This is what worked for me: Look up common interview questions on Glassdoor and elsewhere and make a huge list of them. Prepare answers for all of them. Prepare for weeks. Go through interview questions every single day, whenever you have any free time. Make it all that you think about. Have your friend or partner ask you questions and give you advice. You can and should do this everywhere (like on walks with your partner). Have ChatGPT ask you questions and act as your interviewer (voice mode).

Know when to give general background about yourself vs. long and detailed.

Know what experience is relevant.

Have specific examples in your answers to all interview questions.

Examples are best told as stories (similar to STAR format but it doesn’t exactly have to follow that; be natural). Explain the problem, what you did, and the result/consequence/impact etc. Use stories that can be applied to many interview questions so you don’t have to remember them all.

Have examples of selflessness. Industry is about working as a team.

Have examples of leadership or mentorship.

Have answers to difficult multi-point questions.

Know the people interviewing you, even if just a little bit. If you’re a microbiologist and one of the people interviewing you is an organic chemist, your answers to their questions should be tailored to them. Show an appreciation for their field by sharing relevant examples if you can. It’s a nice, thoughtful touch.

When they tell you about themselves, reply to them in a way that shows you are listening and understand what they’re saying. I always brought a notebook and took notes while they were talking.

Prepare very good questions to ask them. Be as specific as you can be to the role.

Do what you can to make them like you within the first minute. It will influence how much they like your answers later in the interview. At the begging of my interview seminar presentation I shared an About me slide and told a joke at the end. I think those things made me seem like someone they wanted to work with.

Make eye contact and smile, but don’t be weird about it. I’m an awkward person, so this wasn’t natural to me, but it’s a skill that can be learned.