Most "what to bring to an interview" articles are still written for 2005. Hard copies of your CV, a portfolio printed in a leather folder, three pens. By the time you've packed all of that, you've spent more energy on the bag than on the actual interview prep.

The truth is the right list depends on three things: where the interview is happening, what role you're going for, and how senior you are. Below is what's actually useful in each scenario, plus the things you should stop bothering with.

The bare minimum, every interview

Whether it's in person or on Zoom, two items are non-negotiable:

1. A phone with the interview details open. The address, the meeting link, the recruiter's mobile number, and the names of who you're meeting. Screenshots in case you lose signal. Calendar event with travel time built in.
2. A short cheat sheet you wrote yourself. Three bullet points: the job's most important responsibility, the one question you want answered before you'd say yes, and the two stories from your past you'll lean on if the conversation goes broad. One A5 page. Not a script.

That's the whole minimum. Everything else is situational.

In-person interview at the company's office

Add to the above:

• Two printed copies of your CV. Not because anyone asked. Because in 30 percent of interviews someone will glance at the page in front of them and you want it to be the latest version — not whatever a recruiter forwarded three weeks ago. Print them clean: white paper, single-sided, no staples.
• A small notebook and a pen that works. Take notes during the interview. It signals attention and gives you something to do with your hands. A used notebook (clearly mid-project) reads better than a pristine one bought that morning — it makes the gesture look real.
• Water bottle. Reusable, sealed. Nothing kills momentum like coughing through a panel question.
• A backup of your portfolio on a USB stick if you're in a field that has one (design, video, software with demos). If their wifi dies, you still ship.
• Photo ID. Most office buildings require it at reception. Yes, even the cool startup ones with the casual lobby.
• Cash or a transit card for the worst-case journey home. Phones die. Cards get declined. Doesn't matter often, but when it does you'll be glad.

What you carry it all in matters too. A small backpack or a structured shoulder bag is fine; a giant tote with your gym kit is not. Whatever you carry needs to fit under a chair without making noise, and not require you to spend two minutes unpacking the moment you sit down.

Video interview from home or a co-working space

The rules shift completely. The "bag" is now the room you're sitting in. What you need to have actually ready:

• The meeting link tested 20 minutes before. Open the platform, check your camera and mic, make sure the meeting room actually exists. If they sent a custom link you've never used before, plan to fail once and reload.
• Wired earbuds or headphones with a mic as a backup to whatever Bluetooth setup you usually use. Bluetooth dies at the worst times.
• A second device with the interview tab open. If your laptop crashes mid-call, you can rejoin from the phone within 60 seconds. This is the most underrated piece of insurance for remote interviews.
• Your cheat sheet on paper, not on screen. Glancing at a sticky note next to the camera reads as natural; glancing at a second monitor reads as reading.
• A glass of water in arm's reach but off camera. Reach for it during your own answers, not theirs.
• Camera at eye level. Stack books under the laptop until the lens is at your eye line. The default laptop angle (the camera looking up your nose) reads as low-status. This is the single biggest unforced error in video interviews.
• A clean background and one frontal light source. A lamp or window in front of you, not behind. Background — pick the wall least likely to have someone walk through it.

If you're at a co-working space, scout the room a day ahead and book a meeting room with a door that closes. Background noise reads as low-effort even when the company is the one that imposed the remote format.

On-site or whiteboard interview (engineering, design, product)

On top of the in-person essentials, three additions matter:

• Your laptop, fully charged, with your usual setup. If they let you use your own machine for live coding, take it. Your shortcuts, your editor configuration, your terminal. The cognitive tax of working on a strange machine is enormous and they're not testing for that.
• A charger for the laptop and one for the phone. Whole-day loops drain everything.
• A change of shirt if it's summer. Half a day of train, then nerves under a heat lamp, makes the afternoon round harder than it should be.
• Snacks that aren't crumbly or smelly. A protein bar in your pocket carries you between the 11am panel and the 2pm lunch you can't actually eat in front of the next interviewer.

Senior roles often have a final dinner. A breath mint or two before you arrive at the restaurant is not paranoid; it's just professional.

What to stop bringing

A few things show up on old lists that have aged badly:

• Cover letter printouts. Nobody re-reads cover letters during the interview. The recruiter has them on file. Print energy you save can go to the second CV copy.
• Reference letters. References get called at offer stage, not in the interview. Don't hand someone a reference letter unprompted; it reads as defensive.
• A leather folio with your name embossed. A nice notebook in a backpack does the same job without making you look like you ordered an interview kit.
• Three pens. Two pens, one of which is a backup, is plenty. Three feels like you're handing them out.
• A printed list of questions. Have your three questions in your head. Reading them off a page makes them feel rehearsed (because they are), and you'll miss the natural follow-up if you're focused on getting through your list.
• Anything that says you were nervous. Tissues stuffed in pockets, the inhaler in your hand, the rosary. Take what you need for your actual medical or personal reasons — but if it's a comfort prop, leave it.

The night-before checklist

Thirty minutes the night before saves an hour of panic the morning of:

1. Bag packed and by the door.
2. Outfit hung up; shoes near the bag.
3. Address typed into the maps app on your phone (test the route opens). For video, the meeting link bookmarked.
4. Two printed CVs in the bag, latest version. If your CV lives in Postulit or Notion, export a fresh PDF tonight — not in the morning when something will break.
5. Phone fully charged; if you have a power bank, charge that too.
6. Alarm set with 15 minutes of buffer you'd rather not use.

The goal of all of this is not to look prepared. It's to remove every reason your brain might have to spike with adrenaline between waking up and walking into the room. Save that adrenaline for the questions you actually want to answer well.