Five with Fry

15: Secure the Damn Job - Part #3: Master Your Interview

• Dr. Jen Fry • Season 1 • Episode 15

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Welcome to Secure the Damn Job, a special series on Five with Fry where I break down what actually works when you're applying for jobs. Sponsored by Hyreable (the career development wing of JenFryTalks), this three-part series covers cover letters, resumes, and interviews with real talk, real strategy, and zero fluff. Whether you're making a career move or entering the workforce, I’m here to help you show up strong and get hired.

We’ve covered cover letters. We’ve fixed your resume. Now it’s time to tackle the part that makes most folks sweat: the interview.

In this final episode of the series, I’m walking you through five key strategies to help you prep with confidence and actually show up ready. From “Tell me about yourself” to “Why do you want this job?”...we’re not winging it. We’re walking in with a plan.

Here’s what we’re digging into:

  • Why saving the job description is one of the smartest prep moves you can make
  • How to research a company without sounding like you copied their About page
  • What to say when they hit you with “Tell me about yourself” (and where not to start)
  • How to connect your experience to their needs with a clear, tailored response to “Why do you want this job?”
  • And how to prep answers for predictable questions like strengths, weaknesses, and past mistakes—without rambling or blacking out mid-sentence

This episode is all about helping you show up ready to speak with clarity, confidence, and purpose—so you don’t leave the interview wondering what the hell just happened.

Ready to turn awkward interviews into offer letters? Hit play now.

Need some extra help with your resume, cover letter, or interview prep? Head over to Hyreable to work with me directly—and let’s secure the damn job.

Dr. Jen Fry:

Friends, welcome to Five with Fry, where five is the magic number, whether it's five minutes, five questions or anything that fits in five. I dive into the big topics that matter, sometimes alone and other times with a friend. From navigating sports conflict to family dynamics, travel, tech, hard-hitting issues and even politics Nothing and I mean nothing's off the table. This is where curiosity meets conversation, and we always sit at an intersection. I'm your host, dr Jen Fry of Jen Fry Talks. Let's get into it. Welcome to the newest episode of Five with Fry.

Dr. Jen Fry:

This is the third installment in our series entitled Secure the Damn Job. This series is sponsored by Hireable, the career development wing of Jen Fry Talks. At Hireable, we help people with resumes, cover letters and interview prep. If you're interested, head over to hireableco that's H-Y-R-E-A-B-L-Eco to grab the service you need. We are all about helping you secure the damn job and in this final installment we chat about interview prep. In the first installment we chatted about cover letters. In the first installment we chatted about cover letters. In the second installment we talked about resumes and in this one we are talking about interview prep. So y'all get your paper and pen because you're about to take notes and get taken to school. So we're going to go over five different things to help you secure the damn job. We're going to go over five different things to help you secure the damn job. So the first thing I want us to remember is to save the job description. What I see people screw up with job interviews is that they forgot to save the job description. They can't find it. They're freaking out because they need it to be able to talk about themselves and their skills and their experience related to the job description. But once the job is closed, people pull it off, and so the first thing to do is, whenever you apply for things, save the job description. That way, once you get that email or call, you can then go back to that job description and do all the prep to make sure that you can secure it.

Dr. Jen Fry:

The second thing is is that you need to do research on the company, the job. There are so many methods out there to do research. Make sure you do your research, because the one thing you don't want is them to ask you a question about something that is glaringly obvious that they went through, that they're doing that's a part of their strategic plan and you just don't have a clue. So make sure you do your research. It's very critical that you have just notes on the research. It's better safe than sorry to say, well, I don't know. I've heard about this company before. It's a big name. No, you don't want that. Make sure you do your research.

Dr. Jen Fry:

The third thing is that we want to make sure that you have a great answer to the. So tell me about yourself. And we don't want this question to catch you, because what happens is you answer it badly and you know you answered it badly and it's in your head the whole time. You're answering the other questions and you're internally freaking out. You're potentially rambling and it's over. You might even have like some mustache sweat. So we don't want that.

Dr. Jen Fry:

So the question of tell me about yourself you should understand per the job, where you wanna start your life. Don't be starting your life from birth. Depending on the job you might. If it's an alma mater, you might start at when you went to school there. You might start it after you graduated. So the real tell you about, tell them about you. You have to be thoughtful and where you're starting it and have it written down. There's nothing wrong with having notes. Have it written down, bullet points that you want to make sure you hit on. Keep it succinct. If you feel yourself rambling, just stop talking. Just stop talking. No one does well trying to ramble themselves out of a rambling, so just stop talking. But make sure that you understand where you're starting to tell me about you, what are the points that you need to hit on and where you're going to end. Practice this a million times, because so many times I've seen people get stuck on it, like I said internally, freak out and then they're done. The rest of the interview and the job was theirs. They just didn't know how to answer this question. So write it down, talk to people about it, practice, practice, practice.

Dr. Jen Fry:

The fourth thing is the why do you want this job? This is also why people fail because they don't think about it. You want to tie in your skills, experience and why you want this job, and so it could be something of you know. I saw on your website that you have a strategic initiative to do XYZ within XYZ years, and for my previous jobs, I knew I would be a perfect fit because I have experience in the X, y, z. Or it could be that this is a new position and I have always excelled in new positions. From my experience at ABC one, two, three and so because of that I knew that this type of position I would do well in because I've done it before, that could be it. But have a reason of why you want the job. Maybe I know we all want it because we want to pay the bills and travel. I get that. But that can't be your answer. You need to have a well thought out. Why do you want this job? So that they know you've researched the institution, you have been thoughtful about the job description and you see where your skills and experience tie into it.

Dr. Jen Fry:

And then the fifth one is no rambling Y'all be taking them on a trip to Morocco and they don't need you to take them there. This is why everything you should have written down two or three points, succinct points. You hit them and you're done. You don't have to tell long stories, you don't have to get them involved in really thinking about what you're talking about. No, you need to answer the questions succinctly so that you don't waste a lot of time and they can move on or they can ask follow-up questions. So really making sure for you know that there's usually going to be four or five questions that they ask.

Dr. Jen Fry:

Tell me about yourself. Why do you want this job? Talk to me about your strengths and weaknesses. Tell me a time about when you made a mistake. You know that there's gonna be these normal questions that they ask, so have well thought out, prepared answers for them. You thinking in the moment of your answer is only gonna make it your rambling star, and we don't need you being a rambling star. So, again, the five things I need you to think about are research, save the job description. Be able to answer. Why do you want this job? Be able to answer, tell me about yourself and limit the rambling. Those are the things that are are gonna make you very successful in your job interview and those are the where, the areas where I've seen people completely crash out and they have the the people interviewing leaving the interview like what the hell just happened. So those are my five tips for you to kill the job interview and get the damn job. We hope that this last installment on interview prep helped you gain the knowledge you need to secure the damn job and if you feel like you still need a little bit of extra help, head over to hireableco so you can grab the service you need so we can get you all tied up in a bow and securing the damn job and making the money that you deserve.

Dr. Jen Fry:

Well, friends, that's it for this episode of Five with Fry your dose of five insights, ideas and inspiration. If you love what you heard, don't forget to head over to where podcasts are played subscribe, share and leave a review. Got a topic you want us to tackle? Drop us a message. We'd love to hear from you. You can come follow me on IG, twitter, the TikTok at Jen Fry Talks, or join me on LinkedIn. Look for me at Dr Jen Fry. Until next time, stay curious, stay bold and keep the conversation going. See you on the next Five with Fry.