Boost
Your Memory for Job Interview (Tricky Questions to Ask in an Interview)
Interviewing for a job can tax your memory. You must remember
the names of your interviewers, their titles and details about the company,
plus all the specifics of your own work history. Even finding the interview
location taxes your short-term memory. At the same time, being nervous causes
many people to forget details. A great help to your interview
preparation is to boost your memory before the interview so
that you can arrive confident and fully focused. After these tips, we will share
tricky questions to Ask in an Interview along with the perfect answers.
11
Facts that you must know before going for an Interview. These Facts will boost
your memory for the Job interview:
1. When researching
the company, break it down into several study sessions spaced apart rather than
try to learn it in a single sitting. Never cram the night before unless this is
a spur-of-the-moment interview.
2. Paying attention plays
a big role in information recall, as you may recall from your experiences
daydreaming during high school chemistry class. Study the company in a quiet
environment that’s free of distractions.
3. Pay attention to what
is said during the interview. Many candidates focus so intently on what
they are going to say next that they miss key pieces of information that the
interviewer is giving.
4. Repeating information
helps you to retain it. If you are in a panel group interview, with more
than one interviewer, there are sure to be names that are new to you. Say,
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Hanson,” and you’ll remember his name later.
5. Organize pieces of
information into groups. Educational psychologists call this process
“chunking.” The reason it helps boost your memory is simple. It’s easier to
remember five groups with five items in each one than it is to remember 25
separate items. Draw a big-picture organizational chart that includes divisions
and subsidiaries of the company. Then plug in the people and departments that
you would be working with if you had the job. Go through the same process with
the company’s products and markets, organizing each one into categories.
6. Use mnemonic devices.
Association and visualization are especially effective devices to boost your
memory in situations in which there’s no time for complicated strategies.
Simply associate something you’re trying to remember with something else, and
then visualize it. For example, if an interviewer’s name is Jim Newberger,
picture your college roommate Jim eating a new burger. If you can, associate a
physical feature to remember the face as well. Perhaps Jim Newberger has a full
head of black hair like your college roommate. Afterward, jot down the name as
soon as possible.
7. If you have a longer
time to learn information, acronyms and acrostics work well. For example, if
the division in which you’re interested makes coatings, adhesives, special
polymers, and inks, take the first letter of each word to form the acronym
CASPI. You can even visualize a friendly ghost. An acrostic using the first
letter of each word might be “Cats Always Smell Pretty Interesting.”
8. Try the loci technique
to boost your memory. In this method, you imagine the things you are trying to
remember as objects in a familiar place. Let’s say that you want to remember
the company’s satellite offices in Troy, Lansing, Grand Rapids, and Ann Arbor.
You might picture Helen of Troy sitting on your living room sofa, a lance
mounted on the wall of your dining room, grand rapids spilling from an
overflowing kitchen sink, and your cousin Ann sitting under an arbor in your
back yard.
9. Keep all belongings
related to the interview super-organized. This will free up your memory for
more important tasks in the same way that cleaning up your computer’s hard
drive frees up more memory. Rummaging through a disorganized briefcase to find
a pen—or, worse, asking the interviewer for one—could kill your chances of
landing the job. The interviewer will think, “If this candidate can’t even find
a pen, what’s a business trip going to be like?”
Keep
a few pens tucked inside your jacket pocket or in the outside pocket of your
purse. Store relevant phone numbers on your computer and phone rather than on
scraps of paper.
10. Practicing for
the interview is one of the best ways to commit something to memory. If
possible, do a practice drive to the place of the interview and use a GPS if
you have one. Think of this as the equivalent of taking a practice test in
school. If you get lost and arrive late, you can probably forget about getting
the job even if your qualifications are top-notch.
11. Also, at least
practice the 10 common interview questions and answers with
someone else. Practice our list of top interview trick questions and
rehearse how you will handle them. Even if the interviewer surprises you with a
different question, chances are that you’ve already rehearsed your response to
a similar type of query.