How To Prepare For Your Interview

Whether your interview is going to be face to face or remote like many are in this current time, preparation is the best thing you can do to increase your chances of being offered the role.

Know Your Audience

• Learn as much as you can about the company, research them online, check out their website and all their social media profiles, but bear in mind this is information that the company themselves are pushing out and want you to know, ensure you talk to friends and contacts to get a feeling for the company, also check out Google for any current news releases, by doing so you’ll get an overall picture of the company.

• Get a feel for the culture in the company. How do the employees interact on social media, is there a friendly banter between them? What are they talking about, this can be used as a conversation starter.

• Find people in your network, current and previous employees, talk to them, they will be your best intel as to the culture of the company.

• Before your interview find out who will be interviewing you research the people, who do you know in common? What do you have in common, this information may be useful in your interview.

Anticipate Questions

• Ask what the interview will be like, your HR contact or recruiter will be able to tell you about the interview format, once you know, you can prepare.

• Spend some time thinking about your skills, achievements and answers that will resonate with the interviewer.

• ‘Tell me about yourself’ this question is almost always asked. So be prepared, have your answer ready.

• ‘What’s your biggest weakness’ everyone hates this question – thing of something that you struggle with but are working to improve. For example, public speaking, you’ve never been strong at this but over the past few years you have taken the opportunity to run meetings to get yourself used to addressing large groups of people.

• Find a list of common interview questions and run through them – do not write your answers out in full, a few notes/bullet points to keep to hand for your interview will suffice.

• Numbers! Can you include numbers, percentages, increases etc, when talking about your responsibilities and achievements? They can really help show off your achievements.

• Ensure you have your own questions to ask – and have them written down so that it is seen in the interview that you have prepared.

• ‘Why are you interested in this role/our company’ is more than likely a question you will be asked, you must have an answer to this question. Make sure you have a couple of key points as to why you are interested in the role and the company, this is information you can pick up from the when you are searching the company and its culture.

Last but not Least – Dress and Location

• What to wear, talk to your Recruiter and find out people in the company wear; do they wear formal wear or are they more a casual company? If you don’t have a recruiter, check out the company’s profiles and see what they wear.

• If you are going to the employers office, its worth doing a trial run to see if there are any issues with the journey then best to find out beforehand so you can add extra time to your journey. If it is a video interview, ensure that you are in a place where you will be undisturbed and ensure you have everything needed around you – and that your background is clear and tidy.

• Have your interview notes and questions to hand, if you are meeting in person have them in a tidy folder or notebook, if you are meeting virtually, then you have them at eye height or in your notebook.