I am always amazed at how little time and energy people who really truly desperately want to find a job put into getting ready for, when they finally get it, that one job Interview that will definitively determine whether they’re hired or not.

It’s as if they’ve suddenly become the legendary deer in the headlights of the truck that’s speeding down the road at them, waiting blindly for it to hit them.

Sure, they may look up the web site of the company, and maybe do some additional research by talking to friends or people in the industry. They review their resume and whatever correspondence they’ve had. They get their references together.

But, if you ask them a simple question like who they’ll be meeting with, how long the interview will last, what the interviewers titles are, and what steps this particular employer has set up to determine who is going to be hired, most of the time what you get is silence, a mumbled “I didn’t ask”, and a blank stare.

If you ask them about the financials of the company they’re interviewing with, you get an equally flustered look. Being pro-active, being fully “prepared” seems to be a new concept, for some odd reason.

Needless to say what I’m seeing here is at best a very sloppy approach. It’s equivalent to “winging it.”

The expectation behind all this, which is completely unrealistic, is that since they have worked in their field for x number of years and are so “good” at what they’ve done, this particular employer will fall in love with them and naturally, without question, because of their innate goodness and winning personality, choose them over every other candidate.

In addition, the person to be interviewed rarely even thinks about the hard questions -- those terrible questions that you never want to face -- let alone the normal run-of-the-mill questions that are the staple of every interview. Rehearsal? Role-playing? Nah, never heard of that as a logical and preemptive way to level the playing field and increase the odds.

It’s either denial or ignorance. Maybe a combination of both. If you detect a hint of frustration on my part, it’s because many of the people I coach begin to worry about their upcoming interview after it’s been scheduled and when there’s very little time to do the proper things that go into preparation for it.

And the end result, if one isn’t prepared for that interview, is usually to walk away thinking that you’ve done wonderfully. So when the final verdict comes back, if someone else is chosen, the resultant fall into depression and resentment is steep and sharp.

So what can you do to prepare for an interview?

Here are some concrete steps you can take:

(1) Research the company thoroughly. Dig articles out of the files in the good old public library. Use the Encyclopedia of Associations to find a trade organization that covers your field; use Hoovers and any other industry listing resource guide. Use the Reference Librarian, who is one of the most underrated resources and completely free. Our hats are off to Resource Librarians!

(2) Use your network (assuming you have one) to find out everything you possibly can about the company, its competition, its track record, what kind of organization it represents itself to be.

(3) Sure, use the Internet and any on-line services you can get access to.

(4) Make sure you ask the person who asks you to come in for the interview such questions as -- who you’ll be meeting with, what their titles are, how long the interview is expected to last, whether there will be a follow-up interview for the successful candidate(s), if more than one interview is scheduled.This is so you can tell what kind of interview it is and plan accordingly. A screening interview is different from a one-on-one interview with the hiring manager and is very different from a group interview with peers, the hiring manager and the manager’s manger. Ask if you need to bring any materials with you (writing samples, copies of ads, planning documents, etc.) Ask if you will be tested, as happens in some companies.

(5) Lay out all of those questions that you don’t want to be asked. For example, if you were fired from your last job, as opposed to having been laid off, pose that question, “What happened in your last job? Why did you leave your employer?” And work on an answer until it sounds right and makes sense. If you changed directions in terms of jobs, and it could be viewed as a weak spot, spend time strategizing how best to explain it when it comes up in an interview.

(6) Get a list of the normal questions people ask in interviews. Make it extensive. Review those questions and build good, short answers for all of them. (For example, “Tell me about your last job – what did you enjoy most about it?”) Do a good thorough job of this.

(7) Practice with someone else. Writing answers is different from answering questions in an interview in a live situation when you’re under the gun. Spend time doing the practice with a “buddy” or coach answering both the normal questions and those that you really don’t want them to ask.

(8) Try to transport yourself into the mind of the person doing the hiring, to understand where they’re coming from and why they need that particular job filled, what their problems are, how they picture it being filled. Not easy to do but worth some soul-searching, worth a trip in inner space.

(9) Adopt an attitude