Welcome back to my Switching Career Paths series where I share a little bit of my journey transitioning from the world of Manufacturing to Programming! It's been a little while since I last posted anything so, if you have not yet read the prior posts in the series, I would highly recommend starting on my You're Hired! post. There, you will find a brief introduction to myself and my background before I made the decision to change my life for the better! In this week's post, and the final post of the series, I would like to help you prepare for the interview process with a quick overview before moving on to the next series, where I'll dive deep into Acing the Interview process.

So, after all of your hard work and tribulations, you finally landed that oh so important interview with the company of your dreams. Congratulations! That's an incredible milestone to hit!

Now that you have that interview lined up though, you might be wondering what is to be expected, how to prepare for it, and what to say. Well, I'm here to tell you everything's going to be okay and you'll make it through it. Depending on the company, the interview process could be technically difficult or relatively simple. While all interview processes are going to be different, they will most likely have the same foundation. The important thing to remember throughout this entire process is to stay focused, but don't over work yourself. It is vital to create your plan of attack for the interview prep but be sure to give yourself time to breath and relax before the big day. The worst thing you can do for yourself at this point is to over prepare, stress yourself out, and lose your focus on the big day. So let me get into some of the details and try to put your mind at ease.😄

Before the Interview

"Before anything else, preparation is the key to success."
    -Alexander Graham Bell

One of the most important aspects of the interview process is the time and effort an individual spends preparing and planning for that interview. While the interview itself is critical, it's all for nothing if you don't study the company, yourself, and the interviewing process. If you've been following along with this series though, I'm sure you already know the next thing I'm gonna write. Before we can even think about studying, we need to think about our plan of attack and document it as we work up to the interview. This is referred to as your Interview Prep Grid and will be incredibly helpful as you identify what you want to discuss in the interview and study those responses. This grid allows you to capture topics such as common questions from interviewers and your answers to those questions broken down by specific projects or responsibilities. You also can add in information about your weaknesses, as well as questions that you may have for the interviewers. The sky is the limit with what can be added to this grid but I'll cover a few of those items in the first part of my next series, Acing the Interview.

Another important item to write down and study is your "Elevator Pitch". This pitch is basically a breakdown of your background and past experiences. It is referred to as an elevator pitch because it should be short enough to deliver the entire pitch within the timespan of a quick elevator ride. To keep this pitch short, only include the details of your past that are relevant to what you would like to accomplish in your future. You should focus on who you are, what you currently do, and what you would like to do with your skills and expertise. When done correctly, this pitch can help share the knowledge on your expertise and credentials with those that don't personally know you and be conveyed in a quick and effective manner. This will be very useful when the interviewer asks the dreaded question, "Tell me about yourself". By practicing your elevator pitch, you will already have the perfect response to that question and can knock the socks off the interviewer with your well thought out and eloquent response.

To create your own elevator pitch, be sure to include a couple of key components, such as:
1) An Introduction
2) Your Mission
3) Your Value Proposition
4) The Hook

To start off the pitch, begin with an introduction on yourself. One short sentence is all you need for this section to say who you are and what your current role is. Something to the effect of "I'm a computer science student at XXX University", or "I'm an aspiring software engineer studying through the XXX bootcamp." If you're already out of school and have some professional experience, you're intro statement could be "I'm a software test engineer currently working at XXX company." Whatever your current role is in life, you'll want to include a quick sentence on it at the start of your elevator pitch.

After the intro sentence, quickly follow it up with your mission statement. This is where you get to convey what you do, or would like to do, as it pertains to the interview. What is the goal and mission for what you bring to the table? The more that you know about the company that you're interviewing for, the more you can cater this mission to their needs. Just like the intro, this should only be one sentence to keep things short and simple for the interviewers. For example, if you're interviewing for a company geared towards sustainability, you're mission statement could be "My goal in life is to utilize my technical and behavioral skills for the betterment of the environment." If the company is more focused on developing the next big thing, your mission statement could "I strive to use my knowledge of computer science and programming to develop mainstream applications for the benefit of others."

The next section of your elevator pitch should cover your value proposition. This is a quick, 1 or 2 sentences about the value that you will bring to the company. What do you do incredibly well that separates you from the rest of the candidates? For me, I state "With 10 years of quality experience, understanding and implementing customer requirements, I quickly interpret what the customers need from their wants and help deliver applications that delight their users." With this one sentence, I've explained my value to the interviewers and likely kindled their interest. From here, all that's left is to spark that interest further and leave them with a hook to bring about their follow up questions.

To deliver a proper hook, you'll want to pull them in with an exciting story about some past experience or work that you've been involved in. Have some incredible statistic or interesting fact about this experience that will keep them engaged. Depending on what your value proposition is, will greatly vary the hook you're trying to deliver. For me, I leave them with "Over the course of my career, I've increased my company's bottom-line by over $5 million through preventive actions, reducing operating expenses and increasing customer satisfaction and retention."

Putting this all together, your mission statement might look something like, "I'm a software test engineer currently working at Cox Automotive. I strive to use my knowledge of computer science and programming to develop mainstream applications for the benefit of others. With 10 years of quality experience, understanding and implementing customer requirements, I quickly interpret what the customers need from their wants and help deliver applications that delight their users. Over the course of my career, I've increased my company's bottom-line by over $5 million through preventive actions, reducing operating expenses and increasing customer satisfaction and retention." Once you have your elevator pitch written out, treat it as a first draft. Read it out load to yourself, friends, and family. Make sure it sounds natural and something that could start a conversation. You don't want it to sound pretentious and too formal. Keep it light and simple to captivate your audience and draw them in to continue the conversation for you. An elevator pitch around 30 seconds is the sweet spot to keep their attention and allow you some extra time to elaborate on your story after the interviewer is interested.

If you enjoyed the post and this series, be sure to follow me here and on social media too so that you don't miss my next series, where I dive deeper into the interview process and the preparation you need for Acing the Interview! The links to my social media accounts can be found on the contact page of my personal website. Please feel free to share any of your own experiences with the interviewing process, general questions and comments, or even other topics you would like me to write about in the comments below. If this series of posts help you land that dream job of yours, be sure to comment about that below as well. I would love to hear about it! Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you!👋