The following are some very fundamental and sound guidelines for interviewing with international companies and clients.  Knowing and executing them well will help ensure that you present yourself in the best way possible during critical face-to -face interviews.

1)     Do Your Homework – the more information you can get about the client before meeting them, the more comfortable and confident you’ll feel during the interview.  Spend time visiting the company’s website and understanding their company, products, and business objectives.

2)     Identify The Main Characteristics That You Wish To Come Across About Yourself In The Interview – You should think of the 3-4 adjectives or characteristics that best describe and represent you as a professional, and then think of 1-2 scenarios, examples, and achievements for each that you can talk about in the interview that best reflect these characteristics.  For instance, you have high integrity, are persistent/driven/team-oriented, or are very proactive/strategic thinking.  Or you are an excellent problem-solver/are very solutions-oriented, a strong people manager, results-driven, highly efficient, a strong communicator, etc. 

3)     Think Of And Give Good Examples – the most convincing, most interesting and compelling way to communicate your capabilities, achievements, and excellence is to give the interviewer some examples.  Whatever qualities, characteristics, achievements you claim in point 2), prepare and be ready to communicate an actual example or two to back it up.  For instance, if you say that you are a person who takes a lot of initiative, give an example of that.  If you say you’re entrepreneurial in nature, give an example of a situation that reflects that.  If you claim to be resourceful and are able to overcome significant challenges, tell a story of such an instance.

4)     Think Of A Few Good Questions To Ask – good questions always impress an interviewer.  They not only give them a good idea of how you think and what you think about, but they also indicate that you are truly curious and interested in their company/the opportunity.  Therefore, prepare a few questions before your interview.

Execution:

5)  Be Responsive To What The Interviewer Wants To Know – the approach you should take in any interview is simple;  listen, think through, and respond.  Every interviewer has their own style, approach, and line of questions that they might ask.  To respond well to each one, you need to pay attention to what the particular interviewer is asking you, and then provide a quality answer.  A quality answer is one that reveals your depth of knowledge, insight, and experience in doing things/handling situations (as opposed to just saying, “yes, I can”).

6)  Connect With The Interviewer - one of your key objectives in an interview is to try and connect with the interviewer, and try to give them a good sense of who you are, what you’re about, and what gets you excited.  To do that, you should try to be as open, revealing, and transparent as possible.  Don’t rely heavily on power points or presentations.  That’s not what they’re expecting of you.  Rather, best to keep the communication process simple and talk directly to the interviewer.  And most of all, don’t hold anything back, because you might not get a second chance.

Final Tip:

Never Bring Up The Topic Of Compensation First – always let the client raise that topic first.  If they’re interested in you, they’ll ask.