Interview performance is mostly decided before the interview starts. Candidates who prepare a small set of specific things outperform candidates who reread their resume for two hours. This checklist covers the four areas that actually move the needle — research, stories, questions, and logistics — with a realistic 90-minute night-before routine.

Research: 30 minutes, four questions

You are not writing a report. You need working answers to four questions:

• What does the company sell, and to whom? Be able to explain it in one sentence a stranger would understand.
• What changed recently? A launch, a funding round, an expansion, a leadership change. One recent fact signals genuine interest.
• What does this role exist to fix? Reread the job description and underline the three responsibilities repeated or listed first. That is the real job.
• Who will you meet? Look up each interviewer’s role. A hiring manager probes ownership; a peer probes collaboration; an executive probes judgment.

Story bank: 40 minutes, six stories

Most behavioral questions are the same six questions wearing different clothes. Prepare one true story for each, in rough STAR shape (situation, task, action, result):

1. A result you are proud of, with a number.
2. A conflict or disagreement you worked through.
3. A failure or mistake and what changed after it.
4. A time you influenced without authority.
5. A time you handled ambiguity or shifting priorities.
6. A time you learned something hard, fast.

Say each one out loud once. Aim for 90 seconds per story. If a story runs three minutes, cut context, keep actions and results.

Questions to ask: 10 minutes, pick three

Your questions are evaluated too. Prepare three that show you think about the work, not the perks:

• “What would the person in this role need to accomplish in the first six months for you to call the hire a success?”
• “What is the hardest part of this job that the description doesn’t capture?”
• “How does the team make decisions when people disagree?”
• “What separates the people who do well here from the people who don’t?”

Skip questions answered on the company website. Never open with compensation in a first round — raise it when they signal process next-steps, or when asked directly.

Logistics: 10 minutes, zero surprises

• Confirm the time in your time zone. Reread the invite; do not trust memory.
• Test the video link, camera, and microphone. Restart your machine if it has been on for days.
• Prepare a quiet space and tell anyone around you when you are unavailable.
• Have water, a notebook, the job description, and your resume within reach — printed or on a second screen.
• Plan to join two or three minutes early. For on-site interviews, plan to arrive fifteen minutes early and know exactly where you are going.
• Have the recruiter’s contact ready in case something breaks.

The morning of

• Reread your six stories once. Do not write new ones.
• Reread the job description once.
• Eat something. Interviews on an empty stomach feel twice as long.

Preparation does not remove nerves — it makes nerves irrelevant. When your stories are ready and the logistics are handled, all that is left to do is have a conversation about work you know well.