interview.

Have a go at it, and let me know if that helps… if it’s complete garbage and you think, nah it’s not practical enough, I’ll take it off the list.

When preparing for a tech interview it’s nice to have a support group.

A support group can be a small group of individuals that you trust and help you in your preparation for an interview.

You can do this in person or virtually, but the idea is that a group of like-minded individuals come together to help you succeed in your interview.

One of the easiest ways is creating a chat group where everyone can discuss topics, share thoughts, etc.

Having a support group will help you feel a lot more positive in the process.

A supportive team contributing to your success is also a nice reassurance that you can win at this.

Listen, if you can get all the help you can get, then get it.

And if you’re not sure how you can build a support group, there are thousands of forums online and support communities that will help you in the areas you need.

Multiple brains are better than one; it’s about working smart, not hard.

We’ve spoken about working smart… well this is the essence of this section.

Sometimes you need to work smart, not hard, and learn what others did.

One of the best things you can do is replicate what has worked for other people.

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, utilise what’s already been done.

I shared a list of some sites earlier in this blog that you can check out, but in this particular case, I’d say use Glassdoor.

You get legit reviews and inputs from the different types of interview processes involved.

It’s a great tool to easily see what worked for others and any additional pointers you can take from it.

In my opinion, learning what others did and doing that, is the biggest loophole.

It’s not always easy to find, but it’s worth being one of the first tasks you perform as part of your to-do list.

When booking a holiday, the best time to book your ticket is well in advance, would you agree?

Unless you’re a secret millionaire with all the money in the world… Still, I bet you’d prefer paying a fair price for a ticket.

There’s something sweet about doing things in advance, it gives you time and peace of mind.

It’s a comfortable feeling we get, a feeling of ease.

How? Why? Because we’ve done things early and can now sleep like a baby.

To the entrepreneurs and money-makers out there, making preparations well in advance is the key to investing.

People’s advice is to always “start early”. So maybe there’s a science to it.

Well, one of the best practical ways you can prepare for a tech interview is by prepping early.

Give yourself time to prepare, don’t leave prepping till the last minute. I think a fair assessment is to give yourself at least two weeks of preparation.

Sometimes you receive an opportunity to interview months in advance.

In cases such as these, I think it’s great if you spend one month prepping.

That much prep should give you absolute confidence that you’ll smash an interview.

The earlier you prep yourself for an interview, the better your chances.

Do you know another way you can get the upper hand in an interview?

You can be cheeky and ask the recruiter what format the interview will be.

Understanding the format goes a long way and gives you something to prepare for.

Let’s say the interview is a telephone interview, you can focus purely on what you’re going to say, have your notes in front of you, and proceed.

Or what if your interview is a panel interview, which consists of multiple managers/seniors that will be present?

Or what if it’s just a traditional face-to-face interview, you’ll have an idea of what to look forward to.

Requesting information on the format is a nice way to prepare yourself for an interview because once you ask, the recruiter or person facilitating the interview has to give you everything.

They need to be clear on the details and provide you with accurate information.

The pressure is on the recruiter and not on you.

Any misinformation provided to you is something you can highlight if something doesn’t go according to plan.

For example, if you’re told to prepare for a telephone interview but you’re told to come in for a panel interview.

It’s the business’s responsibility to clear things up, quickly.

You need to be cheeky and get as much out of it as you can from a recruiter.