How to Prepare for a Job Interview
So you’ve drafted a bespoke resume; you’ve written an exceptional cover letter tailored to the requirements of the job listing and now they want to interview you. Good news right!? Yet, if you’re anything like me, this initial excitement swiftly transforms into anxiousness as you now realise that you need to prepare yourself for a job interview.
Of course you can never truly predict what will be asked of you in a job interview, but there is plenty of preparation you can do to decrease the stress and uncertainty of this next step in the job-hunting process.
Photo by Edmond Dantès from Pexels
Refine Your Sales Skills
If you've made it to the interview stage, the recruiting team has already identified you as someone with relevant credentials to fill the spot. You should be focusing your preparation time on how exactly you're going to sell those relevant skills to this already-interested employer and convince them on precisely why you’re the best person for the job.
The art of selling your skills is often completely neglected. It’s something that people dismiss and think that they can leave until they’re actually in the interview to deal with. Promoting yourself feels weird, I agree. This is especially the case in places like Australia where cultural norms gravitate towards self-deprecation and modesty. If you feel uncomfortable describing in detail just how great you are to bunch of relative strangers, you’re in the vast majority. But, this is exactly what you should be practicing if want to get the job.
To do this, you’re going to prepare responses to some basic interview questions and practice saying these out loud. You can practice in front of a mirror or in front of a trusted person such as your partner, friend, family member etc. It’s important that you get used to talking about yourself and your myriad of achievements out loud so that you can assess your responses, your tone, your delivery and body language and make changes where you think they’re required. As well as get feedback from others if you so choose.
There’s no need to memorise a script or any of your responses by heart. This exercise is about increasing your confidence through repetition so that you’re more comfortable answering interview questions and so that you’ve given yourself the chance to make improvements to your delivery if necessary. Repetition is key to refining your sales skills.
Know your Key Strengths
It’s important that you take stock of your strengths. You may already have an idea of what these may be. You may have had coworkers, friends or family tell you that they think you’re really good at x, y and z. However, it’s important that you determine what your strengths are based on what you really think rather than basing your opinion solely on the opinions of others.
A useful starting point is to figure out what tasks you like doing or what tasks you find easy to complete. Although your strengths are not mutually exclusive with the things you like or find easy to do, there’s usually some insight to be found in exploring your answers. Generally, the easier something is for you, the more it speaks to what your natural skills are.
For any interview question about your strengths, don’t even think about lying. The truth is that if a position’s main attributes and duties centre around things that you’re not very good at, you’re going to have a bad time. You probably don’t want the role anyway. It’s much better to give an honest and considered response to find a job that is the right fit for you.
Determine your Relevant Work Experience
The most persuasive way to sell your skills is to provide evidence. You’re going to want to go through your work history and determine (1) what experiences are relevant to the position you’re applying for and (2) what those experiences have taught you that will help you fulfill the requirements of role that you’re applying for. During the interview, you should frequently call on your previous experiences to demonstrate your capabilities and provide evidence for why you have the skills that you have and why you have the capacity to deal with certain challenges in the workplace.
Tell Me About Yourself
= Basic Personal Information (where you grew up, hobbies etc.) + Your Experience + Your Strengths
This formula worked for me when I was asked this question in an interview. Of course you want to keep the response to this introductory question pretty brief so I’d recommend providing a brief summary of your work experience and a couple of key skills.
What are your Weaknesses?
The trick with this question is to be selectively honest. You want to pick a weakness that is something you genuinely struggle with, but is something that isn’t essential to the job. The best way to explain this is with an example. Say the job you’ve applied for involves writing reports all day long, you don't want to say that your biggest weakness is your written communication skills. However, you may say that your biggest weakness is your shyness. You may describe that you have a hard time speaking up and expressing your opinion during meetings or giving constructive feedback. See how in this case you’d be stating a weakness but the weakness itself is not fundamental to your report writing abilities.
The way I personally like to navigate this question is to acknowledge a non-essential weakness of yours but also describe how you're working on it. Using the shyness example, you could say that, although you’re shy, you make an active effort to be involved in meetings and provide feedback when asked. Provide examples of how you make an effort to overcome that weakness of yours rather than just stating what the weakness is. I think that answering this question in this way is a bit more comfortable and allows you to show off your problem-solving skills.
Why did you apply for this role?
This is something I recommend that you’ve already considered before apply for the role. But nonetheless, it’s good to refresh your reasons for applying. I recommend that you thoroughly research the employer and the role so that you can provide thoughtful reasons for your application.
Why *insert company name*?
This is another opportunity to show off your research skills. Read their 'About’ page. Read about their values and their contributions to the community. Read about the team. Search the employer on LinkedIn. Read their annual reports and other relevant publications.
Prospective employers are looking for candidates who understand their culture, their values and their objectives. Regardless of whether this question is explicitly asked, you should be using your responses to demonstrate why you’re interested in the employer and how you identify with their culture and values. Furthermore, employers want to see that you understand their goals and have identified ways that you can contribute to achieving these goals.
Assemble Your Examples
Now it's time to address the most challenging part of the interview; the behavioural questions. Behavioural questions are used in job interviews to assess how a prospective employee will act in given situations based on their previous experiences. It's a way to get a more nuanced perspective of how you actually operate in the workplace. The trick to these questions is to have already thought about what your examples may be before they ask you these questions.
(i) Commitment to Excellence
A prospective employer will want to see that you can go the extra mile; that you’re dedicated to your work and your own improvement.
Think of a time when you have gone above and beyond in the course of your duties. What compelled you to do so? How did you go about achieving this?
If possible, I recommend having two examples. One example for when have you gone above and beyond in the work you’ve produced and a second example for when have you gone above and beyond for a customer/client. That way, your bases are covered and you may want to make a point in the interview that your ability to exceed expectations extends across multiple areas of your work.
(ii) Cooperation & Teamwork
Teamwork is essential in the workplace. Naturally, an interviewer will want to know if you work well with others. It’s good to have an example of your experience working in team environments and to have an example of the strategies that you use to assist you in team environments.
It’s also important to have an example that shows your ability to manage competing personalities and opinions. Think about a time when you've dealt with a difficult team member. Think about a time when you've dealt with a difficult client. How did you manage these situations? Did you manage to reach a resolution for both parties. If so, how so?
(iii) Challenges & Setbacks
Prospective employers will want to know how you respond to challenges and setbacks.
Think about a time when you've experienced a challenge or setback in your workplace or your studies. How did you get through it? What did you learn? Would you do things differently in the future? If so, how so?
Maybe you made a mistake or failed to meet a deadline. Did you notify your manager or team? How did you go about fixing or mitigating the effects of this mistake? More importantly, what did you do to ensure that this mistake wouldn't be made again?
Whilst you need to describe the challenge or setback you experienced, you should focus your time into explaining how you improved the situation and what you learned from it.
Summary
So there’s my advice for preparing for a job interview. The main purpose of these tips is to help you practice responding to interview questions and to have some supporting examples fresh in your mind for when you need to provide evidence for your answers during the interview. Remember, there’s no need to memorise a script.
Making it to the interview phase is a huge accomplishment. Whilst preparation is useful, it’s important to remain true to yourself and make the most of the experience for what it is, a learning opportunity. Good luck to all in your future interviews!
If you found this post useful, or if there’s any additional advice that you would give to someone preparing for a job interview, please leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Much love,
The Blazer Chronicles