You’ve just had the call – after sweating over your CV and crafting an amazing cover letter you’ve made the cut and been asked to come in to interview for your dream job. Time to celebrate… then it dawns on you – you actually have to go in, sit in front of a bunch of strangers and be asked a series of seemingly random questions.
That's right, the dreaded job interview.
I interview people all the time and I can confidently say no-one likes job interviews (well, some people say they don’t mind them but they are probably the same people that say they love exercise and enjoy exams) so I am not sure that I believe them.
However, just like exams and exercise, it’s possible that by carefully preparing for a job interview the whole experience will be much less excruciating, and even better you’ll increase your chances of getting your dream job.
Here's some of my tips for preparing for a job interview.
This is the number one cardinal rule. There is nothing truly more disheartening than meeting a candidate who can’t “quite remember” what the role is or who the organisation is.
Do as much research as you can. Read the ad, dissect the job description, google it, talk to current employees. If you are working with a recruitment company don’t be shy about asking for tips around what the employer wants and may ask.
Then, just as importantly, think about how your skills and experience will apply to this role. The more you think about and consider it, the easier it will be to articulate in the interview.
Once you have a good knowledge around the role and organisation you need to turn your mind to preparing for the job interview itself. Of course, interviews can come in all shapes and sizes but generally, they follow a rough sequence.
There are a variety of these – but most often they sound something like “Tell me about yourself?” or “What is it that you think you can bring to this role?”
These questions are about first impressions; the interviewer wants you to paint a picture about yourself. This is your elevator pitch - lead with your strongest selling points. Be concise, be relevant and be positive. This sets the scene for the interview so it’s not the time to be modest or to ramble.
These will be the role specific questions, which delve into your skills, experience and capabilities. Interviewers will ask about specific skills or capabilities relevant to the role. This could be things such as attention to detail, people management, project management or sales. They want to hear examples from your work. For example if they ask about your sales experience, they want to hear how you increased sales, by how much and then how this impacted the business.
Once again, preparation is the key. The basis for these questions should come from the job description but if you don’t have a job description you’ll be able to get a good idea from the advertisement. When preparing for a job interview, try and think of at least one good example for each capability they may ask about.
Generally, interviewers like to close with some light questions to round out their picture. Hopefully by this stage you’ll be feeling more comfortable and, depending on how chatty your interviewer is, you may have been able to glean some ideas about what is really important in the role which you can weave into your answers. There will also be questions about things like notice periods and referee details so make sure you have prepared for these.
Most importantly be prepared, be positive and sound like you are genuinely interested in the role.
Good luck out there.
Written by Emily Bisset, Intepeople Talent Partner.
Have you ever wondered how Recruiters decide which CV’s to take through to Interview stage?
Is it as simple as and Yes, No and MAYBE?
No – it’s not - before they review every CV they gather a set of selection criteria that may make the decision at the Yes, No, maybe stage that much easier– this may include:
Recruiters will already have sat down and talked with the hiring Manager and got a whole lot of back ground information about the vacancy and what type of skills and experience are needed.
The other big piece of the puzzle is called organisational fit – this means that the recruiter is often looking for someone with similar values and attitude that will fit in the current team.
When screening CV’s the organisational fit is looked for by seeing where you have worked in the past and who you have worked for.
Your education levels can show recruiters your ability and passion for learning.
Selection is also helped by having the following:
All these factors and many more go through a recruiters head as they filter the pile of CV’s and yes it can be quite a subjective process at times. Some recruiters are better than others at seeing in between the lines and are more open to going outside the square with putting applicants through.
If you really feel passionately about a job then make sure you ring the recruiter to ensure they have your CV and have had a look at it. They should then be able to give you some feedback on why you are going through or not.
