By Marjie Terry

A good friend, who happens to be one of the smarter people I know, recently told me she goes into an out-of-body, cold-sweat state when she’s interviewing.  She knows it has cost her plenty of jobs, but she feels powerless to change her fate.  People who can really hit the ball out of the park in job interviews are few and far between.  For the large majority of people, however, interviewing is a dreadful, intimidating experience.  This doesn’t have to be you. The truth is, every interviewer is hoping you’re “the one,” the perfect candidate, the answer to their prayers, an end to the tedium of interviewing dozens (if not hundreds) of candidates.  So remind yourself that people are in fact rooting for you, not against you.

As a former recruiter and recent interviewer for a business development position at my firm, I was struck by the contrast in how various candidates performed in final round interviews.  Here are six key things to keep in mind that could make (or break) your next interview:

Be enthusiastic

Aaron, one of the first candidates I interviewed, was cool and reserved.  He acted more like a disinterested old pal who had known me for years than an enthusiastic potential colleague when I stuck out my hand to say hello. I was turned off immediately.

The importance of being warm, friendly and enthusiastic cannot be overstated. You have everything to lose and nothing to gain by being overly cool at the beginning of an interview.  Please show how thrilled (!) you are to have gotten an interview.  If you can’t muster up the energy to demonstrate that you’re grateful for my time and the opportunity, you might as well not show up at all.

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We just received this awesome Infographic from Inside the MBA@UNC Blog.  We love it and wanted to share it with you!  Ladies, we’ve come a long way in the business world (go us!)… yet we’ve still got  aways to go.  A few things we’re particularly proud of:

• Women start businesses at 1.5 times the national average
• Women now hold more bachelors and graduate degrees than men and make up one-third of all MBA candidates

BUT, (and this is a big but) 40% of large companies have no women on their boards and only 5 percent of startups are owned by women. What do you think about the stats?  Let us know…

Via MBA@UNC MBA Online & Women 2.0