How do I prepare for a job interview?

Interviews mostly test whether you can give specific evidence for general claims. Preparing examples rather than answers means you can respond to questions you did not anticipate, which is most of them.

What you'll need

• The job description
• Your CV (optional)
• Paper for notes (optional)

Step by step

1. Read the job description and list what they are actually looking for.The requirements are the question bank. Almost every question maps to one of them, so preparing against that list covers most of the interview.
2. Prepare six or seven concrete examples.Situations you handled, with what you did and what resulted. A good example can answer many different questions, which is why examples beat scripted answers.
3. Structure each example clearly.The situation, what you did specifically, and the outcome. Keep the situation short and spend most of the time on your own actions.
4. Research the organisation properly.What they do, recent news, who you are meeting. Not to recite it, but so your answers connect to their actual situation.
5. Prepare questions to ask.Two or three genuine ones about the role, the team or how success is measured. Having none reads as lack of interest.
6. Prepare for the difficult questions.Gaps, a departure, a weakness, why you are leaving. Have a brief, honest, unapologetic answer ready rather than improvising under pressure.
7. Check the logistics the day before.Location and travel time, or the video link and your camera and microphone. Technical problems and lateness are what actually go wrong.
8. Practise out loud.Saying an example aloud is completely different from thinking it. Two or three run-throughs makes an obvious difference to fluency.

Tips

• Take notes into the interview. Nobody minds, and it prevents the blank moment where a prepared example disappears.
• It is entirely acceptable to pause before answering. A considered answer after three seconds is better than an immediate rambling one.
• If you do not know something, say so and say what you would do to find out. It is a better answer than a bluff, which is usually obvious.

Common mistakes

• Scripting answers to predicted questions — The questions will be different and scripted answers sound rehearsed. Prepared examples adapt to whatever is asked.
• Giving general claims without evidence — 'I'm a good communicator' is unverifiable. A specific example of communicating something difficult is what the question is actually asking for.
• Having no questions to ask — It reads as a lack of interest or preparation, and it wastes the one part of the interview you control entirely.

Questions people ask