March 23, 2025

How Much Are People Really Preparing for Interviews?

How Much Are People Really Preparing for Interviews?

From the outside, it might look like job seekers are casually sending out resumes and hoping for the best. In reality, most candidates are putting in significant effort — often spread across many different activities.

What Job Seekers Are Actually Doing

Research shows that active job seekers:

  • Apply to dozens of roles over the course of a search

  • Spend hours each week tailoring resumes and LinkedIn profiles

  • Track applications, referrals, and follow-ups in spreadsheets or tools

  • Research companies, roles, and interview questions in advance

On average, candidates submit around 15–20 applications per week during an active search, which reflects sustained effort over time — not a passive process.

In other words: people are preparing. They’re investing time, energy, and attention.

Where Preparation Often Falls Short

Most of that effort happens before the interview:

  • Resume tweaks

  • Keyword optimization

  • Researching common questions

  • Writing bullet-point answers

What’s less common — and harder to do — is practicing the interview itself.

Many candidates:

  • Rehearse silently instead of speaking out loud

  • Practice answers once or twice, not repeatedly

  • Don’t simulate follow-up questions or pressure

  • Go into interviews without testing how their answers actually sound

So while preparation volume is high, interview-specific preparation is often shallow — not because people don’t care, but because realistic practice is hard to access.

Why Interview Practice Changes Performance

Interviews are a performance skill. Knowing your experience isn’t the same as explaining it clearly, concisely, and confidently in real time.

Practicing interviews helps candidates:

  • Organize answers more naturally

  • Reduce rambling under pressure

  • Handle follow-up questions without freezing

  • Build confidence through repetition, not guesswork

This is where effort turns into results.

Where Get Picked Fits

Get Picked is designed to match the level of effort job seekers are already putting in — and direct it where it matters most. By giving candidates a realistic way to practice interviews out loud, with follow-ups and feedback, it helps turn preparation into stronger performance when the real conversation happens.

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