HOW TO PREPARE FOR JOB INTERVIEW?

      

          How well you perform at an interview will largely depend on how well you have prepared for it. Failure to correctly prepare almost certainly means you will not perform at your best. In some cases, it will mean performing quite badly, which may contribute to the erosion of your confidence. Even if you’re lucky enough to be the favoured candidate, and are almost certain to win the position by just turning up, you should still take the time to prepare because the better you perform, the greater the likelihood that you will negotiate a better salary—and often the difference in money can be substantial. We’ve all heard people boast that they’ve never prepared for an interview in their lives and have done all right. Whilst this boast may not be an idle one, closer inspection will usually reveal that these people were: 

• lucky—that is, in the right place at the right time; 
• well connected; 
• working in a favourable labour market where there was a huge demand for employees coupled with low supply; 
• applying for jobs well within their comfort zone—that is, not stretching themselves to improve their position; or
• applying for jobs internally and competing mainly against external candidates.

The case for preparation

     The argument for interview preparation becomes compelling when you give some thought to the basic nature of interviews. Not only are you expected to sell yourself in a competitive environment, but you’re also expected to compress large and often complex pieces of information into neat and highly articulate answers that avoid any negative connotations and contain the information the interviewer wants to hear. It’s no wonder people’s stress levels increase. But it doesn’t end there. There are three additional reasons that make the case for interview preparation even more compelling:

• Interviews are rare events, thus making them unfamiliar and awkward.
• Many people find it very difficult to sell themselves at interviews because they’ve been conditioned by family and society not to blow their own trumpet. Making simple statements such as ‘I am very good at selling xyz’ can be quite an obstacle to overcome.
• In most interviews, coming second isn’t good enough. It’s not just a matter of performing well; it’s also a matter of beating everyone else. It is unimaginable that you would fail to prepare for an event that is infrequent, competitive and requires behaviours not normally used. Yet that is exactly what people do when they walk into an interview without preparation.

What is incorrect preparation?

     Incorrect preparation is any preparation that will not optimise your performance at an interview. Rote-learning generic answers that someone else has prepared has limited value. At best, they can give you an insight into what may constitute a good answer; at worst, they simply lead you astray. It is important to understand that, in the vast majority of cases, there’s no such thing as a single answer to a question. What may constitute a great answer for one employer may be viewed as quite ordinary by another. One of the worst things you can do is learn other people’s responses off by heart and repeat them at an interview. Repeating other people’s so-called great answers can make you sound disingenuous and make you look a bit ridiculous when asked a probing follow up question. It makes a lot more sense to prepare your own answers.

Advantages of preparation

Taking the time to correctly prepare for an interview will:

• improve your confidence levels;
• assist you in answering questions succinctly, as opposed to taking forever to make a simple point;
• help you know what to say and how to say it;
• assist you in handling difficult questions;
• help you avoid saying things that will make a negative impression;
• improve your rapport-building skills.

Knowing the things that are important to interviewers One of the keys to knowing what to prepare lies in understanding the needs of the interviewer. Once you know the things that are

important to interviewers, interview preparation suddenly becomes lot clearer and a lot more manageable. The vast majority of interviewers—whether or not they realise it—want to hear three things from you. In fact, nearly all good interview questions boil down to these three key generic questions:

• Can you do the job? In other words, do you have the skills, knowledge, experience or potential to perform well in the job? Most interviewers will spend the majority of the interview probing you on this question. They’ll want to know what you’ve done, how you did it and what the outcomes were. In the event you have not performed a particular duty, they will try to ascertain your potential to do the job.
• Are you the sort of person they can work with? Another way of stating this question is: Will you fit into the existing culture of the organisation? Or, in the case of small organisations: Will you get on with the boss? Whilst interviewers generally spend a lot less time on this question, it is nevertheless a vitally important one— that’s because no one wants to work with someone they don’t like, even if they can do the job.
• How motivated are you? In other words, what energy levels and drive do you bring to the position? You may not even be asked a question about your motivation levels, but you fail to address it at your peril. As we all know, highly motivated employees are keenly sought after by employers—with good reason.

There are two significant benefits in knowing that interviewers are keenly interested in these three generic questions, and that the vast majority of questions they can ask fall under one or more of these categories. First, it guides you in the preparation of your answers (a large part of this book is based on answering these three key questions). Rather than spending lots of time wading through randomly selected questions in the hope that you will have prepared the right answers, an understanding of the significance of the three key generic questions provides a direction and platform for your preparation. In short, you are able to plan your preparation around the following issues:

• your skills, knowledge and experience—can you do the job?
• your personal attributes—are you the sort of person they can work with? 
• your motivation levels

Second, it provides a useful way to deal with questions at the actual interview. By sorting interview questions into one or more of the three generic question categories, your answers will gain added structure and a clearer direction simply because you know what the underlying purpose of the questions is. By learning how to recognise the real intent of a question, you minimise your chances of giving the wrong answer and/or waffling.