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I have given a few internship interviews (around 3 to 4), but I keep fucking up and miss out on great opportunities. I blank out on utterly easy questions, which is embarrassing to think about post-interview.
This has really started affecting me and has brought me down. I have one interview next month, which I cannot screw up at any cost.
Any tips or advice (on what topics to cover for gen corp/M&A interviews) would be helpful. Really grateful, thanks.
1. You’re not prepped enough: if you don’t know stuff, it’s inevitable you feel nervous. The only way to get over this is to actually prepare. For GenCorp, have a good understanding of the Companies Act, and Contract Act, including any caveats or special conditions. Transfer of Property Act is a bonus. The section numbers are ideal to know, but as long as you know the concept well it should still be fine.
2. You’re well prepared but not used to interviews: I think at this point this situation should have gotten better, but if not and you feel you’re prepared enough, I’d suggest making a one page summary of each of your interviews and questions so far from memory and see if there’s a common topic you messed up and work on it. You should also aim to practice answers in front of a mirror or have a friend or two take a few mock interviews. Another advice is to pretend you’re teaching the topic to someone else, so you become used to verbalising the things you know.
3. You’re over-prepared and take too much pressure: if you’re over-prepared, even the simplest question can throw you off since you think you should know each and everything. Here, instead of an exercise, you just need a mindset shift: understand that you don’t know everything and it’s fine, in fact it is expected of you to not know everything and fumble a few times. There’s nothing else to do about it- as long as you make peace with the fact that it’s okay to be incorrect, you’ll be able to remain calm and not feel the pressure to say and do everything correctly and not make it such a huge deal in your head (I know the past rejections make it difficult, but you just have to shift this mindset.) Also, remember they don’t want you to be perfect- they’re not assessing you on how much you know, but on how calm you are under pressure and how quickly you can adapt. In most of my interviews, there were technical questions which stumped me and someone I didn’t even know the basics. So whenever I didn’t know anything, I asked my interviewer to tell me what it was. Every time (yes, each and every time), they told me the concept and asked me to apply it or answer the question again with this additional knowledge, which I then did. It’s okay to not know things, it’s not okay to not want to know things and it’s the latter you should focus on.
All the best, I’m sure you’ll ace the next one!
Be relaxed and not so desperate for an internship.
If you have the skillset and know your law, you should be fine.
I really appreciate it.