When you're on a job search, time takes on a strange quality. Afternoons spent searching for suitable job openings can feel like eternity, but somehow the first of the month, when the bills are due, seems to come around awfully quickly.

When you get a job interview, it's a big occasion. You can say to yourself "It's no big deal, it's just another job interview" but it's hard to keep your cool as the big day approaches.

You want to believe that any given interview doesn't matter all that much, but your bank account is shrinking. Wouldn't it be wonderful if this were the job you've been waiting for, and wouldn't it be fabulous and life-saving to get the offer?

No wonder people tense up before job interviews. When you need a job, every interview feels like a chance at salvation.

There are two elements that will help you walk into a job interview feeling ready to rock it. The first is preparation before the interview date, and the second is a set of techniques for the interview day itself. Let's start with your advance preparation.

Let's Talk About Pain

If there weren't any business pain, there wouldn't be a job opportunity. Behind every interview there's at least one painful and expensive problem plaguing the organization that's interviewing you, or they'd never take the time to meet you.

Luckily for Mojofied Job Seekers, business pain is everywhere. Companies lose customers. They have trouble getting new products to market. Their marketing efforts fall flat. Expenses climb out of control.

There's business pain everywhere! Whether an organization is growing or shrinking, they've got pain. It's an unavoidable consequence of doing business.

Your job on a job interview is not to sit in your chair like a docile little mouse, answering questions the way children do in school. Your job is to dig in with your hiring manager and learn as much as you can about the business pain behind the job ad. The more preparation you can do ahead of time, the easier your task will be in the interview.

How can you learn about the business pain that's keeping your hiring manager up at night?

Start with the organization's own website. How old are they, and how large? Check out their press releases and other announcements. Read the leadership team bios. Where do these folks come from, and how long have they been with the firm?

Is the company a lumbering giant that needs to wake up and smell the new-millennium competitive coffee, or a ready-fire-aim startup that could benefit from a little more process and altitude?

The company's own website will fill in lots of gaps in your knowledge base (and if there is no website or a shoddy one in need of an overhaul, that should be duly noted).

Make a Hypothesis

When you get the call or email message inviting you for a job interview, don't reply to it with "Sure! Great!" Do reply to the interview request, but ask a few questions of your own. You want to know who you'll be meeting with, for how long, and the title of each of your interviewers.

If the recruiter really doesn't know (some employers invite candidates in for interviews before they know which team members will be doing the interviewing) ask about the cast of interviewers as soon as you get to the building.

Bring a notepad with you, and write down the list of interviewers you'll be meeting and each person's role in the organization. Even a few minutes to think about each interviewer's most likely priorities, based on his or her position, will help you tremendously.

Focus your Pain Hypothesis on your hiring manager. What is the most likely reason this job opening was approved and this manager is willing to talk with you today? What's not working right, thus costing the company money and time?

If you walk into an interview with a Pain Hypothesis, you can quickly get the manager off the track "So, tell me about a time when you..." and onto more solid, fruitful ground talking about Business Pain and remedies.

Examples of Pain Hypotheses

If the job opening is the first-ever Customer Support Manager for a $10M pet neutraceuticals maker, what's your Pain Hypothesis? A solid guess is that customer service is horrendous and customers are leaving because of it. Who ever created a Customer Support Manager position for any other reason?

You're interviewing for an Administrative Assistant role for the VP of HR in a regional grocery store chain. Grocery stores have razor-thin margins, and they throw around salary nickels like manhole covers, especially for staff jobs like HR. Why would they get the HR VP her own admin assistant? They have to - there are 8,000 employees with needs and only one VP and two roving HR teammates to serve all of them. Too many employees, too many issues and too few HR folks to go around. Voila - business pain!

What if you're pursuing a Consulting Software Engineer position with an ERP implementation firm? Their pain most likely concerns integration of the big, cumbersome ERP application they're hired to install and the client's own systems. Nobody wants to tell the clients that they can't have the newest, shiniest features because they're using Mad Men-era systems, so they're hiring you to make everything work flawlessly together or at least make it seem that way. On the interview, focus on the pain -- the fact that projects are going too slowly, customers aren't happy about the results or the cost, and the delays are damaging the company's reputation.

Hypothesis? Check! Next: Questions

Once you've got a Pain Hypothesis, you can broaden your research to learn more about the organization. Who are its customers, and what are they buying? Who are the organization's competitors? Check out your company's LinkedIn Company page, and follow its Twitter stream to see what they consider important to their followers.

Google the organization's name (using both the Search and News options) to see who's saying what about the company, from customers to stock market analysts. Jump over to Glassdoor to see what current and former employees have to say, also.

If your hiring manager has his or her own blog or Twitter account, follow that too!

You want to learn about the company's business, history and culture not so that you can win brownie points at the interview, but so that you can imagine the types of issues and situations that will face you if you take this job. The more you know, the more intelligent the questions you'll be able to ask at the interview.

Here are ten things to learn about your possible next employer before you show up to meet them:

When and why the organization was founded

Who's running the company now, and their history

What products or services the organization provides to whom (who are the customers?) and at what annual sales volume

What have they done that was worthy of a press release, in the past year?

Who is your prospective boss? What is his or her background? How long has s/he been in this role?

What is the average cost of this organization's products or services? What sorts of organizations make up its customer list, or does the organization sell to consumers?

Is the company privately or publicly held?

What kinds of community/diversity/socially responsible/earth-aware initiatives does the company champion? You'll learn about them on the firm's own website.

What can you learn from the outside about the company culture? A website speaks volumes, and so do the employees' LinkedIn profiles.

What awards, commendations or industry rankings has the organization earned? You'll find press releases noting those accomplishments on the company's website.

Here's a list of interview questions our clients have used with great success - choose the ones you like best!

Interview Day

If you've never been to the interview location before, make a test drive (or bus or train ride) a day or two before. Don't take a chance on unfamiliar highways or bus drivers and potentially get there late.

Get a good night's sleep the night before, and schedule something fun and rewarding to do after the interview, like a tasty post-interview gelato. You're likely to be mentally and physically spent after the interview, so don't schedule anything demanding on the same day.

Your physical preparation for the interview is absolutely critical. Run, jump or dance in your pjs before you get dressed for the interview to get rid of jitters and take yourself out of your stress-prone, calculating mind.

Listen to your favorite soothing music in the car or on the bus to the interview. You've got fantastic questions, you've done your research, and you are a superstar these guys will be lucky to snag. Say these words to yourself in front of your mirror:

I will get this job if it's the right job for me.

I'm more than qualified for this job, and I don't need to beg.

My intention is to stay open and curious today. Whatever happens at the interview is a good thing. I'm not going on this interview to impress anyone, but rather to meet new people and start a conversation.

I'm going on this interview as myself and no one else. Only the people who get me, deserve me!

Get the list of interview questions here, and go out there and knock 'em dead!

INTERVIEWING WITH MOJO, a 12-week virtual coaching group

Here (to the left) is the Roadmap for our 12-week virtual coaching group Interviewing with MOJO. The group starts on January 25, 2014 and continues for 12 weeks. You'll receive a new lesson every Saturday and work on it at your own pace, asking questions of our coaches whenever you like.

Learn how to interview with MOJO and get a great job that deserves you!

LEARN MORE about Interviewing with MOJO!