How to ace your next job interview (with a little help from men's grooming products and a skincare routine)

Sid Baveja is the Founder and CEO of Humanery.com. Prior to founding Humanery in October 2021, Sid held senior leadership positions at Just Eat Takeaway.com and viagogo, where he built and managed large high-performance teams across many countries.

The thoughts of greener pastures have been swirling ever since that email from “management” arrived, demanding that you head back to the office for a minimum of 3 days a week. You’re comfortable working from home and now the thought of going back to the office 3 days a week fills you with dread. The commute, coming to terms with the social anxiety of a buzzing office and not being able to roll out of bed into your Zoom meetings. This makes you think – time to get another job and leave this behind. But, this also means job interviews and sifting your way through LinkedIn job postings. 

Even though you’re not alone in feeling this way, it doesn’t help that the economy seems to be slowing down from it’s lockdown highs too. According to the Office of National Statistics’ employment report for October 2022, “the estimated number of vacancies fell by 46,000 on the quarter to 1,246,000, this is the largest fall on the quarter since June to August 2020”. This means fewer open jobs and more applicants to compete with for the next dream job.

This makes acing your interview more important than ever in a more competitive environment.

We’re here to help you ace the interviews (and help upgrade your grooming and self-care routine in the process). We’ll break it down into a step-by-step process to get you into the winning mindset that will help you get the best outcomes from your upcoming job interviews. 

Step 1 – Get your resume into shape

As they say, “first impressions are everything.” They’re not wrong. Well, not entirely wrong. Your resume has a huge role to play in creating your first impression for a prospective new employer. The resume doesn’t just provide a future employer your list of skills and experiences. It is also meant to showcase your personality, your passions and the “x factor” that you might bring into a new team.

When setting up your resume, make sure you describe experiences with challenges that you have overcome and how you were an integral part (whether as a leader or a key contributor) of a team. Don’t make it boring – make your experience standout.

Of course, creating a strong resume takes time and careful thought. Might we suggest a relaxing face mask and light a fragranced candle to create a relaxed environment that is conducive to thinking clearly and getting the creative juices flowing for describing your past work experience? You’ll be surprised by how effective creating the right environment can be in crafting a superb resume.

Pro tips:

• Don’t forget to use a spell check when you think you’re finished. Nothing is more irritating than seeing a great background and work experience set the wrong impression when a resume is peppered with spelling mistakes. Take that extra step towards “attention to detail” – it will really go the distance.
• Make notes while you’re typing out your resume to help you describe your experience when you get the typical “so tell me about a time when you had to overcome adversity in a challenging project at work” question.

Step 2 – You get the interview call. Time to prep.

Many say get as much practice as possible to ace interviews. But what do you practice and how do you prepare? We think there is a secret formula to this and it only requires TWO things from you:
a. Investing in your self-care and,
b. Intelligent Prep.

Yes, just two things. Let’s break them down for you. 

a. Investing in your self-care:

Why would investing in your self-care be important while going through the interview process? Simple.

1. It will help you fight any anxiety or undue mental pressures created by the anticipation of an interview.

2. Your interviewer will take notice of how you look and feel when you meet them for your interview. Remember what we said about “first impressions”? It’s normal to feel anxiety when you’re meeting someone new, especially when you’re trying to impress and get a job from them. In this situation, it is crucial to have given yourself the confidence boost you need to set the right first impression. So to invest in your self-care before the job interview, we suggest you do the following:

• Exercise regularly and take your daily wellness supplements so you’re in tip top shape on the day of your interview.
• Start taking your skincare seriously at least 1 week before the interview if possible. The truth is, clean and healthy skin takes time to achieve. You don’t want to be worried about a zit on your nose or panicking to hide the dark circles under your eyes caused by a lack of sleep (or other stress-related illness) on the day of your interview.
  
  Get into a simple and repeatable skincare routine 7 days ahead of time (if possible).
  
  Start with a high quality face wash to clean your face every morning, followed by a toner to clear your skin and an anti-ageing moisturizer with SPF to help you get a youthful look on the day of your interview. If you’d like, you can also get some eye cream to take the puffiness away from those tired eyes. Make sure to also cleanse your face at night before going to bed so you keep your skin clear of the stuff that might break out the acne. We suggest following your nightly cleansing routine with a night face serum that will help your recover from the stressors it faced throughout the day and stay hydrated. Night serums are not the same as day serums and can play a magical role in getting your skin ready for that big job interview.
• Get enough sleep and rest. You need your mind to be fresh on the day of your interview so you can think on your feet if you’re put under pressure. We suggest you explore some sleep supplements to help you get that much needed shut eye to help with your interview prep.
• If you wear a beard, trim your beard the night before. Do it patiently so you can avoid mistakes that might make your beard look sloppy when you meet your interviewer. If you have a clean-shaven face, avoid shaving on the day of the interview, especially if you have sensitive skin that tends to flare up after you shave.
  
  We suggest shaving the night before the interview, after washing your face. Use a premium men’s shaving cream and a clean blade. If you have a few spare minutes, we highly recommend using a pre-shave oil to soften your facial hair before lathering on shaving cream. Don’t forget to use a post-shave lotion to calm any redness and hydrate your skin after the shave. You could also use an alum block for its antiseptic healing properties if you’ve accidentally cut yourself while shaving. 
• Prepare your outfit for the interview the night before. If you’re going to wear a shirt (even if it’s a virtual interview), make sure it doesn’t have any creases or stains. Your interviewer might not care about what you wear to work everyday, but they’re certainly going to get distracted by a poor outfit choice or a creased shirt when they meet you for an interview. Don’t allow them to opportunity to take their focus away from what you have to say. As they say, “you gotta look good to feel good. Feel good to play good. Play good, to get PAID GOOD!”

b. Intelligent prep:

We believe there is a formula for intelligent prep that gets you ready to ace your job interview. This formulas has (you guessed it) 3 parts:

• Know (and love) yourself better than anyone else. One of the most crucial things interviewers look for in a job interview is how well you understand your own strengths, weaknesses and “how you think and make decisions”. A simple way to do this is to make a list of your strengths and weaknesses, but back each strength or weakness with an example of how that strength or weakness has manifested in your life. Think about tangible examples that bring these to life. You should also have a good answer for “why you’re looking to leave your current job” and how you’ve thought about your career progression. If you’ve jumped from job to job every year, have a really good answer for why you’ve moved around and don’t just lay the blame for your move on your previous employers. You’ve got to “champion yourself” in the interview, not spend time talking about the mistakes of others. 
• Know the company and the role. While these questions are stereotypical, you’re likely to be asked questions such as, “why do you want to come work here?” or “what makes you the right candidate for this job?”. The truth is, your future employer is asking you these questions to understand if you’re really serious about working for that company. Imagine you’re sitting in the seat of the interviewer. Wouldn’t you want to hear an answer that is considered and thoughtful so that you feel it’s worth bringing the candidate into your team? You should also do enough research on basic questions about how the company you’ve applied to functions. Think about how the company makes money (their revenue model), look up the bios of the management team (and if you can find anything relatable by stalking their LinkedIn profile), go to the company’s Youtube channel (this is a hidden treasure trove that is often ignored by candidates) and just look up the latest news articles talking about the company.
• Prepare your own list of questions for your interviewer. Most people forget that a job interview is a “two-way street”. Not only are you looking to prove that you’re the right candidate for the job, you are also looking to learn more about the company and it’s team so you can make the right decision. That said, don’t ask trite questions too early (especially if you can ask Google the same question and get a reasonable answer). Avoid asking “how much does this job pay?” too early in the interview process if it was not advertised in the job spec. We suggest alternative questions that will help you gain deeper insight. Perhaps try questions such as, “what is the greatest challenge facing your team currently?” or “what does success look like from your point of view for a candidate to be successful in this job?”. You’ll be happy you asked these questions.
  
  Our favorite question to end the interview with: “is there anything else you’d like me to tell you about myself to help you with your decision to advance my candidacy?”. This is the best question to end on. Trust us, you’ll see why if you haven’t already been using this.

Pro tip:

• Another essential component of intelligent prep is to practice some of your answers with a friend or loved one. While they may be biased towards your answers, it will help you iron out the shortcomings in your answers and things will flow more naturally when you get asked that question during your interview. 

Step 3 – The day of the interview – time to put on that “game face”

The day of that all-important interview has arrived and you’re stressing out. Sound familiar?

There’s a solution to this problem, which has (and you guessed it right, again!) three parts:

• Wake up a few minutes earlier than usual on the day of the interview to do some last-minute prep. We know this is controversial (the career coaches reading this are probably fuming), but a bit of last-minute revision isn’t all that bad. Now, this prep doesn’t mean you cook up new questions or scenarios to practice. You’re simply going over your notes from the prep stage to make sure you’ve got them etched into your thinking for the day. This will help you take away the anxiety of feeling like you didn’t put enough effort into your prep. 
• Give yourself enough time in the morning for some meditation, a relaxing shower and morning skincare routine. We’ve got a whole host of incredible men’s shower gels and bath products that will give you a sensory relief and confidence boost to present your best self during the interview. Your morning skincare routine will help you get that added “lift” in your step and remove any shadows of self-doubt that might be holding you back as you head into the interview. If you’re still feeling held back, no shame in putting on a bit of undereye concealer or bb cream to give your skin an even tone. It’s totally OK for men to wear makeup and it should be part of your mental health arsenal. Lastly, help yourself with a deodorant after your shower and finish getting ready with a few light spritzes of a non-overbearing men’s perfume (even if you’re doing the interview virtually). A room that has a positive olfactory aroma has proven benefits towards improved mental states and helps set a positive first impression. If you’re meeting someone for an interview in-person, wash your hands before the interview and use some hand salve to get your hands ready for a firm and impressive handshake (no one likes chapped hands or sweaty palms when they shake hands for the first time).
• Get to the interview early (both in-person or virtual – tardiness is never a good first impression). Showing up late to an interview automatically deducts points from your score that are not worth losing. A good rule of thumb – show up 10 minutes early. If you’re going into an office for your interview, be polite and thankful towards everyone you encounter at the office (even the receptionist, who will likely have no sway over the hiring decision). Who knows? Maybe someday these people at the office will become your colleagues and they’ll remember you for your etiquette.

Pro tip:

• Don't forget to SMILE! (even if you're phased by a difficult question in the interview). Your smile is going to take you a long way. If you're looking to give your smile a boost - we've got plenty of incredible oral health and teeth whitening products for men to choose from.

There you have it – our formula for acing the job interview and creating winning outcomes with just 3 steps. If you’d like to share your own tips of job interview success, email us at helpme@humanery.com and let us know if you’re comfortable with us sharing these tips with others on our Instagram profile.

You can also write to us if you have questions about products that can help you invest in your self-care. We’ll be delighted to help you make your grooming and self-care routine magic!

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