Learn how to prepare for a job interview the right way! This unique collaboration between Big Interview and Coursera will teach proven techniques to help you turn your interviews into job offers. You'll learn what interview questions to expect and how to answer them. You'll also get access to interactive tools to guide you in outlining answers to key questions and practicing until you feel confident. The course also provides guidance on how to optimize your resume using the Big Interview resume builder and how to use networking to uncover more job leads.
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This course was created by career coach Pamela Skillings, founder of Big Interview and featured in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and other publications. For those new to interviewing, we'll take you from beginner to expert. For those with some interview experience, we offer advice and tools to help you address any weaknesses in your current approach and get better results.
Please note that you will need a webcam and microphone to use the interactive practice interview tools in some sections of the course.
Syllabus
WEEK 1
Interview Fundamentals
Welcome! This course will help you level up your job search results, whether you're a beginner or an experienced job seeker looking for new tricks and techniques. The first few weeks focus exclusively on the art of the job interview. That's because we want you to be ready for your next interview invitation. You don't want to waste any opportunities! The interview is where job seekers make the most self-sabotaging mistakes. After getting you interview-ready, we will move on to strategies for finding more exciting job leads and getting more interview invitations.
In Week 1, we're going to cover the fundamentals of interviewing well. You will learn some best practices for selling yourself and presenting your strengths authentically, the different types of interviews you can expect and the kinds of hiring managers you may encounter, as well as practical advice on what to wear on the big day, body language, and how to analyze the job description during your preparation. We'll also introduce you to the Big Interview Answer Builder and Practice Interview tools, which you will see more of next week when we dive deeper into the most common interview questions and how to answer them. You'll see instructions for how to access and use these tools and, when you're ready, how to easily return to Coursera.
WEEK 2
Acing Common Questions
Now that you have a more in-depth understanding of the job interview process, this module will prepare you to answer the most common (and tricky) interview questions that you're sure to face. Learn how to start strong with a great response to "Tell me about yourself." Prepare to put your best foot forward when answering the other questions that are likely to come up in all of your interviews. For each question type, we will teach you what to do and then guide you in using our Answer Builder and Practice Interview tools to prepare and practice your own answers. Read the assignment instructions for guidance in accessing and using the Big Interview tools.
WEEK 3
Acing Advanced Interview Questions
Now that you know how to ace the most common basic questions, it's time to get into some of the trickier questions that are likely to come up.
First, you'll learn all about behavioral questions and how to respond using the STAR format for memorable examples. Next, we'll cover other common qustions that can get tricky -- including questions about weaknesses, where you see yourself in five years, and how much you want to earn! ln each section, you'll use our Big Interview Answer Builder and Practice tools to put your new knowledge into action. You can easily return to the course from these tools by clicking on the Coursera tab.
WEEK 4
Optimize Your Resume
Now that you know how to ace job interviews, we want to make sure that you're getting plenty of opportunities to show off your skills. To land more interviews, you need to make sure your resume is optimized to get past the gatekeepers and highlight your fit. The lessons in this module will teach you how to format your resume, write an incredible resume summary, and get past the algorithms of Applicant Tracking Systems. Once you have mastered the material, we will guide you in using our Big Interview Resume Builder to turn your new knowledge into a new resume.
WEEK 5
Ramp Up Your Job Search
Congratulations! If you've made it this far, it means you're interview-ready and have a solid resume to market yourself effectively for your target opportunities. Now there's no reason to hold back from ramping up your job search to identify more leads and line up more interviews. Our focus here is on networking and targeting your job search more effectively. Of course, you should also continue to monitor job boards and follow other standard job search protocols. However, this course is on improving your results and we've found that networking and job targeting are the best ways to take your job search from basic to optimized.
