Top 10 Job Interview Tips

InterviewIQ’s Favourite Top 10 Interview Tips

You should read these top 10 interview tips  if the following two scenarios apply to you.

1) It’s been a while since you’ve had an interview and you don’t know where to start preparing.

2) If you’ve had an interview and thought you could have handled it a lot better.

I’ve based these 10 interview tips on my many years as an interview coach plus my background interviewing people as an HR and Recruitment Consultant.

I have also trained recruitment teams as a recruitment manager in the public and private sector.

Apply these interview tips whether you’re a senior professional or just starting out in your career.

These are my top 10 interview tips, so please read on.

Tip # 1 – Research The Employer

Ok, so most people know they need to do research, but you would be surprised about how few people do this: or do it in an effective way.

When you do your research and/or look online for information, you want to be asking yourself a few things, beyond just discovering what the organisation does.

Here are a few key questions:

1) What really makes me want to work for this organisation?
2) Where is this organisation heading?
3) Based on my skills why would I fit this organisation?
4) Where could I add value now and in the future?

For information one of my favourite things to do is to look at LinkedIn.

I look beyond the company page and dig deep into the profiles of people who work at my target company.

Things that may make me want to work for an organisation could be the quality of their leadership, the fact that they have promoted people from within, how active their team members are in promoting the organisation…..you see where I am heading with this.

When I interviewed people I appreciated research.

I also appreciated the fact that someone wanted to work for my employer. If someone could explain that in a sincere way, even if they were nervous, I gave them big points.

When I was hiring more senior people I wanted them to go beyond why they wanted to work for my employer, to the value that they could actually add.

Tip # 2 – Research The Role

This is actually tricky, particularly if the role is advertised online. Many job advertisements are woolly or confusing.

What’s more, there’s also a huge trend in HR to oversell the opportunity, rather than just simply describe the role.

Take a look at what I mean here at an advertisement I came across recently.

It read: “Building effective communication strategies with a variety of stakeholders and colleagues to ensure information exchanges are timely, accurate and useful.”

However this is what this statement meant: “providing advice to staff and students on the status of their research applications.”

So, try as hard as you can to speak with the contact person on the advertisement.

There are good ways and bad ways to do this.

Before you launch into your questions, you want to acknowledge that you have read and understood the advertisement. Tell the contact that you are really interested in this role, but you have a few questions are further clarify your understanding: ask them if they have a couple of minutes.

If you don’t do this you might hear an inward sigh and a rolling of the eyes from the other end.

Here are my favourite questions.

1) What do you see as the specific challenges of the role?
2) Could you describe a typical day, week or month in this role?
3) You’ve listed (a/b/c) skills, what do you see as the key ones?

Make it about what the contact person thinks. That’s why I have emphasised the you in these questions. If you do it this way you have a legitimate reason to call the contact, even if there is a lot of detail on the advertisement.

If you sense the contact person is knowledgeable, and has a real interest in talking to you, then you can press on with these questions.

4) Why has this role been created?
5) What are the key priorities?

Once you understand the role, you can really start to prepare for the interview, as you will know the examples you have to bring in to the interview.

If you cannot speak with a contact person, then try to find someone who works at that company. Do a company search on LinkedIn and look through your connections to see if you know anyone, or know anyone who knows anyone.

Take a look at this post on BBC Capital. It has some great tips on how to get a referral via LinkedIn.

Tip # 3 – Research Yourself

Employers want you to be self aware.

As part of the research of 25 employers I did for a book I co-wrote: “What Do Employers Really Want?”, one of the biggest issues employers had was that they wished people would be more self aware.

What this means is that employers want you to understand your real strengths and weaknesses, and be able to discuss them in an intelligent way.

If you struggle in any way with this, think about the following:

What tasks do I like performing?
What do I leave last?
What could I do every day without getting paid?
What do people routinely ask me to help them with?
What am I proudest of achieving?
What could I talk about all day?

Once you reflect and understand your strengths, you feel more confident.

This process also lets you understand why you would be suitable for a particular role, and why you should be applying for it.

Tip # 4 – Prepare For Different Agendas

In a recruitment process each person involved has a different agenda.

You may see a recruitment consultant, an internal recruiter, HR, a line manager, all four individually, or in any combination.

Generally the recruitment people are the first screener.

They establish their credibility with each good candidate they recommend to the employer. No matter what you think of this process, take your time to woo them.

Generally they will be assessing you for whether you can do the job, will you do the job, will you fit into the team, and are they confident enough to refer you on.

The HR representative is often the procedural expert.

Their job is to ensure the organisation meets its legal requirements and is hiring consistently around skills, values and cultural fit.

The HR rep may have set up the recruitment process. So they will have a strong attachment to ensuring it is working. So you could face a more structured interview from them, than you will from a line manager. If they are the employer’s first screener, they may need to sell you further, depending on their position and influence within the organisation.

It’s fair to say that they line manager will be the person who is most concerned about filling the job.

It’s their team that’s on the line with a person down. So it will probably be the line manager who has the greatest sense of urgency about filling the role. Work hard to build a rapport with them. They will be assessing your fit for their team.

The bottom line is that you need to treat each interviewer as if they don’t talk to each other and know anything about you.

You’d be amazed at how little communication sometimes goes on between each party.

Tip # 5 – Get Your Head Around Behavioural Interviews

A really common form of interview is the behavioural interview.

The interviewer will expect you to provide specific examples of where you have demonstrated the skill they are seeking. This post on behavioural interviews will give you all the background you need.  read it.

Tip # 6 – Be Nice to Your Interviewer

I have never hired anyone I did not like in some way.

I don’t mean that we needed to be friends. But I do mean that I needed to feel that I could work with that person.

When I was recruiting for other people I stuck to that criteria. I would ask myself if I thought that the person would be a good addition to the team, and that their working style was compatible with their ultimate manager.

In the recruitment process you will be knocked back. You will take it personally. It will be hard to be confident. One of the best bits of research I have read on how to improve your confidence in interviews is covered in this TED talk by Amy Cuddy.

I urge you to read this post and watch the video.

Also assume the interviewer is on your side. Any negative attitude on your part means you may misinterpret questions the interviewer asks you, in a negative way.

Tip # 7 – Give Yourself Plenty of Time

Rushing breeds panic. No matter what excuse you have, lateness is noted.

Tip # 8 – Practice Your Pitch

You can actually fake it until you make it. So practice is important.

If you’ve watched Amy’s TED talk you will see what I mean.

The more you try to act confident, the more you will appear confident, the more people will respond to you in a positive way.

It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

Plus your physiology changes in the way that Amy describes.

If you have an iPhone, I recommend you download our app – myPitch.

 

myPitch gives you tips, examples and videos – plus a structure you can follow to answer questions such as :tell me about yourself” and “what do you do?”

Tip # 9 – Practice With a Friend or a Professional

Sometimes there are one or two things that get in the way of your success.

It could be that you speak too quickly.

It could be that you speak too softly.

It could be that your attitude is really bad.

You may talk too much.

You may talk too little.

If you have a communication problem, most probably you don’t know specifically what it is.

Here’s why.

It’s easy to know if you don’t have a technical skill, as often you can assess this. Unfortunately it’s rare that people give you feedback on the so called softer skills, like communication. As human beings we are great at hiding what we think about people and responding in a way that make our interactions easier.

So be brave. Seek feedback from someone that you trust.

Then act on it.

Tip # 10 – An Insider’s Tip

Each and every interaction you have with your future employer feeds into their impression of you.

Use this knowledge.

Be polite and friendly with whomever you meet in the process from the very first phone call to the last goodbye to the receptionist on your way out.

Also be mindful that smart interviewer’s may ask the receptionist how you presented upon arrival and departure.

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Need to get ahead of the pack for your next interview?

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Deborah Barit wrote this book. She is one of Australia’s leading interview coaches.

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Here’s what happy readers said about the e-book and interview tips:

“Deborah Barit is a very smart lady…She is good at figuring out what an employer is looking for. It’s like she has ESP, with her help in preparing, I found no surprises in a recent interview and I was prepared for every question….” Cathy, Leichhardt, NSW

“Because I read so many of your posts, I feel as if you were my personal employment coach. I start my new position in two weeks. I had so many obstacles to overcome and each day you posted a solution to my dilemma and how to improve my search. Thank you so much for your input and PLEASE continue to do what you do!”

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Tagged as: Interview Tips