To do well in the  job interview you need to think about what you are going to say, how you are going to introduce yourself, what you are going to wear, how you are going to organize your speech and prepare yourself for the most varied questions. In addition to taking a deep breath, of course. Check out the tips below to show your full potential at this time.

Tips on how to pass job interviews.

How to do well in the job interview

1. Prepare the memory in advance

Days before the job interview, stop to think about the most important situations in your professional life. Ideally, you should select from 5 to 10 situations and evaluate the role you played in each one, what you learned, what the challenges were, etc.

“This tip is important for those who are going to undergo a competency interview “, says Fernanda Thees, managing partner of Loite, a company that guides selection processes . “It is the type of interview in which the interviewer asks questions about past situations in which you had to work under pressure or had to lead a group, for example,” he explains.

When selecting these situations, note that each can fit into different competencies – leadership, teamwork, communication, resilience, etc. “It is the best way for you to prepare as you will never know for sure which question you will have to answer on the spot.”

2. If you are inexperienced, name other situations

If you’ve never worked, you can think about the main situations in your school or family life, for example. “The important thing is to explore the experiences you have already had,” says Caroline Cobiak, a consultant at Across, specializing in recruiting internship and trainee programs.

Here the group work of the college is worth, the trip with friends, the exchange he made alone, the party he organized etc.

3. Use the “star” method

In the job interview, especially for those who already have professional experience, it is always important to show results. To present your deliveries and professional achievements you can use the STAR technique , structuring the cases in Situation-Task-Action-Result.

“This way, you can show a logical and structured sequence of your achievements”, says Denise Barreto, founding partner of GNext Talent Group, specialized in recruitment and selection.

4. Finish talking with a golden key

The ideal, according to Fernanda, from Loite, is that you always end your lines with something positive. For example, you can end a story by saying that when you completed a project, you were promoted.

“Probably the interviewer will take a hook on what you say last, and if the hook comes from something positive, he will tend to continue the subject,” she explains. On the other hand, if you end your speech with something negative, like a dismissal, he tends to ask, for example, why you were fired etc. The tip is especially valid when the interview is based on the information in your resume .

5. Demonstrate logical reasoning when answering absurd questions

Some companies do ask very weird questions at the time of the selection interview. We have already heard of “how much a giraffe weighs”, “how many marbles can fit on a plane” or even “how many McDonald’s are in São Paulo”. These questions – seemingly funny – may seem like a catch, but in most cases, they are designed to test your logical reasoning.

The most common is that they are applied in investment banks and consultancies, in addition to modern companies like Google, which is very adept at this type of questioning. If you encounter such a question, demonstrate that you are able to structure your reasoning to arrive at a logical answer, which does not necessarily have to be correct.

“In the case of the McDonald’s question, for example, I know a person who made a rule of three and passed the selection process,” says Fernanda, from Loite. The candidate answered something like this: in my city, which has X inhabitants, there is Y McDonald’s.

In São Paulo, there are a thousand times the inhabitants of my city, so there must be a thousand times the amount of McDonald’s that exists there. That simple. “The important thing is to use the logic and the repertoire that you have to demonstrate that you understood the question and structured your thinking well.”

6. Avoid being paralyzed by any question

There are also cases where this kind of seemingly absurd question is asked to “break the ice” and observe the candidate’s reaction. “There is no right or wrong answer, what counts is the recruiter’s perception of the answer, whatever it may be,” says Roberto Marques, president of the Brazilian Coaching Institute.

So, it is worth having a good mood and avoiding that “yellow smile” of those who have no idea what they are going to say, ok?

7. Do your homework

Another question that often comes up in interviews is “why do you want to work here?”. It may seem like a silly little question, but behind it there is a desire for the company to find professionals with values ​​aligned with theirs.

To answer, yes, you have to do your homework and research everything you can about the company – from the sector in which it operates, its management characteristics, its financial data, its challenges, its competitors etc.

“Many people confuse the company with the brand and answer that they have been a consumer of the brand since they were children and always dreamed of working at the company”, explains Caroline, from Across. According to her, this is not what the interviewer wants to know.

He wants to see if you think the flexible schedule the company offers, for example, or its informality between bosses and subordinates, is cool.

8. Ask good questions

It is not just answering the interviewer’s questions in the best way that you can earn points with him. Did you know? Another very interesting strategy is to ask questions that first demonstrate that you have researched information about the company and then that you are interested in the company and the vacancy in question.

To start, be careful not to ask questions you might know by doing a simple search on the internet.

If the interview is for a trainee opportunity, for example, you can ask how the talent retention in the company is. “Ask, for example, how many trainees did the company have in the previous program, how many remain there, how many became managers”, recommends Caroline, from Across.

9. Feel like a “Big Brother”

Also be aware of all your gestures from the moment you arrive at the company. “You may be being analyzed at the reception, in the way you treat the attendant”, warns José Roberto, from the Brazilian Coaching Institute. Kindness and politeness never hurt.

10. Be careful and consistent on social media

If you’re on social media, no matter how hard you try to protect your privacy, you can be sure that the recruiter has already sneaked a peek at what you’ve been doing there. So, the old recommendation is worth thinking before posting anything.

Also, at the time of the interview, be consistent with your virtual profile. Don’t say, for example, that you don’t drink, if you’ve already posted a photo with a glass of beer.

11. Don’t even think about lying

Telling a lie, adding something here and there is very risky in any type of job interview. The recruiter – remember this – is a person trained to notice these slips. He does this all day and has experience in the subject.

12. Take essential care

When choosing what to wear in the interview , look for something that matches your area of ​​expertise. The ideal is to wear a well-groomed outfit, but with which you feel comfortable (and not as if you were wearing a costume). When in doubt, prefer neutral colors and simple shapes.

13. Be yourself

Finally, even if you are under pressure, nervous, anxious, try to be yourself in the conversation with the interviewer . “Only if you put yourself in a genuine, authentic and true way will you be remembered for your individuality”, says Denise, from GNext.