The short answer
- Read the advert once more and write the five things it asks for in your own words.
- For each one, pick a real story from your own work. Facts, not adjectives.
- Say the stories out loud, twice. Reading them silently does not count.
- Prepare three questions you actually want answered, not three that sound clever.
- The night before: route, clothes, one page of notes, then stop.
Three days before: collect
- Copy the advert into one document and underline every skill it names.
- Beside each one, write a story from your own work: what the situation was, what you did, what changed afterwards.
- Mark the two stories that answer the most questions, and use those as your openers.
- Write down the names of the people interviewing you and what their role is, so you are not reading it cold.
Two days before: rehearse
Say each story out loud, standing up, timed. If it runs past two minutes, cut it until it does not. Most answers fail for length rather than content.
Then answer the two hardest questions alone, in the room where you are least comfortable: why this job, and what you would do in the first month. Answer them plainly. The interviewer is checking whether you have thought about the work, not whether you can perform enthusiasm.
- Rehearse out loud twice, and once to another person if anyone is available.
- Record yourself once and listen to the first thirty seconds only. That is the part that sets the tone.
- Leave one detail out of your notes on purpose, so you are answering rather than reciting.
The day before: stop
- Check the practical things: the address, the route, the time, and what you need to bring.
- Read your notes once in the morning, not at midnight.
- Keep your three questions and one sentence about why you want the job in front of you.
- Then close the file. Extra work now tends to make tomorrow's answers worse, not better.
The free tool for this
There is no calculator that answers this one honestly, so here is the free set: eight calculators for rates, quotes, invoices, splits, prices and fees. They run in the page and send nothing anywhere.
If you would rather not build it yourself
Job Hunt Command keeps the search as a system: a pipeline that shows what is actually stuck, a prep file for the answers you will be asked, and scripts for the money conversation. Job Hunt Command is $15. See it on the shop, and there is a plain page about it here: what it holds.
Questions people actually ask
What if I am asked something I do not know?
Say you do not know, then say how you would find out. That is more useful to an interviewer than a guess, and it keeps you honest for the rest of the conversation.
How many stories do I need?
Four good ones usually cover most of the questions, because the same story can be told from a different angle depending on what they ask.
Read next
How to keep track of job applications without losing the thread, How long to wait before following up on a job application.