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How to succeed in your job  interview

This is your time to shine. Interviews and assessments can be daunting, especially if you have not had any practice recently. Make sure you are confident and prepare yourself for success.
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Follow the ten steps above to build your self confidence. This really is the most important thing you can do before your interview. If you beleive in yourself, then your interviewers are much more likely to believe in you. 

 

The team at Hire Pals know how difficult it can be to perform at interview. To support you, we can offer tailored preparation to help you succeed.. Book a mock interview with us below and we will help you ace your interview. One of our Coaches will run a practice interview with you, based on the role you have applied for, We will test your interview technique and provide actionable feedback on your performance so you know your strengths and weaknesses prior to your actual interview. 

The key to a successful job interview is in the preparation

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  • Research the organisation and specifically the sector you are interviewing for, the interviewers will expect you to know enough about the company, and most importantly why you want to work for them.

  • Research the interviewer on LinkedIn, understand their background to create common ground.

  • Hiring managers will be interested in topics you’ve covered and projects you’ve worked on, select projects
    that enable you to demonstrate transferable skills for the role you are applying to.

  • Understand what’s happening in the industry and the current pressures and challenges and how this could a ect the industry.

  • Familiarise yourself with the information provided to you in the job description, select examples from the job description of traits that the employer is looking for and give examples of how you have used these in the work situation.

  • Why do you want this job? Do your research, discuss all you know about the company and why you are a good match.

  • Be sure to let the company know beforehand if you require any additional adjustments for your interview.

  • Familiarise yourself with the company’s core values and think about how these are relevant to you personally.

  • Be sure to practice answers based around the core competencies of the role. Your answers should tell a story, for example what was the challenge, your solution and what you learnt. Having a few pre-prepared examples will take some of the pressure off on the day.​

Interviewing
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How to give great answers to your questions

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It is very important that you are clear of the interview process, for example the interview could be strengths based rather than competency based. This means the way in which you answer questions will differ, resulting in potentially affecting your overall score. As a general rule, you want to structure your answers like a story, with a start, middle and end. A great technique to keep your answers concise and to the point is the STAR technique, which is typically useful for competency-based interviews but can be used for most interviews.

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  • Situation – What was the situation you were faced with?

  • Task – What did you have to do?

  • Action – How did you go about completing the task?

  • Result – What was the outcome in that instance?

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Are you interviewing for a leadership position? 

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Here we have tried to underline some tips when preparing for senior positions. 

 

You need to get the interviewers thinking into the future. You want them to imagine what their organisation could be like with you there. You would have got to the interview stage because of your skills and experience but to increase your chances of being hired you will want to shift their mindset to thinking how you’ll catapult them and the business forward. You can do this by understanding where the company is going, what exactly do they want to accomplish and what are the challenges in this industry and how would you overcome them.

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The interviewer will want to be sure that you can lead a team or become a successful manager. You will also need to show you will be able to quickly adjust to a new work environment and must have the ability to instil confidence in the team.

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Use examples to solidify and provide reassurance to the interviewer that you are what you say you are. You can use experiences from your past work experience or even outside of work experiences to instil confidence into the interviewer.

 

How do you motivate? 

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You must be able to demonstrate that you have the ability to motivate the people who are working for you. Remember it is also important to highlight your ability to motivate individuals who disagree with the ideas put forth, prepare some examples to share on the day and demonstrate how you overcame these difficult conversations or disagreements.

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What questions should you ask? 

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Remember a job interview is a two way conversation. Its now your time to find out of this role or company are for you. . Here we have put together some suggested questions to ask: 

 

  • What does a typical day look like?

  • What are the most immediate projects that need to be addressed?

  • What are the skills and experiences you’re looking for in an ideal candidate?

  • What attributes does someone need to have in order to be really successful in this position?

  • What types of skills is the team missing that you’re looking to fill with a new hire?

  • What are the biggest challenges that someone in this position would face?

  • What sort of budget would I be working with?

  • Is this a new role that has been created?

  • Do you expect the main responsibilities for this position to change in the next six months to a year?

  • What is your favourite part about working at the company?

  • What does success look like in this position, and how do you measure it?

  • Are there opportunities for professional development? If so, what do those look like.

Consultation

How to make lasting impressions and stand out from the rest?

 

  • Make sure you clarify before you leave the meeting that you are very interested in this job. If the decision is hard to make for the hiring manager between two candidates, your positive message may be the deciding factor.

  • Send an email to the Hiring manager or Interviewer thanking them for their time and again express your interest, if that is the case. Needless to say, that if you did not have a good experience, there is no need to send a message.

  • Try to be both humble and confident. You should sound confident with your abilities; you want to come across as audible and clear. 

  • Know your weaknesses, you should prepare for both professional and personal weaknesses and if the question arises be honest and speak about it in brief. Try to show you are working on improving your weakness, it shows you are an honest person who is open to change.

  • Be yourself. You want to be remembered for all of the positive characteristics and attributes you have and what you will bring to the organisation as an individual. You want to be someone who everyone wants to work for or alongside.

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