The BEST way to prepare for a job interview
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You've applied for the job. Your awesome resume got the attention of the recruiter and you've landed an interview! This is your chance to shine, but I can't be the only one who gets a bit anxious about interviews.
It’s really normal to be nervous. One of the best ways to not be nervous or to be less nervous is to do your research. If you are well researched and you don't feel like you're walking in there unprepared you're going to feel so much better.
Here are our steps for making sure you’re fully set up for success going in to that interview!
1 . Research the company
What I recommend you do is you actually write a sentence or two about what the business does in general, and then also something interesting that you discovered about them. It’s a huge red flag for a company if you don’t know anything about them, and it might even be one of their opening questions!
Pro tip: look at their company values and pick a favourite one. HR people LOVE their company values and if you can work this in to your answers you’ll win some brownie points.
Some places you can go for research:
Website
Social media (sometimes companies will have a “Life@” page on Instagram which will be really helpful)
Glassdoor
Shareholder Information
Youtube
Mission and values
2 . Research your interviewers
These days it’s much easier to get to know the person interviewing you, and you should! At the very least, you want to make sure you recognise them if you bump in to them in the lift, or as they’re walking up to you to pick you up from reception.
Here are some tips for looking them up
Find them on LinkedIn
Look them up on Google
Check the company website page for org charts or bios of management
Look for anything you have in common
Remember what they look like so you’ll recognise them!
3 . Prepare your career stories
This is the MOST important preparation step, and where I think most people go wrong. What I see a lot is when they're preparing for an interview, someone will Google interview questions and then try to think of the perfect example for each question - for example “tell me about a time you've overcome a problem” and they try and think of the perfect example where they've overcome a problem. It’s totally backwards!
What you actually want to start with is working out the highlights of your experience and working backwards from there. You can start by listing out the things that you really want to mention in the interview. These are the things you're most proud of in your career, the challenges you faced, achievements you've made, degrees or qualifications you’ve got, or side projects you've done. You’re trying to think of things that when you’re walking out of that interview, you know you’ve mentioned your best bits. Summarise these highlights in a list.
The next step is to make sure those highlights come up! Go through the job requirements (or position description if you have it) and list out what they're looking for in the role. Now you go through your examples, and work out which criteria you can fit them under.
So let’s say one of your highlights is that you recently completed some extra study while you were working, and that you’re going for a role where one of their requirements is that they want someone with excellent time management. You could fit that example under that requirement by saying something like:
“I recently finished a Graduate Diploma in X at TAFE while I was working full time. To manage both priorities at the same time, I needed to be really organised and plan ahead. I found keeping track of deadlines and busy periods on a calendar helped me stay on top of things, and I was able to get some work projects finished earlier, and book some time off around my exams time so I could do both.”
You want to think - what are all the questions that I could use that as an example. Then if there are any criteria left that you don’t have examples for, you’ll need to come up with something. That’s when you might need to come up with something that was maybe a bit less significant, but at this point you know you’ve got a lot of ways to make sure your highlights get talked about.
The mindset you need to have preparing these responses is that the person on the other side of the desk to you is asking you the question so they can get to know you and what you’re capable of. They don’t need to know about that one tiny example of you dealing with a specific issue, they want to know your highlights!
4 . Prepare some questions
The last thing you want to do in your preparation is come up with some questions to ask at the end of your interview. You’ll most likely get asked “So, do you have any questions for us?” and if you say no, you’re missing a HUGE opportunity. Have some questions - it shows interest, preparation and that you care.
We’ve got a whole list of questions that you could ask at the end, but my biggest piece of advice here is to be genuinely curious. Imagine you were starting this job tomorrow - what do you want to know? E.g.
What’s your management style?
What is the team like?
How would you describe your culture?
Write down at least 3 in a notebook, and BRING. IT. TO. THE. INTERVIEW. When they ask if you’ve got any questions, say yes you do, and pull it out. You’ll seem professional and prepared and they’ll LOVE it.
Want more tips for preparing for your interview? Check out our weekly podcast Interview Boss all about providing advice, inspiration and support for job seekers.
