The Top 4 Tips for Job Interview Preparation

You wouldn’t seem human if you weren’t even a little bit nervous when preparing for a job interview, and in fact many people rank job interviews as nerve-wracking as public speaking and going to the dentist. But it’s hardly surprising, after all there’s a lot riding on your performance in an interview.

Thankfully, there are some simple steps you can take to prepare yourself better for an interview.

1. Do Your Research

Most companies have some kind of online presence, so it should be fairly easy for you to learn a good deal about the company. You should also try to learn as much as you can about the position you are being interviewed for. If you can, print out a copy of the job description and take it with you to the interview, and be sure to bring extra copies of your resume just in case the interviewer needs a copy.

2. Practice Makes Perfect

Being able to interview well is a skill, and the people who are best at it practice, practice and practice some more in order to prepare. Sometimes there are opportunities through career services to mock interview. A mock interview would usually be conducted by an employer or a career services professional, and it’s basically you being interviewed for a pretend job. Mock interviews are helpful because they can offer a release from your nervousness and the interviewers are usually able to provide feedback on your skills.

Another option is to ask a friend or family member to “role play” an interview with you. If you have a webcam or camera, you can try recording your performance and analysing the areas where you think you need improvement.

3. Know Interview Lingo

A lot of companies are making use of behavioural interview techniques, which requires the candidate to provide situations from their previous experience in which they would have to specify tasks, actions and outcomes.

Questions may be asked like “tell me about a time when…” or “give me an example of a time when…” This gives you a chance to share previous work experiences and in turn the interviewer can discover what you learned from your experiences. Companies prefer to use this technique because it provides them with information on a candidate that is unlikely to be written on a resume.

4. Sell Yourself & Build The Business Case

People going to be interviewed should think about the business case of why they should be hired. The interviewer needs to have a good, solid reason to present an offer to a candidate. With this in mind, candidates should think about their knowledge, skills and abilities and most importantly think about how these would benefit the hiring organization.