This may sound super obvious, but please spend at least 2 minutes every day and read the newspaper. You don’t want to be that person who can’t add anything to the conversation because you have no idea what they’re talking about.
While you have your morning coffee – take two minutes to glance through the news. Whether it’s your favourite news app, checking a news Facebook page, listening to the radio, or going old school with an actual paper – we don’t care how you do it. Just please do it.
After graduating university, I was interviewing for an entry level business role that would involve working with a lot of people. One of the first questions they asked me was “what had you read in the news lately that can affect a business” – pretty generic question, right? Thankfully, I had read the news that day and was able to make my way through the question. The question was a great way to filter who can hold a conversation in business, and who can’t. Well done, interviewer. You almost got me.
From that day forward, I always did my best to have at least a high level understanding of what was going on in the world. It doesn’t need to be every detail, but enough to hold a conversation. On the flip side, if you don’t know about a topic, don’t fake it either. That’s just asking for trouble.
If you’ve ever had any interview questions that shook you up enough, comment below. We’d love to hear!
Until next time…
