Career Couch: Before the Job Interview, Do Your Homework

A. Research the company and the industry, says Adrien Fraise, founder of Modern Guild, which provides online career coaching to college students and high school seniors. “Know the major industry trends and news,” he says, and be able to talk about how they could affect the company.

Find out who runs the company and how they got there. “Look at their profiles on LinkedIn and see if you find a common bond,” says David Lewis, the chief executive of OperationsInc., a human resources outsourcing and consulting firm in Norwalk, Conn. “If you are able to say, ‘I went to the same college as you’ or ‘I also majored in psychology,’ that demonstrates you really did your homework.”

Familiarize yourself with the company’s products or services and look for ways, even small ones, to possibly expand or add value. Note the positives, then talk about opportunities you see, says Moses Lee, C.E.O. of Seelio, a platform that lets students and recent college graduates post samples of their work and search for jobs.

“Let’s say you are talking about a recent marketing campaign,” he says. “You could say, ‘I enjoyed that campaign and if I had the opportunity to work on it, I might frame it so it resonated with millennials, too.’ ”

Q. What questions can you expect, and how can you prepare to answer them?

A. You may be asked to walk the interviewer through your résumé, so prepare concise, articulate anecdotes to illustrate what you did or learned in each experience you’ve listed, Mr. Fraise says. Highlight what you achieved and the skills you used — and how you want to keep using them. “Rehearse in front of the mirror and then in front of others,” he says. “Be so comfortable with it, it doesn’t sound scripted.”

Interviewers often ask questions like “Can you give me an example of when you had to work as part of a team or learned something new quickly?” Mr. Lewis says your examples might come from experiences in a club, fraternity or sorority. “Did you organize a membership push? Plan events? Do recruiting?” he says.

If you’re asked a question like “Why did you choose your college major?” be complete in your answer. “Don’t just say ‘because I really like psychology,’ “ Mr. Lewis advises. Instead, note from a business perspective why you liked the subject. “Maybe you found the classes to be informative about human behavior, which is a key to success in anyone’s business,” he says.

Take along samples of your work — whether from an internship, a class or an extracurricular activity — in a folder or on a laptop computer or tablet.

And always prepare questions to ask at the end of the interview, says Alexa Hamill, American campus recruiting leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Philadelphia. Questions on the interviewer’s own career progress are a way to conclude, she says: “What opportunities have been presented to them? How were they trained and developed? This shows you are looking at the job as something potentially long term.”

Q. You want to exude confidence and maturity. What are some ways to bolster your confidence before an interview?

A. Develop a personal elevator pitch — a 30-second to one-minute summary of your academic career, your interests and what you did outside school — and correlate that to the job you want, Ms. Hamill says. PricewaterhouseCoopers offers a free tool on its site to help think through those questions, she says.

Q. What are some basic interview etiquette rules, in terms of dress and behavior?

A. Turn off your cellphone before walking into the company’s offices, and don’t take it out during your interview. “Don’t remind me you’re a 22-year-old,” Mr. Lewis says. “Have a firm handshake, maintain eye contact and don’t fidget.”

Remember not to talk about inappropriate topics like a recent fraternity party or something you saw on Facebook, Ms. Hamill says. When speaking to interviewers, “face them with your knees pointing toward them, sit up straight and stay engaged,” she says. After the interview, send a thank-you e-mail and include a link to your online portfolio or Web site if you have one.

Unless the company recommends dressing casually or informally for the interview, men should wear a suit and tie and women should wear a suit or skirt and blouse, Mr. Lewis says. You may be the only one in the office dressed that way, he says, but it’s usually better not “to walk into an interview dressed as if you are already part of the team.”

Career Couch: The Groundwork for Good References

A. Ideally, you are continually cultivating references by doing good work, seeking out mentors and developing strong relationships with peers and supervisors. When you are ready to move on to a new job, ask those people if you can list them as references. “Job seekers should never list someone as a reference without having talked to that person about it first,” says Tom Gimbel, C.E.O. of the LaSalle Network, a staffing and recruitment firm in Chicago.

Let your references know about the positions for which you’re being considered and what they will most likely be asked, says Jennifer Takacs-O’Shea, president of Caterpillar Career Consultants in Calverton, N.Y.

And if you are leaving under less-than-desirable circumstances, be honest about that when you talk to your manager. “Have the humility to acknowledge you weren’t that good at the job,” Mr. Gimbel says. Commit to working on your weaknesses in the future. Then talk about strengths you had — like being a team player, having a good attitude, meeting deadlines — and ask if your manager could stress those characteristics in a reference check.

Q. What if you discover that a former employer is giving you an undeserved negative reference?

A. Although many companies have a policy of limiting reference information to confirming employment dates and job titles, to protect against possible litigation, some people still give negative feedback, says Jeff Shane, executive vice president at Allison & Taylor, a firm in Rochester, Mich., that conducts reference checks for corporations and job seekers.

Employees who feel that their character is being defamed could sue the employer to stop it, says Susan K. Lessack, a partner in the labor and employment practice of the law firm Pepper Hamilton in Philadelphia. But that should be a last resort. Being known for suing a former employer isn’t likely to help your job search, and defamation is hard to prove, she says. “I don’t think there’s much upside,” she says.

One possible path is to contact the person you believe is giving the negative reference and discuss the situation, Mr. Shane says. Try to reach agreement about what the person will say in the future so it’s not perceived as negative.

You can also contact the human resources office, as it is usually more objective than a former supervisor, Ms. Lessack says. “Ask for some assistance or agree that the company will provide only neutral information,” she says. “You might try to get a written reference that mentions a few positive things and stays away from the negative.”

If you still can’t be sure if your reference will end up being mainly negative, address the possibility during your job interview. Mr. Gimbel says to provide the name of your supervisor, along with your view of the situation, noting the quality of your work wasn’t the issue.

Q. If you were a highly valued employee but your company will only confirm dates of employment and position, how can you get a good reference?

A. Companies may have a policy of giving out only neutral information because one manager may think an employee was great but another may not, Ms. Lessack says. “Companies want to speak with one voice and be consistent,” she says.

Ms. Takacs-O’Shea suggests checking with human resources to see whether your manager can speak personally — rather than professionally — on your behalf: “He can talk about things like your character, enthusiasm, willingness to contribute and that the projects you worked on had a high success rate.”

Ms. Lessack agrees. Depending on the company, she says, you may be able to work out something that allows your manager to speak about you in a way that doesn’t violate the company’s policy on professional references.

Q. Do recommendations on LinkedIn mean anything to employers?

A. It depends on the employer, but many look at them, even if they have less force than usual references, says Bill Peppler, managing partner of the staffing firm Kavaliro in Orlando, Fla. “One of the first things I do when I’m looking to hire for our corporate office is pull that person up on LinkedIn,” he says.

Although LinkedIn’s endorsements feature — a way to recommend those in a network for certain skills — is relatively new, Mr. Peppler has used it to find the most endorsed person with a specific background in a particular city. “It’s hard to know how meaningful that will be in the long run, but to me, it makes them one of the most influential people in that region for what they do,” he says.