Preparing for Interview
Posted on 6th December 2022 at 17:04
You've polished up your CV and finally sent your application in. A few days later, brilliant! You hear you've been invited for an interview. You’re feeling positive – clearly, they like you enough to want to meet you in person. You want to do your best in the interview, so here’s how you should prepare to make the most of the opportunity:
1. Do your research
Spend time before the interview researching the company, the industry and those who will be interviewing you. There is so much information available online that this is now a relatively easy activity, and it demonstrates interest and positive intent on your part.
2. Review the job description and/or job advert
This is by far the most important part of your preparation work. You should take time to review the job description or job advert and identify exactly what they are looking for in the successful candidate. Once you have a list of skills and capabilities, think about examples of each that you can talk about in your interview. For example, one area could be the ability to prioritize, so you need to think of examples when you have demonstrated that previously. It might be in a previous job, a university course, or voluntary work. It’s a good idea to think about articulating your examples using the ‘STAR’ technique:
S – situation
T – task
A – the action you took
R – the (presumably positive!) result
Taking a good amount of time to work through the person requirements and thinking about how you will demonstrate this will help you in the interview. You can keep notes – most interviewers are happy for you to have notes and refer to them during the interview.
3. Review your career story
Be prepared to talk about your career choice, training and work to date – what have you done? What have you enjoyed? What did you find challenging? Why have you taken this career path? How does this role fit into your career story?
4. Think of any questions you have
There is normally a time at the end of the interview for you to ask any questions you have. Rather than think of them on the spot, you could do some thinking beforehand. Asking a few questions is a good way to show your interest in a role.
5. Take time to practice
It might help to do some practice questions with a trusted family member or friend to help you get accustomed to what an interview feels like and how you might approach answering the questions. They can give you feedback and hopefully help you to structure your answers more clearly.
6. Be on time to the interview, but not too early
Punctuality is a key aspect of professionalism, so it's something that hiring managers pay attention to during interviews. If you're late to an interview, you may not be able to recover from that first impression. Sometimes circumstances outside of your control cause delays, so plan ahead for your interview. You also want to avoid arriving too early and inconveniencing the interviewers. Consider arriving early at a nearby coffee shop and waiting there until about 10 or 15 minutes before your interview, when you can proceed to the waiting area.
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