Interview tips - preparing for an interview
For many reasons - including the fact that securing the job might depend on your performance - that you're in competition with others for a limited number of places - and that you can't predict what's going to happen - interviews have the potential to be fairly daunting. The truth is that while they do get easier as you do more and more of them, they always have this ability to create nerves. But you can take comfort from the fact that it's the same for everyone; and there's a lot you can do in terms of preparation and focus to make sure you perform well and give yourself the best possible chance. That's what this guide is for.
So what do interviews entail? The first thing to say is that there is a lot of variety. You could be going into the office of the company you're applying to, or you might be involved in a telephone or agency interview. You might be talking to members of the human resources or graduate recruitment team, or the manager(s) who would be responsible for you if you were to join the company - or a mixture of all of these. The interview might be one-on-one, or with a panel. You might be taken through fairly standard "stock questions" with your answers written down - or the interview could be a wide-ranging conversation with questions progressively leading to more and more consecutive inquiries. It could be a formal meeting with a senior manager or a chat over coffee with someone who joined the company a year before. You get the idea... variety!
Which of these your interview is will evidently make a difference to the type of approach you'll want to take - so it's worth trying to determine as much in advance as you can. What are the standard interview formats for the industry you're applying in? A Big Four accountancy firm is likely to have more formalised procedures than a dot-com start-up for example.
So how should you prepare?
Before the interview, you'll want to have answers ready for questions about the following:
1 The company and the job.
2 Your educational and employment background
3 Your skills and competencies
4 Your motivation for the job
And have some questions ready for the end of the interview.
The final aspect of preparation is making sure your presentation and dress are right for the job you're going for.
1 Research the company and the job.
You should be able to get a lot of the information you might need from the company's website. Employer presentations and contacts who work for the firms you're applying for are also useful sources.
You might be asked questions about the company, its market, products and/or services and competitors; or about the role itself. You'll need to have a good knowledge of all these aspects. While there will usually be questions you haven't thought of, doing this preparation work should give you the knowledge you need to cope with them.
Some examples of questions you might be asked include -
About the role:
"Why have you applied for this job?"
"Why do you think you would be good at it?"
"What do you think the job will involve on a day to day basis?"
"What do you think you will be doing in two year's time if you get the job?"
"What research have you done in finding out about the role?"
About the company:
"What are the challenges facing our company?"
"What are the major issues affecting the industry at the moment, or likely to in the near future?"
"Who are our major competitors?"
"How do we differentiate ourselves from our competitors?"
"Which other companies have you applied to?"
2 Your educational, employment and extracurricular background
You should be very familiar with everything you've already told the employer about yourself in your application - you don't want to have anything you've already said come as a surprise when it's repeated to you in a question!
You will need to be able to talk in depth about the educational and employment experiences you've had - why you chose the options you did, what they gave you in terms of skills and competencies, and how they make you perfect for the job you're applying for.
Some questions you might be asked on this topic include:
"Why did you choose to study x?"
"I see that in your penultimate summer at university, you worked as an intern at x bank. Can you describe what you were doing there?/ What did you get out of this?"
"Why did you leave your last employment?"
(on this last question - it's important not to make any negative comments or judgements - always present events in a positive light; even if the experience was negative, emphasise what you learned, what you would do differently, etc.)
Interviewers will often go into some depth about specific projects, roles or extracurricular activities you've been involved in. For example they might ask, "I see you have some experience in sales - you worked on an advertising sales campaign at university. Can you tell me about it?"
And they will usually follow this up with further questions going into some more depth on your involvement. For example:
"What were the targets?"
"What was the outcome?"
"Who did you work with and what was your role in the team?"
"Did you encounter any obstacles, and how did you overcome them?"
"What did you gain from the experience?"
"Would you do anything differently if you were to do a similar project again?"
This is just an example relating to a sales job, but interviewers will ask series of questions in this vein about any work or extracurricular experience you might have been involved in. Your employment and life experience is a crucial indicator of, and determinant of, your skills and your suitability for the job - so make sure you're able to speak about it comprehensively and persuasively.
3 Questions about general skills and competencies
General competency questions are standard features of interviews. You should research the competencies which are asked for in the particular role - (these will be cited in the job advertisement) and make sure you use your answers to demonstrate that you have acquired them, over the course of your life to date.
If you completed an application form when applying for the job, you may well have answered a few competency questions in the form. The interviewer will quiz you about the experiences you described in your answers - so ensure you're familiar with them and able to expand on them, and to answer some standard follow-up queries about them.
Examples of competency questions include:
"What are your three main strengths?"
"What are your three main weaknesses?"
"Would you say you're an effective leader?"
"Do you work best on your own or as part of a team?"
"Have you ever had to deal with an unhappy customer/ a difficult colleague? How did you go about it?"
These types of enquiries might overlap with questions about your background:
"Have you ever led a team/ completed a project?" "Can you describe a time you've displayed teamworking/leadership/time management/multi-tasking capabilities?"
Answers to these questions may not come naturally, but can often be found if you think hard (and laterally) enough. You will usually find, even if there aren't any obvious scenarios which fit the bill, that you have something in your life experience which you can use to support your answers. For example, it's quite possible that as an undergraduate (for example), you may not yet have "led a team to completion of a project", in the workplace at least; but you may be able to cite a time you organised an outing to the theatre, or a five-a-side football league among friends, or something similar.
This is why the preparation stage is so crucial - to make sure you have convincing examples for all the standard questions, so that you're not left floundering!
4 Questions about motivation
Interviewers will probe your motivation for the job. They will look for you to be able to explain how your education, work experience and extracurricular activities not only prepare you for the position you're applying for, but indicate an interest in the field. The extent to which employers focus on this varies from company to company and industry to industry, but it's something to be aware of and prepare for. For example:
"I see you studied philosophy. How does this fit in with your application to work as a management consultant?"
"Have you done any work experience in a field related to this role?"
It may be that your background is absolutely right for the post you're applying to, and if so this is fantastic- aim to display this with your answers.
However in these days of portfolio careers, this may not be the case - and if this is so, it's not a problem, turn it to your advantage. Explain how your background, even though not directly relevant, has provided you with the skills which are asked for; and how it has led (even though perhaps indirectly) to your desire to work in the area you're applying in. And emphasise the positives - describe the ways it has given you extra skills which wouldn't be present in someone who had gone down the traditional route.
For example, if your degree is in languages, but you're applying in accountancy, perhaps you always liked working with numbers, and enjoyed your Maths GCSE and/or A-Level. Maybe you did some work experience or volunteering in a financial role and enjoyed the challenges. Describe the extra attributes your languages background gives you - the ability to deal with overseas offices and clients in their own language for example.