Lesson Number One: Know Your Industry

My First Interview:

I never understood the meaning of "be prepared" more than after my first interview for a marketing position. It couldn't have been more perfect, the company was well respected, medium in size (which is what I personally was looking for), had a hip urban feel to the design and decor internally, and most of all I was one of the first to interview thanks to a referral (which we will talk about the importance of in a later post). So I foolishly think that I am completely prepared, I've researched the company, gone over possible interview questions, I've reviewed my resume and previous experience, and I'm feeling very excited and confident. However, I am completely wrong. Not only am I not prepared but I'm not prepared in one of the most important areas. Let me just play out the scenario for you:

I go through two rounds of interviews which go very smoothly, however the honey moon stage is soon over and I am slapped with a reality check in round three. I am interviewing with five other people that work in various functions throughout the company when one of them asks me this seemingly simple question:

"What brands do you like?"

A vague question which should have been interpreted from a marketing standpoint (since that is obviously the position I'm interviewing for) and answered as a description of the brands I watch and admire, followed by an explanation of why. However, I was not prepared for the question, had definitely not done my homework, and therefore panicked and took the question from a consumer standpoint. What followed was a word vomit of the brands that I like to purchase and why, instead of the brands that I like their marketing and why.

As soon as I left, my mind began racing over the interview and I quickly realized my mistake. I wanted desperately to just run back upstairs and explain the misunderstanding, and give them the perfect answer that I could have. But thats the thing about interviews (and life in general) there usually are no second chances. Instead of a smart, collected potential employer, I probably looked like a babbling idiot who had no idea about the industry she was interviewing for.

My next post will have have a more in depth solution for this problem, but for now just take a tip from the Boy Scouts and always BE PREPARED!