Confidently convey your strengths
Interview Preparation
Together, we will discuss your interview style, the questions or career hiccups that trip you up, how to make a great first impression, and how to highlight your strengths and minimize your weaknesses. Our goal is to get you a job offer.
If you’re not even getting to the interview stage in your job search, you might be interested in our Resume and Cover Letter coaching instead.
Whether you’re interviewing for your first job or have been a professional for years, we’ll help you gain confidence as you become more effective and relaxed during the job interview process. Our Interview Preparation coaching is tailored to your needs and the roles you’re applying for. We provide a supportive, collaborative environment to practice common interview questions and questions specific to the job, and we’ll help you convey your strengths and accomplishments to maximize your chances of receiving a job offer.
Working with Dan
Moving forward, together
Press play! When you work with Dan, you’re not just getting a stiff-shirt “Expert Career Coach.” You’re getting a supportive ally to help bring out your best, most comfortable and confident self in your job interviews. “You can’t mess up with me, because it’s just acceptance, and we move forward.” Click the button to talk to Dan about Interview Prep coaching.
Interview preparation coaching is a good fit for you if:
- It’s been a while since you’ve needed a new job, and your interview skills are rusty
- You’re getting plenty of interviews, but no job offers
- You’re really stressed during job interviews
- You’re finding it hard to make connections with hiring managers or through networking
Most clients come to us at times when they are back on the job market after a long time, or if they tend to get through the job application process and land interviews just fine, but they’re not getting job offers.
If there’s something just not clicking for you in interviews, it’s a great time to practice your self-presentation with a supportive, professional career coach. Our sessions are geared toward highlighting your strengths, and working with you to link those work experiences to the role you’re applying for, increasing your comfort and confidence along the way with plenty of mock interviews.
Job interviews are stressful! If doing interviews makes you really nervous, or you tend to freeze up in those situations, coaching is a great idea for you. Our sessions give you a chance to practice job interviewing in a structured, supportive way, so you can get more comfortable and confident. Practice makes perfect, and we’ll give you supportive feedback on your body language, eye contact, and how to connect better in your job interviews.
What to expect
Interview Preparation coaching will typically take at least two hour-long sessions, conducted through a video call with Dan Hahn. Dan will carefully review the job description you’re applying for, along with your resume and cover letter, to craft a structured outline for your work together.
In the first session, we’ll work with you to review your career goals, competitive strengths and accomplishments that you’ll highlight in your answers to common interview questions. We’ll outline several career stories that demonstrate your past successes most relevant to the position.
As we review these questions, we’ll develop an authentic response for those that concern you. Typical interview questions we cover include:
- Tell me about yourself.
- Why are you interested in this position?
- Where do you expect to be in three years?
- Describe a conflict you had on a job and how you handled it.
- What are your strengths? Give an example of your strengths in action.
- Describe a time you were part of a team and your role as a team member.
- What have been your most important accomplishments?
- What is your biggest weakness?
- Why should we hire you?
The focus of the second session is to practice your success stories and answers to the most common questions, starting with that crucial “Tell me about yourself” question. And of course we will practice, Practice, PRACTICE interviewing in a safe and supportive environment until you’re happy with your performance.
Not getting interviews? If you’re looking for help writing your resume or cover letter, or want help optimizing your LinkedIn page for your job search, check out our Resumes and Cover Letters page.
How long does it take?
We work with you to design your sessions
In this video, Dan gives an overview of how many sessions you might need. If you’re already scheduled for a job interview, we’ll do our best to get you in for a session. We generally recommend at least two sessions to work on telling your career story, and practice answering both common and role-specific job interview questions. If you want to work on specific feedback, or if you have a lot of difficulty making a strong connection in interviews, more sessions can be added to make sure you’re improving for your next interview. Click the button to get started!
If you need more focused guidance, especially if you’re struggling with your confidence, not connecting with hiring managers or other interviewers, or still not getting job offers after a lot of interviews, get in touch with us. We can schedule as many sessions as it takes to practice your interviewing skills, and make sure you’re bringing your best self forward.
Ace your Zoom, phone, and face-to-face interviews
We’ll guide you through the strategies unique to each type of interview, whether on the phone, video interview, or face-to-face. If you’re nervous about in-person interviews after the last few years of remote work, we’ll help you make a great in-person connection, review the company website for the right dress code to match company culture, and help bring out your most impressive career story.
Our goal is to get you a job offer, and this includes phone and email support when you get one.
Phone screenings and negotiating your best salary
Shorter screening interviews, often with a representative from HR or a recruiter, are a way organizations streamline their hiring process to make sure they’re only interviewing the best candidates. They want to make sure you understand the company and the role and to check up on your qualifications before they set you for a full-length interview.
Often, companies also use a phone screening to make sure you’re agreeable to the salary range they’re offering. When you pass the screening interview, you are clearly a competitor for the position. We’ll help you address the salary range question in a screening interview, and, once you receive a job offer, we’ll help you analyze the offer with several factors that might lead to an effective counter-offer:
- How does the offer compare to salaries listed on salary boards, adjusted for the region?
- How enthusiastic does the employer sound about you as a candidate?
- Do your qualifications exceed some of the job requirements?
- Are there any benefits you’d be willing to negotiate on if your salary expectations were higher than what is being offered?
Book an Interview Preparation coaching package with Dan
Interview Prep coaching sessions with Dan include strategy and preparation, mock interview practice, and negotiation support for when you get a job offer. Click here to discuss rates and tailor your coaching package to your specific needs.
Ready to Get Started?
The Interview Preparation coaching package is offered by:
Career Coach and Owner of A Portland Career Dan Hahn, M.S.
Dan is the owner of A Portland Career, where he draws on his past experience building several successful businesses.
He has coached many clients through various challenging career, leadership, and business decisions. Dan uses a systematic approach to job search that identifies each client’s unique strengths and matches them to job roles. He helps clients get unstuck and develop strategies to blaze a realistic and profitable path forward.
He has a B.S. in Financial Management from the University of Illinois and a Masters in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Portland State University.
Dan has also completed a Certificate in Job Search Coaching by Vicki Lind, M.S.
