Most advice tells you what a good candidate looks like. This is a working console: set your interview, run the checklist, drill your answers out loud against a clock, and walk in already warmed up.
Split by when it actually needs doing — the night before, the morning of, and the ninety seconds at the door. Check things off as you go; it's saved locally so you can close this and come back.
Hiring managers report forming a hire/no-hire instinct fast — and it's shaped less by your answers than by what happens before you speak. The breakdown, and the specific missteps that tank it.
The behavioral questions — the challenge you faced, the thing you're proud of, how you prioritize — all reward the same shape: Situation, Task, Action, Result. Pick a question and fill in the frame; it assembles a working draft you can rehearse.
Focus less on the problem, more on how you handled it — that's what shows how you think under pressure.
Say your answer out loud, against a clock, before the real thing does it for you. Sixty seconds per question — long enough for substance, short enough to force you to cut the rambling.
Tap a card to see why it works, or what it accidentally signals. Then build one that only makes sense at this specific company.
The last ninety seconds carry disproportionate weight — recency does real work on memory. Two moves, memorized so you're not fumbling for words while you're already halfway out the door.
"Is there any part of my background I can elaborate on for you?"
Gives them a last chance to voice a doubt while you're still in the room to answer it — instead of it quietly deciding things after you've left.
"Thanks for the time today — based on our conversation, I'm genuinely interested. What are the next steps?"
Don't leave your interest implied. Naming it, and asking directly for what happens next, is the difference between a polite exit and a candidate who wants the job.