00:08
Catherine
Hello there. My name is Catherine and I am 23 years old, working as a full time freelancer in the media and entertainment industry. And welcome to the How I Diaries podcast. This podcast is a diary of how I'm currently going about my life and career. And if you are someone who has a passion for media and entertainment or find yourself wondering how people end up working on set and landing these jobs in the industry and the overall freelance lifestyle appeals to you, then this is your one stop shop for everything you need to know about breaking into it all.
00:38
These episodes are all about sharing everything. I wish I knew earlier all this stuff I'm continuing to learn as I go about my journey and yeah, just my personal stories to help you get on your way to. I know this may seem a little weird. I have a whole episode about, but lately I've been stressing the whole domino effect thing and interviewing is very important.
00:59
If you don't, if you're not a good interviewer, you're not going to get job sort of thing, yada, yada, yada. But yeah, I really do have a system I go about and a ritual I'm going to touch on what I used to do for more traditional jobs and what I currently do for my work life. Now, since now that I'm freelance, I don't do much of any formal interviewing anymore.
01:17
So I'll also be mentioning how to apply these techniques for portfolio creation and advertising your own service sort of thing. Preface give yourself at least one or two days before your interview to do these things and to study. If you have more specific questions on how to even get an interview in the first place, go to my episode about how I structure my resume and all that.
01:39
Again, building blocks. Check that out, then come back here. You have to have the interview opportunities to put these into play. Anyway, there is a day or two or some time that you need to take before your actual interview to research. And also relate this to the time you were taking to make your portfolio, website services, all that.
02:00
The number one thing which I think is a no brainer is to look up the company or people doing similar things to you on job boards, research and read their reviews. And you know, some sites even have a section that is specifically for answering the question of what was the interview like. Alex Fasulo, I mentioned her podcast all the time.
02:16
Freelance Fairytales podcast always stresses the importance and the huge plus that in freelance you have the freedom of looking at your competitors and can see what they're doing and apply it to your situation. So if you're looking to make a portfolio or a website, go find a portfolio or a website that you like and all that after them or a gig, go on five or go look at what other people are who are doing the same thing as you are and model yourself after them.
02:43
The second thing is to make a reference sheet or something with all of the information you've gathered, call it interview prep, etc. This is basically going to be your study guide. Take notes of everything and anything during that research portion. The next part I learned from a friend from college, which is also a separate tip in itself. If you personally know people who work at the company you want to be in or the position you want, ask them.
03:06
That also goes for anyone you deem to be successful in landing jobs. Ask them what their experience was like the names of people they interviewed with, what they did to prepare, and any tips they may have. But this friend told me to research a company and basically make sure you know their mission statement, their history as a company, and overall goal as a company.
03:24
You should have a more than a general idea of the kinds of people they hire, the words they use, the work they do, the clients they work with, and their brand. Add all of this to your cheat sheet doesn't have to be fancy. You can literally copy and paste and just intensely familiarize yourself with all of this info.
03:43
That is how I got all of my internships or my two internships. I did all of these same things and it paid off in the interview portion. Next you're going to take any specific info from your research that was specifically about the questions that they asked, like if you were able to find that ad that, but if you weren't able to find those or you only find like one question, you can still prep with these generalized questions.
04:05
So I'm going to just kind of spew through them, why do you want to work at that company? Why are you a good fit? What are your strengths and weaknesses? Explain. One time you overcame a challenge and how. Tell me about yourself. Give me an example of when you went above and beyond what relevant experience or skills do you have?
04:25
What do you do in your free time? So your sheet so far should have all of that preliminary research about the company, yada, yada, yada, any info you think is useful, and then a list of questions, and then you're going to answer the questions These are also very good questions you can answer in your portfolio creation or website.
04:45
You know, think of what frequently asked questions people could come up with if they were a customer of your service. I am also in the process of creating my own website and portfolio, which I think eventually I will do a whole separate episode on. But I have all these ideas of what I want it to be and just I haven't had the time, so look out for that.
05:03
Another thing you'll want to add to this cheat sheet is the questions you all have for the person interviewing you and I know this seems silly, but you should always have a question. Somebody told me this once. I can't remember who, or maybe I read it somewhere. You should always have a question. It just makes you stand out.
05:20
And the question that you ask, it also sort of gives them a window of the kind of thinker you are, yada, yada, yada. And the chances are that when you're doing all the other prep work there, there are going to be questions that you're going to have. Some basic questions are like scheduling and pay rate and you know, just overall, asking about the lifestyle, you can ask the person if they how long they've been there.
05:43
You know, there are a lot of things it doesn't have to be it can be a little bit more personal about like, hey, how do you like it here? Like I mentioned earlier, I don't do much of any formal interviewing anymore. I guess that is sort of another plus of freelancing, the usual process of freelancing is you submit a resume and then you have a phone call.
06:00
If even if that I've had situations where people don't even call me and they're just like, hey, show up tomorrow. I'm like, Okay, but do you have a specific phone call list I go down, which I learned from all the stuff I did when I used to formerly interview and stuff like that. It does all translate to freelance as well.
06:16
Usually the phone interviews and freelancing people just literally want to get straight to the point. So my sort of emotions I go through is, you know, confirm dates, times, locations of whatever the job is, and then have a basic elevator pitch of the tell me about yourself question, because they will, I think in just about every phone call that I've had, that's what they're going to ask because if you think about it, they're not really meeting you.
06:38
They're just looking at your resume. So you should have an elevator pitch of tell me about yourself, include in that pitch recent related jobs you've worked my little spiel usually goes like I have a degree in music, technology and film. Within the last two years, I have had work experience and the music industry, feature films, commercials, corporate live events and post-production and comfortable driving in New York City.
07:03
I'm a hard worker and love to be just overall help to anyone in whatever capacity is needed. I also own my own car, if that is any help. And then the questions that I always keep in mind to ask are confirming rate and net pay, which is something you don't come across in regular jobs because you know when you're getting paid, but not pay is how fast you can be expected to pay out.
07:24
There's net 15 at 30 and then I will usually ask the the run around with COVID protocols and then I will confirm that they have my correct email and clarify if I need to fill out any paperwork. So the last and final step is literally just to study this cheat sheet that you've made. I usually would read it over and over again and make sure I could answer everything from memory.
07:44
I know it seems a little silly, but I really, really believe interview prep and just research in general is so educational and everything is at our fingertips. It's like, why don't you do it? It's an easy way to set yourself apart and just brush up on things. It will help you become more confident in yourself too, and distinguish yourself from others.
08:02
So that is it for this episode. Feel free to take a listen to all my other episodes and topics. Everything kind of relates to each other. These are kind of short, so they're kind of meant for you to binge. And if this reaches you and you have any burning questions or stories I'd be happy to chat. You can follow me on Instagram at How I Diaries.
08:19
Feel free to shoot me. And I would also love to hear if anybody else has their own interview tips and, you know, tricks that they go about that they do. Please also consider if you weren't subscribing, liking, or reading or sharing the show, it takes 2 seconds and it really, really helps. I post five new episodes at the end of each month, so keep an eye out for those. And until next time. Thanks for listening.