We don’t mean to burst your bubble, but the easy part of job hunting is snagging an interview. The real challenge lies in acing the interview and landing the job. Chances are for every job opening there may be up to a dozen workers interviewing for it. It’s up to you to make sure you’re the one the employer remembers.

Below you’ll find some interview preparation tips.

• Understand the role.
  Never interview for a job you know nothing about. Do your homework to learn the experience, education and skills required, the responsibilities and work environment. If you can find out how long the position has been open that’s a plus.
• Know the company.
  Carefully research the company to understand its business direction, competitors, products/services and major news announcements. Most companies have Web sites, including pressrooms and investor relations pages. If you don’t know the URL, a Google search will likely find it.
• Develop your story.
  One effective way to develop and deliver your career accomplishments is through PAR stories. These are examples of Problems you have encountered in previous jobs, the Actions you took on your own or with others to solve them, and the Results you achieved, presented in as concrete terms as possible.

To help you recall and identify suitable PAR stories, ask yourself these questions:

• What classes have you taken?
• What research have you conducted?
• What events have you attended and contributed to?
• Who have you worked with?
• What were the problems you tackled?
• Do you tend to lean toward administering projects? Organizing people? Communicating ideas?
• Have you been recognized for taking initiative? Pioneering new projects?

• Practice your story.
  Now is not the time to be shy in front of friends or family members. Ask them to role-play with you as you practice telling your story. Perform interview question drills. View a complete list of potential interview questions. While you can’t predict all the questions you will be asked, you can guess what quite a few will be. Develop your answers to typical interview questions as well as the tougher ones about reasons for past job changes, periods of unemployment, and so on. Prepare creative, clever responses and practice out loud to increase your comfort level and reduce anxiety.
• Bring extra resumes.
  Bring three or four copies in the event that you are asked to meet with additional company representatives as part of your interview.
• Dress “one level above.”
  Determine what the company’s dress policy is and dress one level above it. For example, if the company standard is “business casual” wear a suit. If you haven’t visited the company before, you can learn about dress by making a brief reconnaissance visit or calling the receptionist or switchboard and simply asking.