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You are here: home training resources job interview preparation

Job Interview Preparation Tips

This job interview tips and advice page has been designed to help you fully prepare for an all-important interview.

1. Job Interview Tips Interview Preparation

Preparing for a job interview takes time, careful planning and thinking, so it is important to schedule in some preparation time at least one week before the interview itself. This will enable you to ensure you have all of the information to hand as you start to consider how you best convey to the interviewer your skills and attributes necessary for the job you are applying for.

Company information: Gather as much relevant information on the company as you can. Most companies have their own web site which will provide you with information on the products they sell; how the company is structured, its people and their values. Demonstrating in the interview that you have done some research into the company demonstrates to your prospective employer that you are genuinely interested in working for them. It also enables you to ask some relevant questions at the interview.

Job requirements: At this point you should have some idea of the job requirements, either from the company's advertisement or what the recruitment agency has told you, dependent upon how you heard about the job. However, most companies will have a written job description that they can provide you with if they haven't already.

Review the job description and any other documentation you have been provided with. What does it tell you about the knowledge, skills, desired behaviours and personal attributes for this job? Consider how you match up to these requirements. What are your key strengths/talents that you need to highlight well in the interview? What are the knowledge, skills or behaviours that need developing? How could you develop these? For example, if the job requires the skills to use Excel and you are not familiar with the use of the package, you could find someone you know to teach you or consider a local college course. Showing a prospective employer you have considered your own development needs demonstrates personal drive and commitment.

Evidence of past achievements: At the job interview you will need to demonstrate to your prospective employer your most relevant achievements to date, so consider what documentation you could take with you to the interview that could provide evidence of those achievements. These documents could include:

Past examples: Many companies now use interview techniques such as competency based interviewing that ask you to share a specific example of how you have demonstrated a particular skill or behaviour. So consider in advance the best examples that demonstrate the skills and behaviours needed in the job. For example, most jobs require a degree of personal planning and organisation.

Think about how you plan and organise yourself each day.

Think about a project or a big task that you have had to plan and organise in the past.

Career plan: Most employers will want to know about your career path to date, the choices you have made and your rationale, as well as the career ambitions you may have for the future. Therefore, we suggest you take some time before the job interview to plan how best to convey this to your prospective employer. Consider what potential concerns or interests your potential employer may have with the choices you have made in your career to date.

If you are a graduate, consider the various experiences, both inside and outside work that have helped you acquire the skills, knowledge and attitudes you have today and how you can promote the most relevant experiences to the job application and your planned career.

Difficult questions: During a job interview there may be a question you find difficult to answer, either because you genuinely do not know the answer, or you haven't previously given any thought to the issue. If you do not know the answer, do not bluff your way through. A good interviewer will pick this up very quickly, and as many employers have Integrity as part of their core values, you will not help yourself. However, it may be helpful to identify any potentially difficult questions you think you may be asked, and consider your likely response.

2. Job Interview Tips Preparing yourself for the interview

Having spent time preparing the factual information for an interview, it is advisable to spend some time preparing yourself to look and feel confident on the day. In this section of job interview tips we look at the most crucial considerations in getting yourself personally prepared in advance for that all important meeting and avoiding last minute panics.

Look the part: It may sound obvious, but planning ahead what you will wear to the job interview and ensuring that the whole outfit is clean and presentable before you go to the wardrobe on the day will avoid any last minute panics!

Feel the part: However well you physically prepare, most people feel nervous and apprehensive about attending job interviews. Taking time out to rehearse how you will introduce yourself, respond to the interviewer's questions, and ask questions about the job and the organisation will help you to become more 'polished' and exude confidence. You could ask a colleague or family member to ask you some likely job interview questions to practice your responses. They could then give you some feedback on how you came across. Alternatively, sit infront of a mirror and watch yourself as you practice your words.

You've heard the saying 'mind over matter'. It is also helpful to visualise the job interview going well with you looking really confident and the interviewer responding positively to you. Visualise yourself walking away from the interview with a warm confident glow. Remove any negative concerns from your mind that hinder your belief from things going well. This helps train your mind so that when you get to the actual job interview, your body follows your mind's belief that the interview will go well. Try it. You may be pleasantly surprised!

Experience from past interviews: Think about what you have learnt from previous interviews and identify what you will need to do differently this time to make your interview go well. If you have very little experience of job interviews, then ask a few colleagues of their experiences and take their learning into consideration when preparing yourself.

Plan the logistics: To avoid any last minute panics, plan your journey to the job interview and the things you may need to take with you to ensure you are sufficiently nourished and alert on the day, for example:

If you don't know the area well, as part of your job interview preparation ask a colleague who is more familiar with the area to establish the accessibility of the interview location. Alternatively, ask someone inside the prospective employer, for example, the telephonist.

3. Job Interview Tips What to expect during the interview

Each job interview you attend will vary in its style and content. However, it is helpful to be aware of the basic job interview structure and some of the techniques widely used.

The interview structure: A good interviewer will always have a clear structure planned for their job interview to ensure they acquire all the information they need to whilst you are with them. A simple way of structuring interviews that is widely used is called the WASP structure:

Biographical interviews: Most interviewers will want to ask you questions about your career to date, particularly around jobs that you may have had that are particularly relevant to the job role or specific behaviours and skills they are seeking. If you have had experiences outside the world of work that may be relevant, the interviewer may also enquire about these experiences. If not, and you think they are relevant, you may wish to highlight this at the appropriate stage in the job interview.

Competency based interviews: Many employers today use a technique known as competency based interviewing to help them acquire evidence of your past performance, based on the premise that past performance is one of the best indicators of future performance. The evidence they seek centres around the core competencies (skills and behaviours) that are critical to the success of the job. You may be told which competencies these are in advance of the interview allowing you to effectively prepare. Whilst using the technique, the interviewer will ask you to describe a past situation you have been in, for example, when working on a team based project and then ask you more specific questions about how you worked as part of that team. The key here is to stay focused on this specific example and fully answer the question. Here are some example questions:

With questions around teamwork it is very easy to fall into the trap of saying "we did this" when the interviewer wants to know what your specific contribution was. So starting your answers with the word "I" will help you to avoid falling into this common trap, except for situations where you are describing a collective effort with one person contributing more or differently.

Whilst the interviewer asks you competency based interview questions, please be aware that they are likely to ask you questions around occasions when things went well and when they didn't go quite as well. They are looking to see how you have dealt with the difficult issues, what you learnt from the experience and how you have applied the learning.

Assessment methods: There are a number of different assessment methods in use that will enable your interviewer to measure your potential ability to do the job. These could include:

Whatever the task, it is advisable to find out as much as you can beforehand about the task, and provide sufficient time for you to practice the task.

Panel interviews: Panel interviews where several interviewers interview an individual at the same time, still take place in some organisations. Whilst they can be quite off putting to the interviewee, they can save time if managed effectively. A good job interview panel will ask their questions in sequence and you should be able to focus on the particular interviewer asking the questions at the time. More frequently, you are likely to come across job interviews where there are two interviewers with one taking the lead in asking questions whilst the other takes notes.

4. Job Interview Tips How to create a favourable impression during interview

As this is your best opportunity to make a great impression, the following job interview tips relate to all-important interview etiquette:

First impressions: You may already have heard of the four minute rule. It takes four minutes for a person to form a view, positive or negative, of another person when they meet for the first time. This means that the first impressions you create in the interviewer's mind are crucial. Thinking in advance what and how you will introduce yourself is therefore important. Rehearsing with a colleague or family member can help. Focus on:

Follow the interviewer's cues: Follow the interviewer's lead and cues to ensure you do not offend them in any way, e.g.

We hope these job interview tips were useful in preparing you for your next interview and subsequent career move and we wish you every success in your chosen path. Please social bookmark this job interview guide for future reference using the links below. If you have any suggestions for future tips and articles, please let us know using our contact form.

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