First thing’s first, if you’re reading this, our guess is you’ve got yourself an interview - congratulations! Now that you’ve given yourself a pat on the back, you’ll need to start thinking about preparing for the day. Much of the outcome will depend on the questions they ask you and how you’re feeling at the time, but there are certain things you can prepare yourself for to give yourself a better chance of successfully landing the job!
Help on how to prepare for an interview
Here are a few interview preparation tips to help you get ready and feel confident for the day.
Interview Preparation - Do your research
This one may sound obvious, but believe it or not there are people out there who turn up to interviews not knowing what the employer/company does. Not fully understanding is ok, you can clarify that in your interview and bring it up as a question, but you should have done some fact-finding.
It doesn’t have to be hugely in-depth research. Still, a general understanding of the business, their goals, ethos and an overview of the role that you’re going for will show you’re interested and already willing to do your research. A lot of this information can be found on their website (if they have one) and the job description. If you get the chance, it’s always helpful to look at a couple of their competitors too to better understand the broader market and where they sit in the industry.
Have a general understanding of the industry
Following our last point, a general understanding of the industry you want to go into is beneficial. If ten other candidates are going for the same role, this will potentially set you apart from the rest, as it shows that you’ve been keen enough to learn the trade and do a bit of self-study. After all, if you’re serious about this career, you’re potentially going to be in it for a long time, and you’ll want to know whether it’s definitely for you - some prior research will help you with that.
A great way to get a taste of the industry is to do a course/workshop or two to get you up to speed and give you a more in-depth understanding of what’s to come.
At The CPD Certification Service, we host various online courses on behalf of our CPD providers, in all areas, which you can complete at home. You can search for the area you’re looking to go into by using the search function on the website.
Prepare for potential questions
Not that we’re suggesting you know every question that’s going to be asked, but some typical interview questions pop up more regularly and, by looking at the skills in the job description, you can often gauge what might crop up. Such as;
- ‘Why do you want to work here?’
- ‘Why do you think you’d be good at this particular role?’
- ‘Tell us a bit about your previous work experience?’
- ‘Give us an example of when you’ve done [requirement from the job description] before?’
Jot down a couple of bullet points as to how you’d answer each question in a way that will help you on the day. If you’re better at spontaneously answering questions, rather than preparing what to say, having these questions in the back of your mind will at least give you something to think about beforehand, rather than it being a shock on the day.
