A recent study on Glassdoor shares 8 top interview tips from career experts. No matter how great your confidence, interviews are not easy and preparation is key! It’s not uncommon to forget important points that you really wanted to mention, or to slip up on your words, however, an interviewer will always notice how well prepared you are (or not).
Glassdoor have gathered some of the most valuable interview tips from a number of career experts to make sure you feel as confident as can be going into your interview.
1. Research
It’s not rocket science when told that preparation is key for any interview. This involves looking up all important information about the company you are interviewing at beforehand. It is essential to understand how the company works, their culture and more importantly, their vision and values. The interviewer wants to see a genuine interest from you and this will provide just that.
Researching the company is simple, just Google the company, take a close look at their website, check out their reviews on Glassdoor, find the company and interviewers on LinkedIn and check out their social media pages. This will also give you a good feel to confirm if this is the type of company you want to work for and would fit in to.
2. Practice
As mentioned above, preparation is essential and a vital part of this preparation is to practice potential interview questions prior to the interview. There is an abundance of interview question resources on Google so all you need to do is search for some standard questions, as well as some industry specific questions and get practicing.
Rehearsing your answers out loud is also extremely beneficial and you can hear what your answers sound like and if there are alternative words/ responses you could use after practicing once or twice.
3. Share your story
Most interviews will start out with the question ‘tell me about yourself’. Although it may not seem it, this question is an important one as it tells them about a lot about your personality, your interests and how well you would fit in with the company. It’s key to make your answer as interesting yet concise as possible ensuring it aligns with the company’s culture and values and the requirements of the role.
4. Provide evidence and data
It’s important when discussing your strengths and successes in your previous roles to back these up with metrics as this will show legitimacy in what you are saying. For example, rather than simply explaining you were a manager for 10 years, expand this to how many you managed, statistical figures of how their performance grew and how this helped the company grow and succeed.
5. Mirror the interviewer’s style
Mirroring the interviewer is deemed to be a powerful technique in an interview as it establishes a strong rapport and supports those in conversation by connecting through similarities in body languages and tone. It’s not to say don’t be yourself in interviews but it is learning to adapt in different environments to ensure all attendees are comfortable.
6. Prepare questions
This tip also seems fairly obvious but it’s surprising how many candidates turn up to an interview without any questions to ask at the end. An interviewer will always ask if you have any questions for them at the end of the interview and it is also a great guide for them to judge you on the quality of your question. Always make sure you ask something important such as ‘how do you measure success’ or ‘what would you want from the candidate in the next 3, 6 or 12 months’ as it shows an interest in the future of the role.
7. Ask if they have any hesitations
One of the career experts suggests their top tip is that candidates should ask the interviewer if they have any hesitations about them at the end of the interview as it allows the interviewer to share any potential doubts and therefore giving you one last chance to demonstrate why you’re the right candidate for the job.
8. Thank you’s
It can be easy to forget as the nerves may have got the better of you but you must always make sure you thank the interviewer/s for their time. An added extra would be to send a personal email to those who interviewed you to thank them and that you look forward to hearing from them. Make sure this is not rushed as you want to keep up the good impression you just worked so hard on making.
Your Quanta consultant will be able to support you throughout the interview process. To find out more about how we can help, contact us today.
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