Practice makes perfect! You should know that the more practice you can build in before an interview, the better chance you are giving yourself of a positive result. Here’s how you can do this in a D-I-Y way:
- As well as practicing by yourself, you can ask friends or family to help you. Have them prepare some potential interview questions and have some prepared yourself that you would like them to ask. There will be questions in your practice session that you aren’t expecting: these will force you to think on your feet, as you will have to do in your real interview.
- When practicing on your own, make sure that you mix up the questions so that you don’t get into a habit of learning the answers in a set order, as they are very unlikely to come in the order that you are practicing them.
- If you can, you should record your practice interviews. This is going to let you hear or see your reactions to questions, your body language and any mannerisms or words you should stop using (e.g. pause words like 'um' and 'er', or fidgeting with your hands). It can actually be quite jarring to hear how often you umm and err in conversations at first, so try not to be too self-conscious about it, we all do it. If you can’t record it then practicing in front of a mirror will help.
- Making sure that you look presentable for an interview is very important: we suggest that you should wear the clothes you would wear to the interview for your practice. This will also allow you to make sure you are comfortable in the clothes you plan to wear (and you'll be able to work out if your old suit still fits!) It will also immediately get you into the correct mindset and will help you to recall what you learned in your practice sessions. If you are quite a shy person dressing differently to how you normally do can feel like putting on a costume and a persona for a while. Imagine the person in the suit as a more confident, outgoing you and then embody that in the interview.
- When doing the practice interview with your friends or family, have a proper interview space set up, even if it’s just a table which has been cleared with your helper at the opposite side to you; it will give you a feel for the position you will be in. Just make sure there are no other distractions such as children, pets, TV, phones, food and alcohol!
- Most important of all, if you have asked friends or family for help, then ask them for their feedback and what they think you could improve on. Then, make sure you act on that feedback by adapting your answers or style for when you practice again.
The more you prepare for your interview the less you have to focus on thinking of answers; then you can think more about how you can connect with the interviewer and the image you are portraying.
