How To Prepare Yourself For A Successful Interview

You’ve got the qualifications. You’ve got the experience. You’ve got all the requisite skills needed. You’re bound to get the job aren’t you? Actually no, because there’s the interview to consider.

The fact is, however amazing your experience, skills and qualifications are, if you don’t interview well, chances are you will not secure the job.

Interviews needn’t be too difficult, as long as you prepare. Take the time to prepare yourself in the days leading up to your interview. You will find interviews are less stressful, easier to deal with and you’ll have a great chance of getting the job in question.

The Week Before The Interview

Thankfully, most employers usually give you at least a week’s notice for an interview. You need to use the time that you have wisely. You may find that stress, anxiety and nerves start to appear but when used the right way, these are positive signs.

You wouldn’t be nervous or stressed if it wasn’t a job that you really wanted would you? The week before your interview, you essentially need to be doing two things:

1. Research

Research is vital if you want your interview to be a success. That means you need to research:

• The company itself: What are their strengths? What is their strategic vision? What is their history?
• The market that the company operates in: Do they operate regionally, nationally or internationally? Are they market leader? Are they an up and coming business in the sector? What issues will the industry face in the coming years?
• The company’s competitors: Who are they? How do they compare to the company you are trying to join? What are their strengths? What are their weaknesses?
• The job itself: What will you be expected to do? Where does your role fit within the broader organisation?

2. Prepare Interview Answers

You’ll never know what beforehand what questions you will be asked but it’s a good idea to research the different types of interviews and interview questions. You don’t want to prepare word-for-word answers.

Going through some typical interview questions and seeing how you would answer them is a valuable thing to do before your interview.

The Day Before Your Interview

The day before your interview, all of your research and question preparation should have been done. This leaves you time now to prepare for the more practical things.

Therefore, on the day before your interview you need to:

• Print your CV, references and other documentary evidence of your achievements
• Check transport – If driving to your interview, do you know where it is? Where the nearest parking is? Do you have enough petrol to get there? If you’re going by public transport, check and double check bus/train times and also factor in potential delays. Planning like this will save any extra nerves on a day that will already be rather stressful!
• Appearance – Shower or bathe the day before. You may plan to do this on the day of your interview but what if you wake up late or have to leave earlier than planned for some reason? At least this way, you will still feel clean and fresh. You should also make sure all your clothes are clean and ironed and fit you well. You want to get up for your interview without any of these tedious tasks to do.

The Interview Day

On the interview day, keep things simple and just endure your get there on time, with everything you need whilst looking clean, fresh and tidy.

Then it is all about putting all of your interview research and preparation into practice and giving the best impression of yourself to your interviewers. We’re sure if you have followed our advice, you’ll have a great chance of securing the job.