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Preparing for Interviews

Woman preoparing for her interview

So you’ve been short-listed and have an interview date – congratulations!

The next stage is to prepare for your interview. We cannot stress how important this is and what a difference it will make to your performance on the day.

We’ve picked out some key points for you to think about, but it’s not an exhaustive list! Remember it’s your interview and you need to decide the approach that’s right for you.

Documents that you may want to refer to as part of your preparation are:

· The Job Description

· The Job Advert

· Your CV/Application Form

The interviewer may take elements of these 3 documents and ask you questions about them – so be ready!


Providing examples


Imagine that you are the interviewer, think about the types of questions that you would ask a candidate who’s applying for the role. Then start to compile examples of the work you've done that relates to those questions. Always think of recent examples and make sure that they are your best examples
Practice how you are going to tell the interviewer about your examples. The more familiar you become the more confident you will be. Remember to answer with specifics, not in general terms, and talk about what ‘you’ have done, not other people’s contribution.


Make sure you are concise

When telling the interviewer about yourself try not to ramble – this can happen when we are nervous, so try and control this. Preparing examples will help you with this, but also make sure that you listen to the question and if necessary check your understanding of what is being asked before you start to answer.
When you give your example try telling it like a story:

· Set the scene – what was the situation? What was your role? Who else was involved? What were you trying to achieve? What was the problem?

· What happened? – what did you do? What went well? What didn’t go so well? What results were achieved? What was the impact ?

· Learning – what did you learn from the experience and how have you used that learning?


Be honest

Somehow, candidates get the impression that it's best to try to dance around difficult questions. If you don't have a skill, don’t pretend that you have and don't try to cover it up by talking and giving examples that aren't relevant – the interviewer will see through this! You're much better off saying you don't have that skill but perhaps you do have some related skills, and you're happy to tell the interviewer about that skill.


What questions do you have?

The Job Description won’t always answer all the questions that you have about the role. So think about any questions which you have and take them with you to the interview. Remember it’s a two-way interview, you are seeing if you want to work with us too! By asking questions you are making it a conversation rather than a challenge.


What will the interviewer be doing?

The interviewer’s role is to try and make you feel as comfortable as possible and help you to perform well on the day. They’ll guide you through the interview asking relevant questions.
While you are talking they will be making notes about what you are saying – try to ignore this and don’t judge your performance on how much is being written, as every interviewer has their own style of recording what’s being said.
The interviewer may sometimes interrupt you when you are talking – this is quite normal in an interview situation and will probably be because you’ve said something that they want to find out more about. Don’t be put off by this approach!

Good Luck!
 

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