The first interview for a job is a basic indication that the company you are meeting with is interested in considering you as a potential new employee.

I'm sure this is a fairly basic and understood statement.

The important part is understanding the purpose of the first interview.

It really helps if you can find out ahead of time exactly who you're meeting with during the first interview to get a sense as to what will actually take place during the interview.

The first interview might be a screening interview with a member of Human Resources (HR) to assess your suitability to join the company. This interview might only focus on HR-type questions that attempt to determine your career goals, your personality, why you have left one company for another, etc.

Or you might find that the HR interviewer is actually qualified to ask you questions about the specific job you're being considered for. You might be surprised to find out that the HR interviewer knows more about your job or profession than you expected!

The first interview could combine an HR interview with a more hands-on interview with the hiring manager or it could skip the HR portion and go straight to a hands-on interview with the person who is doing the hiring.

The point is that ideally you will find out ahead of time exactly how the interview process is structured so that you can prepare for it and so that you can avoid any unexpected surprises.

The more information you have at your fingertips the better you can prepare yourself for all possible outcomes.

In any event, the goal of the first interview from your perspective is to answer all questions concisely and as well as possible, to gain more information about the company and the job and of course to proceed to the next step in the process if it's a job you are still interested in.

If this is a one-interview process, remember that you only have one interview to state your case and also to ensure that this a job you really want and is a company you really want to work for.

Knowing the interview plan ahead of time will help you properly prepare for the job interview process and not just the first interview, especially if the first interview is the only interview.

Carl Mueller

My name is Carl Mueller and I'd like to thank you for learning a bit more about me!

I feel that I have numerous relevant experiences during my career that come in useful when helping people with their careers:

I know what it?s like to work internationally, having worked overseas (in New Zealand, from 1994-1998).

I've survived several corporate downsizings while many of my colleagues were being laid off.

I have also experienced being laid off twice myself during corporate downsizings.

I know what it?s like to be self-employed.

I've helped many people find better jobs. I started to work as a professional recruiter in 2000 first as an Information Technology (IT) recruiter and then in general recruitment across many industries including IT, manufacturing and marketing. Since this time, I have helped many people find their dream career and it?s a great feeling.

I experienced one of the slowest hiring periods in recent memory especially during the general hiring slowdown that followed the Y2K frenzy in 1999, the bursting of the dot com bubble in early 2000, and then the employment market bottoming out following September 11, 2001.

These were certainly not great times to be a job searcher in most industries nor was it a particularly good time to be a recruiter.

Following this, I began running the day to day operations of an Internet-based company in early 2003 that focused on developing online software and subscription-based websites for consumers. It was then that I fully realized the power, usefulness and potential of the Internet which really spurred me to set up my own website which you can view in my Personal URL section below this bio.

I?m also a Platinum Ezine Articles Expert as recognized by EzineArticles.com, one of the most visited websites on the Internet. This special designation is earned by having consistently high-quality articles published and viewed on their website. All of my submissions are related to helping you find your dream career and many of my articles get reproduced on other websites by their webmasters.

Good luck with your career and I hope I have been of assistance to you!