5 Important Teen Job Interview Tips

BY Jul. 29, 2011 7 Comments


You walk into your first job interview with McDonalds, your knees are shivering, and you’re dressed in slacks with a dress shirt. You wear a tie knotted by your mom, but shes not there for you now; what do you do?

Here are some tips for aceing that first interview.

1. You Only Get One Chance To Make A Good First Impression

You don’t get re-dos; it’s not a video game. Think about the things that make a positive first impression. You can think of someone that you know has made a good first impression on you. What characteristics do they have?

2. Stay Calm

When you approach the employer for an interview, it may be frightening you know that many things, such as your social status, are determined within 30 seconds. You can avoid some bad first impressions by staying relaxed, and mentally preparing yourself; it’s not really that bad.

3. Don’t Use Slang, Big Vocabularies Help

You don’t need to stare at a dictionary for an hour, but please don’t call your interviewer “dude.”

4. Be Enthusiastic

Practice some common sense; if you are going to work for Starbucks, generally their employees are very bubbly and excited. Any employer will find special preference in someone that’s enthusiastic about their company.

5. Don’t Over Dress

Yes, you can over dress.  If you’re going to apply for a hard labor job, like bucking hair or something, then you generally don’t want to show up insanely formal.

So how do you dress?

The best advice is to go observe the work environment in question. Figure out what the employees are wearing, the go one step above that. So if the employees are wearing professional shirts and slacks (like McDonalds,) go for the standard shirt, slacks, and tie.

What interviewing tips can you think of?

Tools for Success
, ,
  • http://teekay.me/ MattieTK

    Some great tips here :) One of the best things I found over those years was to always act as if you were already employed, as the perfect employee: just be yourself in that situation and you’ll find everything go by very smoothly, give some thoughts for some questions but don’t ever feel pressured to ask one, and work on a nice firm handshake :)

    Welcome to Livefyre by the way :) Great to see you jumping on board with us, and if you have any questions or thoughts please send them our way by emailing support at livefyre dot com :)

  • logan.c.graham

    In response to #3 — the key phrase is “You don’t need to stare at a dictionary for an hour.” When you aren’t calm and collected (see #2) you assume that using a oversized and mellifluously splendiferous might make you appear smart and thus more qualified.

    I’ve talked to employers before. More than anything they want pragmatism; they want you to be as useful as you can. Use a vocabulary that reflects that.

    Other than that tip, my keystone tip is about introspection vs. extraversion: while an employer will be focusing on YOU, you need to focus on the EMPLOYER. What will set you apart — uniqueness is oh so valuable — will be your ability to suggest what the employer or company needs.

    For example, If you are applying for a position as a camp counsellor and you see that the current counsellors are all older than you (I’ve been in this situation) suggest that your young blood, and all the things that come with it — energy, a new perspective, and a different relationship with the campers — will be an asset.

    Or you could be applying for a job at a restaurant or business that many teens work at already. It would be thought-provoking for the employer if you showed that you knew this, yet you believed that many teens take such a valuable job to be a chore; you could suggest that the establishment needs a change, and that change is you willing to go beyond just “working”. This one also contains two hidden messages: you have enthusiasm; you are willing to work your way up through the ranks. The employer will see you as a valuable employee.

    You’re hired.

  • manjeet
  • manjeet

    Prepare your interview with us

    http://job-interview.questionanswerhub.com/

  • manjeet

    you can prepare your SQL Server interview ,ASp.net Interview…. With us here you can get a lot of interview questions and answers NO login and no register just study all type of questions and answers…

    http://job-interview.questionanswerhub.com/

  • http://www.how-to-buy-health-insurance.com/ Tommy

    Please cover any tats and take out earings. You’d be surprised how bad that looks to a manager. Good advice on the dress too. You might not need a suit, but a tie simply says “I care”.

  • Pingback: Learn To Avoid Job Interview ProblemsParalegal Certification