Whether you’re trying to break into the IT field or building on an existing career, successful job interviews are critical to landing the right position. This ebook offers a variety of best practices to help you reduce the stress of those interviews and turn them into job offers.

From the ebook:

Job interviews can be nerve-wracking for both interviewees and interviewers. Because you’re naturally nervous, you may not be on top of your game as much as you’d be in more relaxed circumstances, but there are steps that you can take to control this nervousness and perform better when you are interviewing for a job. Here are eight tips.

Don’t just research the company—have a clear focus on how you can contribute
A number of years ago, a friend of mine who was debating whether to interview for a large corporation thought again after she learned that the company was going through a massive layoff and reorganization. However, in researching the company’s longevity and consistently strong performance, and in understanding that the company was in the midst of strengthening its legal and compliance staff, she decided to interview. She got a job in legal/compliance—and is now a major executive with the company 10 years later. “Despite the layoffs during the time I interviewed, I knew they were looking for exactly the skills I could bring,” she said. “And I knew that I could make a difference.”

Be prepared to talk about a failure
Yep, you should definitely expect the “failure” question. Interviewers know that job applicants are going to come prepared to talk about all the wonderful things they have done—so they always ask a question that can get at the flip side, since none of us succeeds at what we do all of the time.

Your failure story should be about a specific incident, assignment, or project you worked or managed. It could even be about a difficult work relationship that you experienced with someone.

Tell the story in three stages. First, describe the situation and what happened. Second, explain what wasn’t working and why you felt you were failing. Third, explain how you tackled the situation and overcame it. If you didn’t overcome all the adversity of the situation, be prepared to tell the interviewer how you grew from the experience and what you learned.