The ultimate job interview guide from RECRUITERS

If there’s one thing jobseekers tell us again and again, it’s how good our interview guide was at helping them land their dream job. So, we thought we would publish it for everyone to access and to hopefully benefit from. The thing is, you can have all the experience in the world, but if you can’t explain it in a clear and structured way, you’re going to lack confidence and potentially undersell yourself. Take a good look at the description of the STAR technique and use this list of questions to cover all angles, so you know you’re ready for anything. 

Prepare for your interview

As with most things in life, preparation is key for your job interview, and this doesn’t just start with preparing your answers for potential questions. It starts with the simple stuff such as choosing what to wear to the interview, figuring out how you’re going to get there, making sure you’re on time and factoring in time to eat – and choosing the right thing to eat.

While most interviews are likely to take place in a meeting room at your recruitment agency’s building or in the company you’re hoping to work for, occasionally, you may have an interview in a public place such as a café. If you do have a café interview, be aware that you could be seen by someone you know so have an alibi ready.

It’s also important to consider the type of role you’re going for and what kind of interview you’re walking into. For example, tech candidates may have to complete a proficiency test, while candidates attending a sales interview will need to know their numbers like the back of their hands, from targets and commission to total turnover.

The other thing candidates should have before they go into their interview is confidence. Job interviews are extremely nerve-wracking and while hiring managers will expect a certain amount of nerves, it’s a shame when you don’t come across as well as you could because you’re lacking confidence. Practise breathing techniques, carry a good luck charm or try a power pose a few minutes before heading into your interview to help boost your confidence.

Interview mistakes to avoid

There are a few basic, yet vital interview mistakes you need to avoid and again, a lot of it comes down to either preparation or practice. For a start, make sure you don’t dress inappropriately. While what you wear may vary depending on where you’re interviewing, it’s still essential that you look professional and polished.

Another key mistake is not researching the company you want to work for. Whether you’re meeting a recruiter or a hiring manager in the company itself, it is those who have clearly researched the company who will stand out the most. You might even be directly asked what you know about the company, or you could slip up by asking a painfully obvious question that you could have found out from the homepage of their website.

Try not to fidget while you’re in your interview too. If you’re not sure how prone you are to fidgeting during interviews, ask a friend to help you practise. This has the double benefit of allowing you to practise your answers while also letting your ‘interviewer’ to watch out for nervous body ticks you may have. Also, ask them to watch out for excessive filler phrases such as ‘like’ and ‘you know’. Remember, non-verbal communication is believed to make up more than 90% of total communication so make sure your body language does you justice in your next interview.

Finally, the biggest and most common mistake candidates make in job interviews is talking too much. Whether it’s a fear of silence or a bad habit of rambling in your answers, this usually shows bad communication skills and could make your answers far less effective. Keep your answers succinct, to the point and don’t be afraid to simply end the answer, allowing your interviewer to ask the next question.

Competency-based interviews

A competency-based interview is a structured interview designed around the key competencies of the job or group of jobs you are being considered against. The style may be unfamiliar, as it is not designed to explore your career history in detail. Rather, the purpose is to collect information about how you behave at work. All candidates being interviewed for a particular position are asked the same structured questions. This provides a fair basis for comparison.

How to structure your answers

Your interviewer will be looking for you to provide examples of your actual behaviour at work rather than hypothetical ideas about how you may do something. Do not worry if it takes you a short while to think of a suitable example, as you will be given this thinking time.

On most occasions you will be advised of the competencies being explored as you progress through the interview. This will help you to focus your answers to ensure the best use of your time. At all times try to answer the question asked and remember it is the quality rather than the quantity of your response that counts.

Preparation

Before the interview you may find it useful to reflect on your career to date, focusing on key work experiences and any projects you have been involved in, as well as the way you typically approach your work. It will probably be useful to make a mental note of key achievements that you may want to refer to at some stage.

Note: Your interviewer will provide more details about the structure of your interview on the day itself. Even if you find the interview itself stretching, most people find they learn a lot about themselves from the process regardless of the outcome. This is particularly the case if they take advantage of any feedback offered. The best advice is to relax and be yourself. The process is not designed to trick you but to find out as much information as possible.

How to respond to competency-based questions

Competency-based interviewing, also known as behavioural interviewing, requires you to draw on past experience and describe specific examples of incidents that demonstrate your competence in a particular area. The most effective way of answering these questions is to use the STAR technique:

We suggest you add in a final element to the STAR structure and that is: Learning outcome. So, after you explain your result, you would say: “If I were to do it again, I would do x/y differently”. The purpose of this final instalment to your story is to display self-awareness. It shows that you are always learning and developing as your career progresses and continually bringing new wisdom to your next project whether internally or in a new organisation.

Here is an excellent answer to a competency-based question that is testing teamwork as a competence:

Q: Team work is very important in our organisation. What evidence do you have to prove that you are a good team player?

A: I have a number of examples I could share with you. In one instance, when I was working as a business analyst at ABC Company, the sales team was pulling together a bid for a large piece of work and the analyst that normally helps them out with their IT information was on leave. I put aside some extra time to help them out and ensure they had all the information they needed. They took on my suggestions regarding technology. As it turned out, we won the bid and I was promoted as a result.

Note: You may be required to provide between one and three real-life examples to validate one particular competence.

Be prepared with answers and supporting examples to standard HR questions such as:

• What are your career aspirations?
• Why do you want to work for our company?
• What interests you about our product/service?
• Of your previous jobs, which did you enjoy most and why?
• How have you managed conflict at work in the past?
• Describe what you have done in your career that shows your initiative.
• What are your biggest strengths and weaknesses?
• What does teamwork mean to you?
• What style of management gets the best results from you?
• What have been your major achievements to date?
• How would your manager describe you?

Remember you are being interviewed because the interviewer wants to hire somebody not because they want to trip you up or embarrass you. They will be searching out your strong and weak points, evaluating you on your qualifications, skills and intellectual qualities and they will probably probe deeply to determine your attitudes, aptitudes, stability, motivation and maturity. Find out more about how hiring managers conduct an interview here.

Spend some time practising your answers to the questions below. If you can answer them, it is unlikely you will be faced with a question at your interview that you cannot respond to effectively.

An interviewer will want to know what motivates you. Ways of discovering this are by asking:

• Would you describe yourself as self-motivated? If yes, why?
• Can you give an example of a time when you made a suggestion to improve something at work?
• What happened? Was it implemented?
• What was the level of supervision in your last job?
• What was your relationship with your supervisor/manager like?
• How would your last manager/current manager rate your performance and how would you rate it yourself?

This is an opportunity to demonstrate your self-awareness

• If I was to ask your last supervisor or a colleague to describe you, what would they say?
• What gets you out of bed in the morning? (and the answer is not an alarm clock!)

They will want to get an idea of how organised you are:

• In your last job, how did you go about organising your day?
• Can you describe a time when you were under pressure at work? How did you go about handling the pressure?
• Would you describe yourself as organised? What makes you describe yourself in this way?

Most jobs today require at least basic computer knowledge:

• What IT systems are you expert in?
• What training have you completed recently?

To succeed in business today, we all need to be team players:

• Can you tell me about a time when you helped a team you were part of achieve its goals?
• Can you tell me about a time there was conflict in a team you were in? 
• What happened and how was it resolved? 
• Do you prefer to work alone on a task or with others?
• Does anything frustrate you about working with other people on a daily basis?
• Are you a member of any teams or groups outside work?

Perhaps you will need to demonstrate some sales experience:

• Can you tell me about a time when you persuaded a customer or potential customer to buy something?
• As a customer have you ever experienced a good sales person in action?
• What made the experience stick out in your mind?

An interviewer will want to know about where you see yourself in the future:

• Would you describe yourself as ambitious? If yes, why?
• If we were to hire you, how long would you see yourself staying with us?
• Where would you like to see yourself in five years’ time?
• What are you going to do to ensure you reach those goals in five years’ time?
• Do you plan to study further in any particular area?

Then there are the awkward questions:

• Why should we choose you for this position?
• Could you tell me a bit about yourself?
• What did you think of your previous manager? (shows attitude)
• What three words would you use to describe yourself?
• If I was to ask a friend to describe you what would they say?
• What do you feel are your specific weaknesses?
• What do you know about this company?
• What do you think you would bring to this role?
• Why do you want to work for the company?
• How do you work under pressure?
• How would colleagues or boss describe you?
• How do you deal with difficult people in your office?
• Can you tell me about a project that you completed? Where did it go wrong?
• How did you deal with the problem and what did you do to resolve it?
• What are the two most significant accomplishments in your last assignment?
• What are you most proud of?
• What is wrong with your current position?
• Have you kept up in your field with additional training?
• What are your career goals?
• Why do you want to work for us?
• If you took the job, what would you accomplish in your first year?
• What will you bring to us that no one else will?
• What other positions are you applying for?
• What are your salary expectations?
• How have you achieved your targets?
• How have you influenced customers?
• Do you have any other questions?

Should I ask a question?

Always aim to have one or two questions prepared as this is a great opportunity to show off that you have researched the company. Don’t ask specific questions about salary or the number of holidays during the first interview, save those that until you have been offered the job and then you can negotiate details.

Here are examples of some top questions you can ask:

• What would a normal day in this role look like?
• Why is the position available?
• How would you describe your organisational culture?
• What induction and training programmes does the organisation offer?
• What sort of people have done well in this team/organisation?
• How is the company positioned against its competitors?
• What is your vision for the future? What are the plans, if any, for growth or expansion?
• What are the three things that would make someone an outstanding success in this role?
• How well do you think I match the requirements of the role?
• What is the next step in the process?
• If I was taken on, what is the most pressing objective for me in the next three to six months?

• What type of support will I be getting in terms of people support?

Remember: Never talk money unless asked directly. However, questions about salary expectations do sometimes come up. Ideally, you will have an idea of the range being offered for this role and they will have an idea of what you’re willing to take.

However, sometimes this information is not known before heading into the interview. In this case, you may want to avoid answering directly on the spot in case you put yourself at a disadvantage. It’s worth preparing for this question in advance. Do your research with salary guides and sites such as PayScale and Glassdoor to get an idea what you ought to be paid for the role based on your experience and decide what range you’re willing to take. This is where working with a recruiter comes in handy. A recruitment consultant will work with you to get you the best offer you can get – it’s in their interests as well as yours.

At the end of the interview

In your parting comments be sure to thank the interviewer for taking the time to meet you. Reaffirm your interest in the job and company. You will stand out from the other candidates interviewing for the same role, if you end strongly by telling them you want the job and would be delighted to progress to the next round.