By T.J. DeGroat

Do you spend hours agonizing over what to wear to the next big interview? Worried about how to look young and funky without coming off as immature? Well, stop staring at your reflection and start practicing your handshake, suggests Chandra Czape, founder of Ed2010, a networking group for aspiring senior-level magazine editors. Czape, deputy editor of CosmoGIRL!, says she’s shocked by how unprepared most job seekers are. Here are a few tips that are sure to help you impress future interviewers.

Give yourself a hand. Perhaps the most important part of a job interview is the handshake, Czape says. “If somebody shakes my hand [and it feels] like a dead fish, the whole time during interview, even if I love their personality, I’m thinking, ‘So why don’t they have the confidence to have a great handshake?’” she adds. Conversely, those who exude confidence through a firm handshake sometimes are given the benefit of the doubt when other areas are weak. “I had one girl who was a really terrible interview but she had a really good handshake. So I kept thinking, ‘She’s gotta have it in there somewhere,’” Czape says.

Czape estimates that more than half of the people she has interviewed have had terrible handshakes. “It really does matter,” she says. “It matters more than what you wear. It almost matters more than what you say because it’s the first impression of you that I have.”

Just because you’re out of college doesn’t mean you can stop doing your homework. Read up on the publication or company so you can make thoughtful suggestions when your interviewer asks the dreaded question: “What would you do to improve our product?”

Accentuate the positive. Don’t say: “Well, if I were in charge, I would get rid of the health stories. They’re quite boring.” Do say: “I love the financial section. It’s full of easy-to-understand information for young people. It would be great if you could expand it.”

Drop the attitude. “Recent grads need to realize that there’s a lot of competition and they need to really make themselves look enthusiastic and push for the job instead of sitting there like, ‘You’d be lucky to hire me,’” Czape says. “I think there’s a lot of arrogance. It surprises me how many people are just positive they’re going to have no problem getting a job. But you have to realize that you need to impress the company, not the other way around.”

Internships aren’t just for college students. Especially in creative fields, you need practical experience before you’ll land an entry-level job. If you didn’t spend your summer vacations filing paperwork and making runs to Starbucks for industry bigwigs, don’t hesitate to apply for internships now. If you can’t afford to work for free, try to balance a part-time, non-paying internship with a part-time job.

Ask questions. Few things make a job applicant look less professional than not having any questions to ask the interviewer. In the magazine industry, informational interviews give aspiring staffers a chance to pick an editor’s brain. But don’t expect the editor to do all the work, Czape advises. “I’m a pretty chatty person, so I’ll tell them a few things first, but when people expect me to just tell them everything, I’m dumbfounded,” she says. “If you don’t have questions, you’re saying you’re not interested, so I’m never gonna recommend you for a position.”

Never burn a bridge. When you envision the magazine industry, think about high school. Everybody knows everybody and they all love to talk smack. “I don’t think [newcomers] realize how small this industry is,” Czape says. “You think of New York as this huge place and so many magazines. You don’t think it’s possible that all those people could possibly know each other. But they do. It is really like high school … once you get to your second or third job, you realize that.”