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If your IT recruiters and IT staffing companies are booking you for long job interviews (ie half a day or longer) then congratulations.  You’re probably very close to a job offer, since IT recruiting agencies, technical recruiters, and interviewers often don’t want to waste their time or a candidate’s time if they don’t have some real interest.  If your IT staffing firms and IT recruiting companies have set you up for a long interview, here are two tips to help you nail it.

Firstly, dress comfortably and professionally.  While this may seem obvious, sometimes your interview clothes aren’t your most comfortable.  It’s really important to wear something that will give off a good impression but won’t leave you feeling too hot, your feet hurting, etc.  You won’t be able to give a good impression to your interviewers if your clothes that normally work for a 1 hour interview start bothering you—with 4 or 5 or 6 hours left to go.

Secondly, try to think about ways you can use the same stories or answers to questions in different ways.  If you’re going on a long interview, you’re likely to have several mini-interviews with a few people.  You may have to answer a few questions twice.  Or you may run out of answers to questions.  Think about how to re-use answers and stories in advantageous ways.  Sometimes, a story about the way you handled a disgruntled customer can also demonstrate your attention to detail.  Or a story about the way you fixed a bug in some code can demonstrate both your ability to be a team player and your excellent coding skills.  Come to the interview with a few anecdotes like this in mind.  It will help and might just win you the IT jobs of your dreams!