Going through the interview process is a stressful one, and the feeling of not knowing what to expect in the interview can be scary.
We have come up with some useful tips to help you prepare for the interview process:
1. Research
The most important thing you should do before an interview is to do your own research about the company. Showing the interviewer that you have good knowledge about the company will definitely give you brownie points. It is also good to take note of the company's objectives, values and recent projects to demonstrate your interest about the company. Looking at the company's social media is a great way of staying up to date with the latest news from the company.
2. Think back at your past experiences
From your CV, the interviewer is going to know a little about your work experience or any other relevant experiences. In the interview, you will probably have to expand on what experiences you've previously had. Examples of what an interviewer might ask is thing such as:
- Give me an example of a time where you've had to work independently/as a team
- Have you ever experienced a difficult customer?
- Have you ever gone over and beyond for a customer?
- Did you ever progress in your previous job, or take on increasing responsibility/get promoted?
- What is the biggest lesson you've learnt from your previous job?
To be prepared for an interview, you should have an idea of good examples you can give so that you can answer the interview without having to take time to think about the answer. A good way for preparing for this is to search on the internet for possible questions an interviewer might ask, and take notes of examples you can use for those questions.
3. Re-read the job specification
More often than not, interviewers will use the job specification as a guideline to create the interview questions. Making sure that you can think of examples, skills, experiences that relates to the specifications is a good way of preparing for the dreading questions the interviewer will ask. Thinking of key successes you've already had in life could also be useful so that you can differentiate yourself from other candidates.
We hope this little guide provides some preparation tips for an interview. Just remember that your appearance, punctuation and confidence is crucial to creating good first impressions for the interviewer. By creating a good first impression, you have probably already ticked a box for the interviewer.