M.P. Mueller on How to Ace a Job Interview

By Lauren Appa

Considering the average person changes jobs more than seven times throughout their life, the ability to interview well has become an essential skill for moving your career forward.

Our February Leader Lunch featured M.P. Mueller, who shared her tips for making your next interview productive and (dare we say it) maybe even fun.

Tip #1: Practice is key
Grab a friend or a colleague in the industry and do mock interview sessions. Combat nervousness by getting comfortable answering questions. Having the jitters in the real interview can make it difficult to show how great you really are.

Tip #2: “Interested people are interesting”
As an employer what excites Mueller most in job candidates is curiosity and initiative. She wants to see someone who asks lots of questions and who has done their homework about the company and the industry. These people turn a regular interview into an interesting conversation.

Tip #3: Demonstrate how you’ve taken initiative, but in a subtle way.
Don’t come off as bragging. Work examples into the stories you tell about yourself.

Tip #4: Explain how you can make their job easier
Put thought into what the company and person interviewing you does and what you can do to make life better for them.

Finally, what NOT to do…

• Bring up salary on the first interview. It makes it look like all you care about is money, rather than finding the right job.
• Say, “I’m the perfect fit.” You can’t truly know what the employer needs because you don’t work there yet (and after saying this, you’ll probably never know).
• Make assumptions about the job, the company, the interviewer, anything. “It’s just like when we’re working with clients,” says Mueller. “We never assume we know what they want.” Employers, like clients, want to have choice and want to be trusted to make the best decision.

M.P. Mueller is President of Door Number 3, an indie advertising, marketing and media buying agency. For the last 19 years M.P.’s chief task has been to provide the guiding light and inspiring vision that allows the agency to continually develop award-winning, impactful campaigns for brands and organizations of all sizes.