Smash that job interview!

Congratulations! You successfully got your CV to stand out from the pile of CVs the Hiring Manager received for the highly competitive role you applied for. Now you’ve been called in for an interview. What can you expect and how do you prepare?

There are several critical steps you should take when preparing for a job interview, but the first thing you need to remember is this: job interviews are a two-way street. What that means is that the company is interviewing you just as much as you are interviewing the company.

So, please do not go into a job interview process feeling that the company is doing you a favour. The company needs you (for your skills and experience) just as much as you need it (for the financial security and the opportunity to advance your career). When you get into this psychological frame of mind, it becomes much easier to approach a job interview without the fear and trepidation that the process often induces.

Ok, psychological reorientation out of the way, let’s explore some of the critical steps you must take in preparing for your interview.

1. Research the company

As obvious as this point may seem, it’s amazing to me how few people take the time to research the company they are interviewing with. And sometimes to catch people out, a Hiring Manager may ask at the beginning of an interview: “What do you know about our company?” At that point, if you have not done your research, you’ve already created a strike against yourself before the interview has even gone far. So, please don’t be in the category of people who are guilty of not researching their prospective employer ahead of time. Yes, as much as the company is supposed to sell themselves to you, the Hiring Manager also wants to see that you have some enthusiasm about working there.

Some obvious places to begin your research about the company are:

• The company’s website.
• The company’s social media pages (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube).
• Online searches to see what press/news information is out there about the company.
• Company ratings sites such as Glassdoor.
• Direct inquiries with people who you know work at the company.

Write down everything you have found out about the company as bullet points. The Interview Prep Worksheet has provided space for you to do this. This can form part of the questions you ask the Hiring Manager when the opportunity arises during the interview.

There are times when your research may come up with little information about the company. However, don’t immediately assume that this is because the company is dodgy/shady. Sometimes it’s a reflection of the fact that the company is still relatively new in operation. In any case, this is already one question you can ask. 

If the company is unable to explain why it has such a limited digital footprint and/or provides an answer that does not seem reasonable or is unsatisfactory, at least you have one reason to mark the company down. After all, this is a two-way street, no?

2. Familiarise yourself with the expectations of the role

It is just as important to research the company as it is to understand what is expected of you in the role you are applying for. Reading the job description for the role is only part of this process and not the full process. This is because job descriptions do not always comprehensively cover what can reasonably be expected of someone occupying the position you are applying for. For example, a job description for a Social Media Strategist may state that the applicant will need to come up with the marketing strategy for the company’s existing social media pages - which may currently be LinkedIn only. However, if the company decides to open a YouTube channel, then as an applicant, you can reasonably expect that you will also be responsible for managing the company’s YouTube marketing strategy.

Also, don’t fall into the trap of thinking that just because you have done a similar role in the past, you can skip the process of familiarising yourself with what is expected of you in the role. Just by virtue of joining a new company, there may be slightly different expectations of you for the role than what you may have done in a similar position before. For example, it is possible that because the company is in a different sector/industry, the role may vary from what you've done in the past. Whatever the case may be, put in the work to figure out what is expected of you. 

Beyond reading the job description for the role in question, you can also conduct online searches to:

• Find people who occupy/have occupied a similar role in the same industry/sector and see what other duties/responsibilities they carried out in their role.
• Search job networking sites such as LinkedIn for people who occupied the same role in the past and see how they described their responsibilities.
• Explore whether there are free sample assessments that someone occupying the role you are applying for may be required to take as part of the interview process; if you find these, use them as practice.

Whatever you do, do not walk into your job interview without having researched the company and typical responsibilities and duties expected of someone occupying the role you are applying for.

3. Preempt and prepare for questions you may be asked

It goes without saying that items 1 and 2 are aimed at preparing you for questions you may be asked on the day of your interview. If you fail to prepare for them, then you may walk into the interview process with a double strike against you.

Your goal throughout the interview process is to DEMONSTRATE - by providing examples - how suitable you are for the role. For example, if you are asked “Tell us why you feel you are qualified for this role”, a good way to answer this question is to underscore some of the key requirements of the role and explain how you successfully executed these responsibilities in a past or current role. I gave some examples of how you can do this in part 1 of this blog series, Can we talk about your CV, please? so refer to that post. The important thing to stress here is to keep your response to each question to no more than 3 minutes. 2 minutes is preferable.

It is also worth stating that irrespective of what role you apply for, there are some questions that are almost always universally asked in job interviews. You can find a list of some of these questions in the Interview Prep Worksheet. Download the document and prepare your answers ahead of time.

Some of these questions - for example: “Why are you leaving your current role?” - may be hard to answer, especially if you are leaving because of a bad experience with your current employer. If that’s the case, simply say something along the lines of: “I am leaving because I have discovered that the role and/or the company are not aligned with my longer term personal and professional goals”. However, be ready to then answer the likely follow up question, which is “What are these longer term personal and professional goals that your current employer did not meet?”

Whatever you do, do not use this as an opportunity to bad mouth your employer - even if you are leaving because you are right. 

Even if you feel you want to be honest about the fact that there may have been some friction between you and the employer - I wouldn’t recommend that you do this, but if you did - then simply say, “My employer and I are not aligned on some expectations but I would prefer to respect their privacy by not disclosing in detail what the points of contention are. What I am looking for is an opportunity to……..(outline your expectations of your prospective employer and the role)”.

4. Prepare your questions

If you embrace the interview process as a two-way street, then it shouldn’t come to you as a surprise that you too should have your list of questions handy to ask the prospective employer.  

As mentioned earlier, one key place to begin building up your list of questions is your research on the company. But in addition to these questions, some other common questions you want to ask are questions related to the progression trajectory for the role and the company’s culture. You can find a more detailed list of questions you could ask in the Interview Prep Worksheet.

5. Preempt the next steps

A good Hiring Manager should - at the end of the interview process - outline the next steps for you. However if s/he does not, then by all means, ensure that you are clear on what to expect before you walk away from the interview.

Examples of questions to ask are:

• When can I expect to hear back on the outcome of the interview?
• Are there more interview steps in the process, if so what are they and when can I expect to hear back on the schedule?

Once you are clear on these, note them down in your Interview Prep Worksheet and put a note in your calendar to follow up in case you have not heard back from the Hiring Manager at the time s/he said you should. In which case, follow up.

Wrap Up

That’s it for now, look out for the next part of this blog series. In the meantime, if you enjoyed this post, please share it with your network. Also, if you have any questions, email the upskhill Learning Team on learningteam@upskhill.com.

Lastly, don't forget that you can access the FREE Interview Prep Worksheet and complete it. If you’ve had success already in the job application process by applying insights you have received from upskhill, let us know by tagging us on any of our social media pages (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram).