Interview Preparations
Dressing appropriately, planning the route to the interview, turning up on time, researching the organisation, and not partying the night before are givens, but there are other aspects you should consider that will help your interview performance.
Before
Preparation: There is no way you can prepare an example or answer for every question the interviewers could potentially ask – it is just not feasible or practical. Think about 8 to 10 critical situations, projects, or achievements you are proud of or have excelled. You will find that you can shape these key achievements to fit a variety of competency-based questions rather than having prepared answers for every question.
Business As Usual: Make interview preparation your business as usual. If there is one piece of advice, practice interview techniques regardless of whether you’re looking for a job change or not. Same as most things, if you focus on a topic ongoing, when it comes to the crunch, it is not a rush and does not create unnecessary pressure. Make it part of your ongoing development plan to make time to prep for interviews. If you are brave enough, apply for jobs and go for interviews even if you have no intention of changing careers or companies. It is a great experience; it keeps you in the game, and you never know what opportunities may arise as a result.
Rehearse: It may feel uncomfortable and embarrassing, but there’s no substitute for rehearsing your answers out loud. Select a question randomly and act as if you are in the interview. If you have a critical friend (an ally with whom you value their opinion and who will give you honest feedback), a video camera, phone, or a mirror, ask yourself some questions and rehearse your answers. Watch them back and mark yourself as if you were the interviewer. When it comes to the live run, you will have made all the mistakes in the rehearsals and even if you trip up in the interview, you will have done it before and know how to correct yourself.
During
Scoring: As you’re being interviewed, the interviewers will no doubt be scribbling down notes. These notes will be based around a critical feedback form or Candidate Score Template – a pre-defined scoring checklist covering aspects like basic level of entry questions (e.g. motivation and aspirations, functional and technical experience, learning agility, etc.) along with the competencies the questions will be based around. A structured scoring template allows the interviewers, considering the same interviewers will not always interview all applicants for the same position, a way to calibrate across candidates. Answers will be scored on a points range, for example, out of 5 or 10, based on positive and negative themes in your answers. Be realistic; you are not going to score top marks in all questions – aim to get high scores (eights, nines, tens) in the majority of questions. The others may only be fives or six, but this is fine – be realistic.
Keep an eye on the time: Don’t sit with your watch in front of your face, but be conscious of how long you’re speaking when answering a question. It’s easy to get carried away, waffle on, and then, after 10-15 minutes, realise you can’t even remember the question asked – not a great position to be in. If there is a clock in the room or on your computer screen, if you have a VC Interview, or if you can overtly keep an eye on your watch, you’ll know when to stop. A key factor the interviews will be looking to understand is if you can deliver information concisely and timely.
Name and position drop: Don’t be afraid to name-drop in internal interviews or position-drop in external interviews when talking through your answers. Interviewers will try to understand at what levels you operate – be sure you articulate the roles and level of seniority of the people you have dealt with in your answers.
Keep your cool: When being interviewed, you will notice that the interviewers focus on some areas more than others. This could be an area where they are digging for more information because you’ve not been clear enough in your answers on a topic. They may want to push you to create an environment to see how you react when under pressure. Whatever the reason, assume positive intent and help the interviewers to get what they need. Don’t hesitate to ask for clarification if you are unclear on what they want. See this as an opportunity.
After
Don’t beat yourself up or deliberate too much: Once you have finished your interview and the adrenaline has worn off, it won’t be long before you start to dissect the interview in great depth, consciously or subconsciously – and this can go on for days! You will go through each question in depth and ask yourself, ‘Why didn’t I say that / use that example?’ ‘Why did I say that? That was a pointless thing to say. Etc, etc, etc. This deliberation can be exhausting, so recognise what is done is done. Take the learnings as experience, and make sure you benefit from them in the future. Often, what you deliberate over will be insignificant in the scale of the whole interview, and the interviewers will not give it a second thought, so don’t beat yourself up.
Learn and improve: When your feelings and emotions have subsided, take the time to reflect objectively on the event. Set aside personal feelings and review the interview from a logical, unbiased perspective. Make notes on what you would do differently, what worked, and what you will do again. Take the good stuff forward and leave the not-so-good stuff behind. ‘Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to errors that counts’ – Nikki Giovanni (American Poet & Writer).
Express gratitude: Whether an internal or external interview, it never hurts to drop a note to the interviewer expressing your gratitude for the time and consideration for your application. Also, an opportunity to ask if there is anything else they may need to support your application or if there are any areas they would like further clarification on, you would be happy to clarify. Hopefully, you will be successful in your application, but keep in mind that there is natural resource turnover in companies, and it is always good to leave a sound impression as when rolls come up, recruiting managers will always think back to stand-out candidates who may not have been previously successful.