Interview Tips
You’ve been invited to an interview, congratulations! But what now? How do you make sure you’re going to come across exactly as you want to, showcasing all your skills and experience? There are endless interview tips on the internet, so we’ll cover the basics here.
1. Do your homework on the company and interviewer
The easiest way to get an interview off to a bad start is by not having read up about the organisation where you’re interviewing. You’re gonna get asked what you know about them and it’ll be early in the interview. Read their website, and look at some additional info elsewhere. Bonus points for being able to tell the interviewer something more than what is available via Google. Make sure you read all the company values and competencies. They’ll likely be used as part of judging your suitability to work there. Using LinkedIn to find the person who is interviewing you will give you insight into their past. You may have some common ground.
2. Know your skills and experience
You should have a good idea about the opportunity that you’re applying for. Now you need to review your skills and your experience so they are fresh in your mind. You’ll need to think about which of your skills are relevant and then how best to get that across to the interviewer. Reading through the job spec will help with this. You can use the company values to help in this area too. By linking your experience and things you have achieved in the past to their company values, it helps give more well-rounded answers.
3. Create examples of your work
In an interview, you’re going to have to give examples of where you have performed certain tasks. This type of interview has a proper name; Competency Based Interview. You’re going to have to come up with a bunch of examples that you can call on when you’re asked one of these questions. They can vary from the generic ‘have you worked in a team to something which may be very specific to your job. The aim is to try not to use the same example twice but it’s not the end of the world if you can’t avoid it. Your answer needs to give some detail, and there’s a framework for it. It’s called STAR and stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result. Every example you give has to hit these four points. Basically, you set the scene, describe the problem, describe what you did then explain the outcome. Always refer to yourself and not ‘we’ or ‘my team’. Practice all this with a friend/family member before the day of the interview.
4. In the interview.
These get repeated time and time, but it is because they are essential. Arrive a bit early. Make sure you look good (check their dress code for interviews). Speak confidently. Maintain eye contact. Sit up straight. Keep the language clean. It’s important to come up with some questions to ask them. It doesn’t look great if you get to the end of the interview and they say ‘what would you like to ask us’ and you say ‘nothing’. Some common go-to topics are training, social stuff, and career progression.
That covers most of it other than to say try not to panic, think excited! Nervousness will hinder your chances, so try not to be (easily said, I know). Practising for the interview will help with this. Good luck and should you like to discuss your next move, please get in touch with us here at Brio Digital!
