By Chelsea Babin

There are a variety of ways you can prepare the night before an interview to reduce your stress and make you feel more confident but many of them don’t focus on what you should actually say. While it’s entirely possible to sit around all night coming up with answers to questions you might be asked, there’s a better, more time efficient way to decide what you’re going to talk about in an interview.

First you’ll need the job ad, position description, and anything else you can get your hands on that describes what qualities you need to succeed in the role you’re interviewing for. Read through all of this material and make a list of every skill, technology, personal trait, and soft skill you find throughout the material you’ve gathered.

Once you’ve done this you’re going to start putting check marks next to all of the skills and technologies you have that are on the list. You’ll do the same for the personality traits and soft skills. Once you’ve done this you have a guideline of what key topics you need to focus on during your interview. If you have an anecdote about your project experience that includes a few of the check marks, that’s a great one to keep in your back pocket and bring up when the right question arises.

This isn’t the same thing as preparing answers because, rather than attempting to anticipate every potential question your interviewer might ask, you’re making a guide of which topics you should focus on and which key points you should make sure to bring up throughout your interview. Pack in as many check marks as you can in an organic, conversational manner and you’ll be well on your way to the next step in the hiring process!