You’ve put in an application for a fantastic job that you’re hoping to get, and after a nervous wait, you get the call back to say that you’ve landed an interview. Once the initial mix of excitement and anxiety dies down, you need to start preparing yourself.
As first steps, research the company and role, plan some questions, organise your paperwork, get yourself looking sharp and be on time (for more on these, check out our top five things to do before a job interview.
But what do you do when you’re in the interview room, sitting in the hot seat, and your next career move hangs in the balance? Luckily, we’ve put together a collection of our top tips to see you through the interview! We’ve also included a list of some of the most common interview questions so you can be as prepared as possible.
Don’t Focus Too Much on Your Qualifications
This isn’t to say that your qualifications aren’t important, and in fact, for some jobs being qualified ticks an essential box. But that doesn’t mean they’re the most significant thing in your professional life. During an interview, a Hiring Manager is trying to get to know you a little bit, work out how you think and how you might solve problems.
When you’re asked a question about your expertise in a specific field like, “What makes you a good electrician?” simply pointing out your relevant qualifications isn’t enough. A lot of the time, this is the bare minimum. Weaving in personal experience from past jobs and from your day-to-day life where you have learned real practical lessons, along with mentioning how your qualifications have helped you, is a far better way of approaching it.
Highlight Your Soft Skills
Soft skills, interpersonal skills, and communication skills – whatever you want to call them – are the skills that help you work and communicate effectively. They include things like the ability to properly listen and understand someone or organise a team to work on a large project together effectively.
The best thing about soft skills is that they’re transferrable across any type of job you apply for. This makes them especially important if you are interviewing for a role you don’t have a whole lot of specific work experience in. The best time to draw attention to soft skills is when you are asked behavioural questions about specific situations, like, “Tell me about a time when you had a conflict with a boss or co-worker and how was it eventually resolved?”
Never go for a clichéd “I’ve never had any conflict, I get along with everyone” type of response, because if you do you might as well end the interview right then and there. Instead, think of a time that there really was conflict, no matter how minor and discuss how you overcame it in a professional manner using your soft skills as examples.
Why Do You Want the Job?
An incredible number of people tend to slip up on this seemingly simple question. And yes, the worst answer you can give is “I just want to earn more money.” Since you’ve already read our five things to do before a job interview, you will have done some research on the company interviewing you already. You should know exactly what they do, and hopefully worked out where you would hope to fit into the company.
If you have researched a company and still can’t think of a genuine reason to want to work for them other than for the money, it’s time to seriously consider whether that particular job is actually what you are looking for.
Hopefully, that’s not the case however, so start by building a list of things you like about the company and then convert that list into specific reasons why you want to work for the company. It might be the culture or the new challenges that you are eager to take on, or something else entirely. But whatever it is, make sure that it’s genuine.
What Else?
Make sure you are a good storyteller but don’t make your stories up. Go over our list of common interview questions below and think of your experiences and some personal anecdotes you can draw on. It’s okay to be a little bit creative and show your personality in an interview, just don’t try getting too creative and start making things up. Remember that the people interviewing you will have heard it all before and they are very likely to know when you are fudging the facts.
If you’re still stuck on how to handle your next interview or have a particularly daunting one on the horizon, we’re always here to help. Our recruiters have a ton of interviewing experience so get in touch today!
