Stephen Cheng

1) Research the company before your interview.
With the Internet, there's really no excuse for not knowing about your target company. How much time you spend on this depends on how badly you want the job.

2) Research your position before your interview.
This is particularly important for first time job seekers because they usually don't have the experience or network to know much about the position and what it entails. Again, with the Internet, there's no shortage of content out there. Even if you don't have the practical experience, just showing that you understand the bigger concepts of the role and that you were willing to learn it on your own will be a definite plus.

3) How are *you* going to provide value to the company?
If you understand the company's needs and understand the position's needs, then you should be able to follow it up with an action plan of what you would do in the role. Don't say you're smart and creative; prove it by laying out specific actions you would take. It doesn't matter so much if your actions are the "best", but it does show that you're willing to research a problem and how you think....