Check out Part 1 of Frances Advincula’s “Rock the Internship” series here!

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If you are like me, once the initial excitement of scoring an interview fades away, panic settles in. Again, do not worry. Below are sure-fire ways to prepare yourself for D-day (or I-day?).

1. Be polite in your correspondence.

You are the one wanting the job, and you should be the one who goes crazy to squeeze in the interview into your life, not the other way around. This shows the company that you are willing to do whatever it takes and that you are really interested in working for them. For an interview that I had once, since the company was thirteen hours behind, I was scheduled for an interview that was 5 P.M. for them, but 6 A.M. for me. Did I ask to be rescheduled just so I didn’t have to wake up early? Of course not! If anything, the setup gave me a topic for small talk during the interview and actually helped calm my nerves.

2. Get comfortable answering common interview questions.

Practice them with a friend until you feel comfortable with your answers. Here’s an awesome article to get you started.

3. Familiarize yourself with the interview process specific to your industry.

Sometimes, you can even find interview questions for that company! For example, I was aware that interviews in software industry always involve the programming interview. To prep myself, I read Cracking the Coding Interview and brushed up on the concepts of the programming language that the position will be using the most. Of course this applies to every industry too. If you are applying for an editorial internship, make sure you know the history of the magazine, have an opinion on their most recent feature, etc. Just do a search, and the amount of information available on the internet will simply blow your mind away!

4. Interview with other companies.

Interviews aren’t like marriage proposals. You can have more than one.

Since the first time is always the scariest, having an interview before the big one will build up your confidence. This way, if you mess up big time, you will be able to pin point your weak spots and work on them before the interview that really counts.

I learned this the hard way. My first interview ever was with one of my big ones, and I literally had a brain dump during the interview. Afterwards, I had a “duh” moment, and I kicked myself for not being able to solve the problem better. Fortunately, it was not a total loss, and by the time another dream company interviewed me, armed with the lessons from my flopped one, I was able to ace the interview and got the internship of my dreams.

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Frances Advincula is a Computer Science major with specialization in Software Engineering. She has interned as a Platform Development Intern for Accenture Software. Being in an industry that is predominantly male, she is passionate about empowering women in every aspect of their lives.