How to Actually Prepare for Interviews in this Brutal Job Market of 2025?

Let’s skip the motivational fluff: the job market right now is unforgiving. If you’re sending out resumes, prepping for interviews, or just trying to hang onto optimism, you already know this.

You’ve probably heard the statistics. Hundreds of applications for one role. Ghosting after final rounds. Positions filled internally before they were even publicly listed. It’s exhausting, demoralizing, and unfortunately very real.

So the question isn’t just “How do I ace an interview?” It’s “How do I walk into one with real preparation, a strategy, and a shot at actually standing out?”

If you're reading this, you're probably past the résumé phase and deep into the part that really matters: sitting across from someone who decides your fate in 30 to 45 minutes. Here's how to show up for that moment, especially when the system is stacked to make you feel like a commodity.

Most people prep for interviews like it’s an exam. They memorize common questions, practice answers in the mirror, and come up with clever ways to talk about their weaknesses.

That’s not preparation. That’s performance. And good interviewers can tell.

Real prep is less about memorizing answers and more about building fluency. You should know your own story cold — not just where you worked, but what you actually did there. The problems you solved. The conflicts you managed. The weird little skills you picked up along the way that no one else has.

One of the best ways to build this fluency is by practicing with friction. Not with a script. With structure.

More on that in a moment.

This is hard to hear, especially if you’re desperate to prove yourself. But in most interviews, your job isn’t to talk about you. Not right away.

It’s to make the interviewer feel like you understand them. The company. The team. The role. The problems they’re facing.

Before any interview, ask yourself this: if you had to pitch them to someone else, could you do it? Could you explain what this company does, how it makes money, what the team probably cares about?

If you can’t, you’re not ready to walk into the room.

Because here’s the truth: the people hiring you are rarely thinking “Who is the most amazing candidate?” They’re thinking “Who’s going to make my life easier?” That’s the bar. Meet it.

Here’s where most prep breaks down. People try to cram answers into STAR formats and memorize impressive bullet points from their résumé. It ends up sounding like a TED Talk on autopilot.

What you need is a real framework — something flexible you can use to organize your thinking on the fly.

A 30-60-90 Day Plan is one of the best tools for this. Even if the interviewer doesn’t ask about it directly, thinking through it in advance shows maturity, strategy, and initiative.

Here’s how to approach it:

• First 30 Days: What would you learn, observe, absorb? What systems would you get familiar with? What would success look like at the end of week four?

• Next 30 (Days 31-60): Where would you start to contribute? What problems would you help solve? Which projects would you ask to take on?

• Final 30 (Days 61-90): How would you level up? Would you be optimizing workflows? Leading meetings? Owning deliverables? Mentoring someone junior?

A hiring manager once told me: “The second someone says, ‘In my first 30 days I’d ask to shadow your top performers and take notes on what’s already working,’ I know I’m not wasting my time.”

That kind of response doesn’t come from luck. It comes from preparation.

Earlier this year, I spoke with a woman named Shanice. Former nonprofit manager. Switched to tech ops during the pandemic. Laid off in 2023. Spent five months applying to everything from strategy roles to office admin, just to keep moving.

She’d been ghosted in final rounds three times.

At some point, Shanice got tired of prepping alone. She found this app — InterviewPal, I think it was — and used it to simulate interviews based on the role she was applying to. It wasn’t perfect. It was a little robotic sometimes. But it gave her structure.

She told me, “It forced me to say things out loud that I was only thinking about. And then I could spot what made sense and what was just filler.”

The real shift happened when she started recording herself, rewatching her responses, and asking: Would I hire this person? Would I trust them?

That’s what made the difference. Not the app. Not the mock questions. The mindset.

Two weeks later, she got a job offer.

There are questions that come up again and again. But don’t just prepare answers. Prepare entry points — short, clear ways to get into stories you can adapt based on tone and timing.

Here are three examples.

1. "Walk me through your résumé."
   Not your whole life story. Give them the plotline. Roles, transitions, and why each one happened. Make it easy to follow.

2. "Tell me about a challenge you faced."
   Pick something with stakes. Conflict with a client. Broken process. A budget cut. Don’t be afraid to show what went wrong. Just show how you handled it.

3. "Where do you see yourself in five years?"
   Keep it grounded. No need to say CEO. Most managers just want to know you’re not flighty or chasing trends.

If you’ve done the prep, you’ll never be caught off guard. Because you won’t be memorizing — you’ll be ready.

Not every interview will go your way. Some will be awkward. Some will be cut short. Some will be with people who already have someone in mind. That’s the game.

Your job is to control the controllables.

• Know your story.

• Know the company.

• Practice out loud.

• Use frameworks like the 30-60-90 Day Plan.

• Don’t wing anything.

• Follow up with precision and professionalism.

And most importantly, don’t take silence as a verdict on your worth. Take it as data. Learn. Adjust. Keep going.

The market is rough. Anyone who tells you otherwise isn’t paying attention.

But brutal markets create sharp candidates. If you’re still standing, still applying, still showing up — that says something. And someone out there needs what you bring.

Make sure you know what that is. And make sure you’re ready to explain it like someone who’s done the work.

Because when you are, it shows.