As your interview approaches, depending on your experience, you may start to feel anxious or unsure of your ability to do the job you recently applied for. To help you get started, we’ve put together 4 Interview Tips to lower those stress levels:
Know your CV
Remember that you have been asked to an interview based on the information present in your CV. Learn important employment dates, companies and job titles as well as your educational background. The most common question to break the ice is ‘Tell me about yourself’ or ‘Bring me through your CV’, so always prepare a 2 – 5 minute summary.
Learn the Job Spec
Know what job your are applying for! Take note of some of the industry buzzwords used to incorporate into your answers and highlight the value you can BRING to an employer, in addition to what they are looking for. This will be very useful in anticipating the type of competency questions asked to illustrate your professional background.
Practice STAR questions
This method is the best way to shape your examples to questions like ‘Tell me about a time when…’, ‘Have you ever demonstrated…’, ‘When did you use X to…’. Choose examples from your professional, voluntary or extra-curricular activity to help build a wider picture of your experiences. Read more about the STAR Technique.
Research the Company
Visit the company’s website (if they have one) and note some important changes i.e. new branch openings, acquisitions etc. Use these as reasons to join the company and relate them to your own experiences.
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