 So this checklist applies to college, grad school, and job interviews. Just a few things about me so you know who's telling you all this. I'm a second year physician assistant student, a US Navy veteran, and a guy who's had a lot of interviews over the past 15 years. I also have a small business where I help people get into PA school and prepare them for their interviews. Now I'm assuming if you're watching this video that you have at least a few hours before your interview starts to prepare for it. So we're going to break your interview prep into five 20 minute blocks of time. Now this is flexible, you might need more than 20 minutes, you might need less than 20 minutes for some of these, but I think 20 minutes is about the minimum you need to really thoroughly prepare for each of these steps. So let's get started. Step number one, gather intel. What kind of interview is it? For instance, if it's grad school, you want to learn as much as you can about the school and also about the person or people interviewing you if you know who they are. If it's a job, you want to learn more things about the company. Not necessarily trivia like who the founder was or when the company was founded or what the slogan is or anything like that, but more of things that pertain to your job that you're applying for. What will you be doing day to day? What experience do you have that's related to that? Things like that. For instance, the last job interview I had before starting grad school was for a medical assistant position which I needed in order to get patient care hours to apply to PA school. So I actually have my notes for that interview here and what I did was I wrote down the names of the people interviewing me, the date and time of the interview, the address and phone number of the office just in case something happened or I got lost, I just wanted all the information I possibly needed on interview day, right there in front of me, black and white, I don't have to google it, nothing, it's just ready to go right there. I also looked up the names of all the doctors that work there, the conditions that they treated, the procedures that they did and just basically what kind of services the office or in your case the company provides. Another thing I took a look at and this is all from the office website is things that they tell their patient, things like how to use the patient portal, how do you make an appointment, things like that. Now I have to say 99% of this stuff did not come up in my interview but the few things that did come up I was able to talk about confidently and just in general this research gave me a lot of confidence in the interview that anything that the interviewers could have brought up I was ready to talk about. So most importantly it just gives you confidence above everything else and I ended up getting the job. Now while you're gathering intel you should also look up some common questions that you might be asked for the position you're applying for. So for instance for grad school one really common question is what do you want to be a doctor, lawyer, nurse, physician assistant, whatever it is you're applying for, why do you want to do that? Other common questions are like what's your greatest strength, what's your greatest weakness, things like that. For a job interview let's say it's a management position they might ask you what's the biggest team you've managed, what's the biggest budget you've been responsible for, things like that and a lot of this stuff should be in your resume but you should be ready to talk about it as well. Now this segues really well into step two which is to review your credentials. Do your interviewers have your job application or your resume or if it's a grad school application is it like a common app? What are they holding in front of them? What have they read about you? What do they know about you? You should know all of that and more and be ready to talk about it. Basically step two boils down to know your application, know your application, know your application and know your application some more. Be ready to talk at length about every single thing you wrote down in your personal statement, every single piece of your resume, anything you could be asked about you should have a personal story, a personal narrative about it and you should know every single thing that's on your application by heart. So if they ask you to elaborate on something and you're stumped and you don't remember and you just say oh I don't know I don't remember that you're gonna have a bad time. Be ready to talk about every part of your application, strengths and weaknesses, personal stories, victories, triumphs, failures, everything. Know your application. I think I've said it enough. Okay step three, set up your environment. Do you have good Wi-Fi? Can you maximize what you do have in order to minimize interruptions during the interview? Maybe turn off all the other devices in your house like your Alexa, your Amazon Smart Stick, anything like that so that your phone or iPad or laptop or whatever you're using in order to do the interview is the only Wi-Fi device that's working at the time of the interview. Another thing along these same lines is to have a backup device, preferably something with its own data line so it's not using Wi-Fi. So something like an iPad with a data plan, a phone, something like that. Set this device up ahead of time so download the Zoom app or Skype or whatever you're using for the interview. Just set it up so it's ready to go in case your Wi-Fi fails or even if you want to use it as a primary device. Just have two devices, a primary and a secondary, one Wi-Fi, one non-Wi-Fi preferably in order to do your interview. And just don't get stuck at the last minute trying to set up your gear because bad Wi-Fi or my phone shut off or something like that just doesn't look good. Even if it's a good excuse for being late for the interview it just doesn't look good. Another thing you should do with this is to do a test run. So test your Wi-Fi and test your device but also see how you look on camera, see how you sound with your microphone, maybe adjust your audio or your video settings, maybe adjust your lighting, just basically do a dry run see if someone can go on Zoom or on Skype with you and try to do a dry run of the interview. To set up your device whatever you're going to use and just do a dry run see what it's going to look like and sound like and adjust accordingly to make it sound and look the best that you possibly can. Another little bonus tip here is get yourself a glass of water for the interview and use a straw. I don't know why but I personally think it just looks less awkward to take a quick sip with a straw and you know to like pick up the whole cup and like tip it into your face. I don't know this might be just a personal thing but I think things just look less awkward if you take a quick sip with a straw and put it back. Okay, step four get yourself ready. Now I'm assuming you can shower and brush your teeth and do your hair and get dressed in less than 20 minutes but some of you have more hair than I do so you might have to be a little bit flexible with this one. I just think 20 minutes is a pretty good rule for me. It might be 30 minutes for you, it might be two hours for you. You know you better than I do. Take as much time as you need to just get ready, get yourself looking good so you feel confident and please dress the part. Don't be one of those people wearing like a suit jacket and some basketball shorts. You don't think it's going to happen to you but you just wait until you drop your phone or your iPad or something and your interviewers see what kind of underwear you got on. It's just not a good look so just put on some pants. Okay, number five and as usual I save the best for last. This is the most important tip, the most crucial, life-changing, immensely powerful thing I can tell you about preparing for your interview. Ready? I want you to take five to ten minutes to not think about your interview at all. Play your favorite song. Don't talk to anyone. Don't let anybody distract you. I actually have this YouTube playlist that I use for this kind of occasion and it's called Chills Music. What that means is it's music that gives me chills. You know beautiful stuff like Andrea Bacelli, Teddy Swins. If you've never heard of Teddy Swins, look him up now. Just put two to three songs on, get your headphones on, jam out, close your eyes, just feel really good. Distract yourself from thinking about anything except for the music. Maybe you need to do some breathing exercises like breathing in for a four count, you know four seconds, holding your breath for four seconds, breathing out for four seconds. That's going to make you feel really good, really relaxed and do that as many times as it takes to just calm the nerves. You're not going to feel perfect. You're not going to feel like you're completely not nervous and not worried but it's going to take that edge off just a little bit and make you a little bit more confident and just a little bit more calm. Okay, now don't you feel good and you know what's even better? You're ready. Your environment is set. You look so good. You're wearing pants. You're going to kill it. Now go get that job, go get into that dream school, go get them. Kai.