Interviews are stressful, they very well could decide where you spend the next part of your life working. Here are some tips on how to ace that interview before it's even started.
1. Set more than one alarm
As silly as it seems, it's easy to press off my accident rather than snooze and now you have the chance of sleeping through your interview and will never forgive yourself.
2. Eat something before you go
The last thing you want to have is a rumbling stomach in the middle of an interview. Not only is it distracting to you, but it can be so loud that it causes an awkward situation between you and the interviewer. Was that a burp? A fart? Just play it safe and eat something so you don't have to worry about that happening.
3. Scout out the area
This may depend on where your interview is. If it is in the city you might want to go a day before and look at what the parking situation looks like and have a couple places you can park if one lot is full. If you get there the day of your interview and you see all the lots are full, you won't panic because you have planned for that to happen and know what your backup plan was.
4. Get there early, but not too early
You never want to be late, that's a given, but you also don't want to be too early. So if you get there way too early, feel free to stop at a coffee shop and go over your interview notes and practice one last time. I would say getting there 10 minutes early would be the perfect medium.
5. Be yourself
This to me is the most important. Many people think they need to answer the questions the way that the company wants to hear it. They brought you there for a reason, so don't change who you are. If you don't get the internship/job then it wasn't meant to be, but you know you were yourself and that's all that matters.
6. Bring a water
You're going to be talking a lot, so unless you want to feel like your mouth has velcro in it, you need to bring a water. If you don't bring one and they offer you one, take it.
6. Send a thank you
This is something I never knew you should do until I went to college. After your interview send them a follow-up email thanking them one last time for giving you the opportunity to interview there.
