How to prepare for your next global development job interview

It takes a lot of work to land a job interview in global development, from perfecting your CV and cover letter to making all the right contacts. But that initial joyous feeling of accomplishment can quickly turn sour for applicants who may feel overwhelmed by the prospect of face-to-face scrutiny with so much on the line, or who haven’t done sufficient preparation. “I can tell you this from having done this a long time — we can tell within the first few minutes whether someone's prepared for an interview or not,” Stephanie Mansueto, a principal recruiter with Abt Associates and a career coach, said during a recent Devex digital event. Mansueto offered strategies and practices for all stages of the job interview process, including the preparation phase. Here are a few key tips for how to go into your next development job interview feeling truly prepared. Find out the who and the what Given the various types of job interviews that may be conducted during the different stages of the development recruitment process, make sure you have a clear understanding of what to expect from each discussion. “If you're invited for [a] screening [interview] you want to make sure you have an understanding of how long the screening is going to be or how long the interview process is going to be, how many rounds of interviews, what format,” Mansueto said. You also want to find out who will be asking the questions, and take time to learn more about these individuals, as “how you answer questions could depend on the panelists’ background,” she said, in reference to panel interview formats. “So make sure you're looking at their LinkedIn profile. Look at the activity. Are you viewing any presentations or webinars? [Have] they done any journal articles? There's a lot of information online,” Mansueto said. Research the employer thoroughly “One thing I'm really surprised about when people reach out to me in the interviews is they'll ask a lot of questions about maybe a project or what we're doing in a country or in a certain technical area. And this information is already available on our website, or it's on our company's LinkedIn page,” Mansueto said. To make sure you have the most accurate and current information about an organization, do not only rely on its website, she advised. “What you'll notice is that companies are not keeping their websites as up to date, because it's just more time-consuming. But what they're doing is they're releasing a lot of their latest news or big company progress or updates on their LinkedIn company page,” Mansueto said. Let the job description guide you When in doubt, use the job description that the organization posted in the job advertisement to help you prepare your answers and also come up with questions to ask the interviewer. It may also help you navigate some unexpected questions that may come up. “One thing I want candidates to know is sometimes, when employers are putting together job descriptions, they omit key pieces of responsibility or requirements that they will then reveal [in the interview],” Mansueto said. In these situations, candidates should feel comfortable pointing out if something wasn’t in the job description, she said. If you don’t feel prepared to respond in the moment, you can ask if you can follow up after the interview with some thoughts via email.