The first F2F interview

gbublick

May 3, 2023

4 min read

Updated: Aug 3

Congrats, You Made It to the Second Round!

You passed the screening call. Now comes the face-to-face. Here's how to walk in prepared instead of panicked.

Before You Walk In

Arrive on time — not early. Ten minutes before is the sweet spot. Show up half an hour early and you'll end up sitting awkwardly in a lobby while your interviewer, who is booked back-to-back, feels quietly pressured to come get you.

Double-check the format.

Confusing a Zoom interview with an in-person one is a real and very avoidable disaster.

Read the invitation carefully — the location, the floor, the building, the person's name.

Sort out the logistics the night before.

Where's the parking? Is there a security desk that needs your ID? How long is the walk from the train? Israeli tech offices are often in towers with lobby security, and "I couldn't find the entrance" is not the first impression you want.

Bring a printed copy of your CV. Two, you might meet more than one person. Nobody will mind that you have one; plenty of interviewers will be glad you did.

Look presentable. Israeli tech is relaxed — you don't need a suit, and showing up in one may actually make you look like you don't know the industry. But relaxed isn't the beach. Clean, neat, put-together. When in doubt, one notch above what you'd wear on a normal day at that office.

Be nice to everyone—the person at reception, whoever you share the elevator with, the person who offers you water. First impressions matter, and they get shared afterward more often than you'd think.

How to Prepare: Research Without Being Creepy

The goal is to find a few things you can bring up naturally — not to recite someone's life story back to them.

Look up your interviewer. LinkedIn first, then a general Google search. Where did they work before? Did they study somewhere you know? Have they posted about something you actually have an opinion on? If you find something personal on Instagram or Facebook, that's a signal about what they care about — it is not material for the conversation.

Research the company properly. The mission statement, the product, the culture, funding rounds and investors, recent press, awards, events they've sponsored. If they raised a Series B two months ago, knowing that tells them you did more than skim the homepage.

Know who runs the place. You don't need to memorize the whole org chart, but know the CEO and the co-founders by name and face.

I once had an interview with HR, and as we sat down, she mentioned we'd just walked past the CEO. I said, "Yes, I know." She asked how — and I told her I'd researched the company before coming in. She was genuinely impressed.

Reread the job description and use its language. If the posting says "cross-functional collaboration," say "cross-functional collaboration." Recruiters are matching what you say against what they wrote.

Sort out the language question in advance. If you're not sure whether the interview will be in Hebrew or English, ask the recruiter — it's a completely normal question and much better than finding out in the room.

If it's in Hebrew and you're still building confidence, practice out loud beforehand: your two-minute intro, your reason for leaving your last job, and the vocabulary specific to your field.

Be yourself. You're going to work with these people. Performing a version of yourself for an hour is exhausting, transparent, and unsustainable for the next three years.

Yes, Use AI to Prep

I'm not joking. ChatGPT, Claude, whatever you use — they're excellent prep partners. Ask things like:

What do you know about the CEO of [company]?
Why is [company] called [company]?
Explain what [company] does as if I were five years old.
Who are [company]'s competitors?
Why would someone choose [company] over its competitors?
What's the professional background of [interviewer's name]?
Ask me ten interview questions for a [role] position, then critique my answers.

One important caveat: AI tools get details wrong, especially about smaller companies and individual people. Verify anything you plan to say out loud against the company's own website, LinkedIn, or a news article. Confidently stating a wrong fact about the company is worse than not knowing it at all.

Questions They'll Probably Ask You

Tell me about yourself.
Why did you leave your last job?
What was the hardest part of your role as [X]?
What are your strengths and weaknesses?
Why have you changed jobs so often? — Never badmouth a previous employer. Ever. Frame it around what you were looking for next.
Tell me about a time you handled a difficult situation at work.
Tell me about a time you performed well under pressure.

For the "tell me about a time" questions, structure your answer: the situation, what you did, and how it turned out. Have two or three real examples ready before you walk in so you're not improvising.

Questions You Should Ask Them

Near the end, they'll ask if you have questions. Always have some. "No, I think you covered everything" reads as indifference.

Can you tell me about the team I'd be working with? (Signals that you think in terms of the team, not just the job.)
What do you enjoy about working here?
Is this a new role, or am I replacing someone who's leaving?
What would success in this role look like in the first six months?
What are the next steps in the process, and when should I expect to hear back? (Ask this one every single time — it tells you whether to keep applying elsewhere or sit tight.)

After the Interview

Thank them for their time before you leave the room.

Then send a follow-up email within 24 hours.

Keep it short: thank them for meeting, mention one specific thing from the conversation you found interesting, and say you're looking forward to hearing back. Three or four sentences is plenty.

Good luck — and remember that they invited you back. They already think you might be the one.