30 May 2023
Getting a job interview is an exciting time, but it can also result in nerves and pressure. Once you get a job interview, the next best thing to do is prepare, we’ve put together tips for making your next job interview great.
1. Research the Company
The first major pointer is to research and understand your company. One question that is often asked is “what are your initial thoughts of the company?’” It’s important to have a good understanding of what they do and also about the job you’re being interviewed for.
Discuss the benefits of working for that company, how they compare to their competitors and also about how you would benefit the company.
2. Ask the Interviewer Questions
Many people that go to an interview will sit and answer the questions of the interviewer, but to make you stand out, it’s important to ask them intelligent questions about the role and about the company. Employers expect you to ask questions, it makes you look more serious about the position.
Questions you can ask an interview are:
3. Be Prepared for Questions
Being asked questions in a job interview is entirely normal, but competency based interview questions can often leave a person rendered speechless if you’re not prepared for them.
Competency based questions are structured behavioural or situational questions that test one or more skills or competencies. During a competency interview, you will often be asked to answer 5 or 6 questions and be marked accordingly against predetermined criteria.
Examples of questions:
Answering Competency-Based Questions
In terms of questions about competencies or transferable skills, you should try to have a story to tell them about each of them. For leadership you could talk about the time your team was struggling to finish a presentation on time and you stepped into the leadership role, assigning tasks and essentially project-managing it until it was successfully delivered.
This demonstrates your skills and follows the STAR method, where you outlined the Situation, the Task, your Action and the Result. It is an easy way to think of stories to tell around each of the competencies that they may be looking for. In order to get ahead of the potential questions you may be asked, this is where your research comes in. It should be fairly easy to identify the competencies that they will ask about based on the person specification and job role.
4. Stay Calm
Nerves before an interview is normal, and it’s also a good sign of how much you want to get the job, but nerves can also get in the way of our thought process, turning our brains to mush when we’re supposed to be giving a stand-out answer to a question.
The first thing to do once you’ve shook the hand of the interviewer/s and taken a seat is to take a subtle deep breath and just let your mind go calm. Having your mind working at 100 miles per hour won’t help you, so just let your mind go quiet for a couple of seconds to allow you to regain your composure.
It may come as a surprise, but the chances are, your interviewer could be nervous also. If they don’t interview often, they feel under pressure to perform a good interview without making it obvious that they’re inexperienced.
Lighten the mood by making a small joke or complimenting the office or person- obviously keep it clean and lighthearted, but commenting on a desk ornament or the décor can make it seem like your talking to a normal person for a moment rather than an interviewer, it allows you to break through the mould and make them feel more at ease with you also.
5. Body Language
If you think about how many people are interviewed just for one position, making sure you stand out is important. Body language is a key component of this and often means more to an interviewer than the answers they give.
Smile, first impressions always count. Even if you’re going for a senior role, being friendly and approachable toward your senior management team is important. Smiling also creates a warmer atmosphere, which results in a more positive feeling and this will help calm both yourself and the interviewer/s.
Eye contact helps you make a connection to a person and also shows them that you’re attentive and really listening. It also shows that you’re confident and engaging with the people you talk to. It’s a crucial part of the interview process.
Having said that, if you have identified a reason that you are unable to successfully use eye contact, this is quite alright. For example, some people on the autistic spectrum find it very difficult to make and sustain eye contact but this will not impede them in the slightest when it comes to doing most jobs.
Nod your head at appropriate times and smile; use your facial expressions to respond to what the interviewer/s are saying. This again shows you are listening and really taking in what they say. This is known as “active listening”, where you are seemingly intent on what they are saying and you are engaging positively with their comments.
