PREPARING FOR A JOB INTERVIEW

Most candidates fail at the interview stage not because they lack the qualifications, skills and experiences for the role, but because they come to their interview under prepared.

While interviews can sometimes be scary, cruel or over- whelming, the one thing they are nearly always is predictable. Before you go to the cinema, you already know that you are going to see 15 minutes of adverts, followed by a whole bunch of trailers for films you’ll never watch, followed by the opening credits, and then finally the movie. The same is almost always true of interviews. The vast majority of interviews follow the same patterns, ask the same questions and then the candidates are judged in the same ways. Therefore, there is a huge amount you can do to prepare for an interview to get yourself ahead of the other candidates.

Come and Meet Me

Throughout the recruitment process, you have the opportunity to engage with the people who are managing the hiring process. Sadly, most people are either unaware that this opportunity exists or choose not to take it. One of the easiest ways to engage is to meet or speak to the hiring manager prior to the interview.

There are many reasons why connecting with the hiring manager is so helpful. Below are five examples of why investing a small amount of your time can give you such a big advantage over other candidates.

1. It can help you make a decision about whether you really want this job.

2. It can give you inside information you can use during the interview. An informal phone call or meeting, prior to either you submitting an application or you attending an interview, is like a free gift of information. You can ask questions about the role, the department, future plans, threats and opportunities to the organisation, culture and pretty much anything you think is relevant.

3. It removes the initial fear barrier. Have you ever been on a blind date? Most people find that first date scary. However, if you get as far as a second date, all that anxiety and anticipation is gone. Job interviews are no different. It is a very different sensation walking into an interview with a person or panel of people you’ve never met before versus walking into an interview where you have a level of familiarity with at least one other person in the room.

4. You can create a personal connection. In the course of speaking to or meeting with your future boss, you are both likely to share some personal information about yourselves.

5. You will immediately score points for effort.

Things You Should Know Prior to Interview

In order to help you prepare for your interview, there are a number of basic things you should know prior to the big day. Putting a bit of time and effort into finding out the answers to the questions below will help you to better understand the organisation and avoid embarrassment (I am always amazed by the amount of people who turn up to interview not really knowing what the organisation actually does).

1. What are the company’s mission, vision and values?

2. What does the company do?

3. What does the specific department that you would be working in do?

4. What recent news and events have occurred?

5. What is it like to work for the organisation?

6. Who will be interviewing you?

The Most Common Interview Questions 

There are a small number of interview questions that appear regularly in job interviews. While the exact way these questions are asked will differ from interview to interview, the basic premise of the questions remains constant. I have searched a range of publications and websites, both UK based and international, that list the “most commonly asked interview questions” and came up with the list of nine questions, which appeared most consistently, below. Having pre-prepared answers to these questions, that you can adapt to the context of the question can remove a significant amount of the pressure people feel in interviews. 

Please note that I haven’t included any behavioural questions (e.g. give us an example of a time when you have…) as I will cover these types of questions shortly.

1. What can you tell me about yourself? 

2. What are your strengths? 

3. What weaknesses do you have? 

4. Why should I consider hiring you? 

5. Where do you see yourself five years from now? 

6. Why do you want this job/Why do you want to work here? 

7. What motivates you? 

8. Is there anything you would like to ask me? 

9. What is your salary expectation?

In the documents section of this website you will find a template document called the Common Questions Matrix, which you can use to help prepare your answers to these questions.

Behavioural Questions

Now it is time to consider how you prepare your answers for one of the most common types of questions, often called behavioural questions. Think of these as any question that starts with “Please tell us about a time when you have…” Below are some common examples of these types of questions.

• Please tell us about a time when you have shown leadership in a difficult situation.

• Please tell us about a time when you have had to use your initiative to solve a problem.

• Please tell us about a time when you have had to deal with conflict in the workplace.

• Please tell us about a time when you have delivered change to a system or organisation.

• Please tell us about a time when you have been asked to improve performance.

They may be framed in a slightly different way (e.g. “Tell me about a situation in the past…”) but the basic principle is exactly the same. There are three very simple things I want to know when I ask a question like this.

1. What was the problem / task / issue / scenario you faced?

2. What did you do? 

3. What was the outcome?

Most people tick all these boxes when giving their answer, but they present them in a confusing order, surround them in irrelevant detail and lose sight of their personal role in the example they are giving.

At this point I want to introduce the SAR structure for framing answers to these types of questions. SAR stands for Situation, Action, Result and is a commonly used technique I have found very useful over the years. Let’s look at each of the three elements in more detail.

Situation– A brief background of the scenario that you were facing. What was the problem? Why was it a problem? Who was involved? What were you trying to achieve?

Action– What action did you take? All too often people start by talking about themselves but quickly move to using terms like “we” or “the team” when describing what actions were taken. This always weakens their answer as it is never clear whether what happened was actually a result of their personal efforts, or whether they were merely part of a team that delivered the positive outcome.

Result– What actually happened in the end? Everything that is said before is pointless if you don’t share the positive results of what you achieved. The more specific you can be the better.

Preparing to answer behavioural questions by writing down your answers in the SAR format and practising delivering them gives you the best chance of being able to showcase the great work you have done. If you don’t prepare these questions in advance, you put a huge amount of pressure on yourself to not only think of a suitable example on the spot, but also structure it in a way that is coherent.

In the documents section of this website you will find a template document called the Situation Action Response (SAR) form, which you can use to help prepare your answers to these questions.