
Understand yourself
- What are your marketable attributes ? Stress them.
- What are your areas of concern ? Prepare to defend them. Write out verbatim and practice saying out loud very precise short answers to the questions you fear the most.
Understand the marketplace
- What jobs are out there ?
- What jobs can you get ?
Set goals
- What do you want ?
- What’s the intersection between your dreams and the marketplace ?
- Be very careful to set your target area neither too narrow nor too wide.
Define your sell
- How are you going to present yourself ?
- What are the top three qualities you want to project ?
- How can you get them across clearly and simply ? Are there short stories which illustrate these qualities ? Practice telling them in less than 90 seconds.
- Discuss your selling points with people you respect. Maybe you’ve started with the wrong ones…
Polish your sell obsessively
- Practice out loud.
- Write your own one-page “Tips for Interviewing” memory guide.
- Study and refine it.