Reddit reviews Knock 'em Dead Job Interview: How to Turn Job Interviews Into Job Offers

I put in my 2 weeks notice at my current job on Monday. I will be starting a new career path at a new company in a few weeks. In my case, I knew what career I wanted to start, but my prep work looked similar to the list u/tonynosteak made.

I divided the process into two phases: developing my skills & passing interviews

Skills development:

1. Pick up books on the topics I'll need to be familiar with
   
   
2. Find good blogs from established people in the industry that talk about career development
   
   
3. Look at job postings that I could qualify for with some work and figure out what skills are mandatory and what are "nice to haves"
   
   
4. Order by difficulty and break them down into bite size chunks that I could make progress on
   
   Job hunting/Interviewing:
   
   
5. Tailor my resume to emphasize the "soft skills" that I have developed at my current job that will apply to the new career
   
   
6. Add projects to resume that I completed during my skills development phase to bolster my credentials
   
   
7. Get my resume in front of people in the industry (friends, etc) for their review - do not be embarrassed, it's an iterative process
   
   
8. Apply for jobs and tailor my resume and cover letter to each job this was very important
   
   
9. Read books on interviewing, Knock Em Dead Job Interview was my favorite and was extremely helpful in preparing for convincing the interviewer that I had the right attitude and skills to solve their problems. I also read some ones specific to my intended field that helped, but Knock em Dead was a great all-around read on how to handle any type of question and bring your answer back to why they should hire you
   
   
10. Don't be like me and accept the first job offer that you get. I was just so happy to get an offer that I didn't feel like I could wait another day at my current job
    
    Overall, I started this process last year at about this time. It was slow starting, but as I made more progress and hit milestones, it began accelerating until April 1 of this year when I started sending out resumes and applying for jobs. I received and accepted an offer last week and got the paperwork finalized before submitting my resignation notice.
    
    Edit: Most importantly, never ever give up. It can seem incredibly daunting at first, but now that I have emerged on the other side, this was one of the best things I have done for myself. Prior to this, I definitely felt like I was not doing what I wanted in life and was permanently stuck with my face pressed against the glass. Now I feel like I've done something worth being proud of and I did it for me. There will be naysayers along the way that will discourage you from your goals, but you can't listen to them.

There is nothing natural about being interviewed. I think I blew it, the first half a dozen times, I was interviewed. I finally found my "voice" after reading some books on interviewing.

Get this book and read it twice:

> https://www.amazon.com/Knock-Dead-Job-Interview-Interviews/dp/1440536791/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1511212759&sr=8-1&keywords=knock+em+dead+job+interview&dpID=51eC%252B1kJakL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch

One of mine was effectively that a policy was defined to be a certain way, but you had to recognize that there was some wiggle room that would allow you to still serve a patron and follow the rules. Surprisingly, other applicants wrote they would turn a patron away.

The other questions were effectively time management/task prioritization questions in disguise.

Knock 'em Dead Job Interview (https://www.amazon.com/Knock-Dead-Job-Interview-Interviews/dp/1440536791/) by Martin Yate really helped me. I've had to interview for multiple positions every time I've advanced within the organization.

Because you are technical-oriented and in interviews you have to be able to speak and answer non-technical questions. I bet you are pretty good with technical questions. How about someone asks you, 'Describe to me how your job contributes to the overall goals of your department and company', the interview is looking for clues, unless you know, you will not be able to answer the question properly. I had the same problem. I am pretty good with technical questions but non-technical questions I knew I wasn't good at. So, I read this book and it helped me tremendously. After reading through and practicing, I became really good at interview. Doing interviews is a skill set, you need to learn it.

I read this one, but there are many identical books that I imagine are just as good. This one is also very good general career search handbook.