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What is an interview for?
Interviews are part of everyday life, from landing the perfect job to getting onto your dream course. Essentially an interview will give you and the employer/course leader the chance to find out how well you are likely to fit into that role. They will ask you questions about your previous experience, perhaps asking you to expand on your application, and sometimes set you tasks to check your abilities.
If you have made it as far as an interview, well done! Interviews can be a nerve-wracking experience for most people but there are a number of things that you can do to prepare to try and combat those nerves.
Before the interview - How to prepare:
Check the location of the interview and plan your route - make sure you know how you're getting there and what time you will need to leave. Do you have a backup route planned?
Check the interview time and set your alarm! - make sure you plan to arrive ahead of time to set a good impression
Plan and get your outfit ready the night before - make sure you look clean and professional
Do your research into the job/course and organisation - they may ask you to comment on the company/course and what interested you in it, but it also looks good if you can show an interest by referring to what you know in your answers
Review your experiences and skills and be ready to talk about them - they may refer to your application so make sure you're aware of what's on there!
Practise answering some typical interview questions - use our guide on the STAR technique below to structure your answers properly. Why not book a mock interview with a careers adviser?
Virtual Interviews
'Thanks to technology, a growing number of companies are using virtual interview software and applications to screen the field of contenders without spending loads of time and money on travel. A virtual interview allows employers and candidates to “meet” and interact using video, instant messaging programs, and web-conferencing services. More and more, people are looking for Skype interview tips to help them ace their virtual interview.' (Salary.com, 2020)
More and more companies are seeing the benefits of hosting virtual interviews. The way you answer the questions will be the same, but how you prepare will be very different!
Virtual-Interviewing--top-tips-_91800.pdfInterviews Final (2).pdfDuring the interview - Top tips:
The interview starts the moment you walk through the door - anyone could be your interviewer or even the CEO! Speak to everyone respectfully and politely to make a good impression from the front desk to your interview room.
Be prepared for small talk - they're not officially questions, but they are part of the interview! They want to see what sort of person you are and get a feel for your 'fit' in their organisation. Small talk is also to help you feel more comfortable- remember, they want you to do well.
Have a firm and confident handshake - it leaves a good impression! It only takes only 7 seconds for someone to make a first impression, and 20 seconds for them to make up their mind about you so give yourself the best chance with a good handshake.
Facial expression and eye contact - during the interview, make sure you look at the interviewer/s when they are speaking and look engaged in what is being asked of you.
Posture - try not to fidget. A relaxed, open position is usually best! Be comfortable but professional.
Keep calm and listen to the questions - interviews can be stressful situations but it is important to try and keep calm so that you can listen to what the interviewer wants from you...
But it is okay to ask them to repeat the questions - if you didn't hear properly or want to make sure that you understood the question, it's okay to ask them to repeat it for you.
Give the interviewers enough information - one word answers don't give employers much to go on. Try to implement the STAR technique which can be found below.
STAR Technique
When being asked to give details of your previous experience, it can be useful to learn the STAR technique to structure your answers. STAR stands for:
SITUATION - what experience this relates to (for example, was this your work experience or something that you did on your course?)
TASK - what your task was in this experience (it's good to be quite specific, for example you were volunteering on the open day at college, but your task would have been to help visitors with their inquiries about the course)
ACTION - what you did to complete the task (this is better if this is something you were responsible for- for example in a team project where you had to create a presentation, you specifically researched the content by...)
RESULTS - how what you did had an impact on the team or the task (think positive! What went well? What did you learn from the experience?)
Solo-interviewing-advice_17824.pdfFind out more about using the STAR technique in this video.
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