Interview Advice - Hot Tips To Interview Success
1. Look Smart.
The first of our five hot interview tips is to ensure that regardless of the type of job you are applying for you should always look smart and presentable as this displays respect to a prospective employer and indicates that you take the interview that you have been offered seriously. Whilst many organisations will tell you that appearance is not as important as ability, it is a well known fact that a large percentage of employers will look at how professional you are at interview stage. Looking smart has an additional added benefit in that it can provide you with confidence and assurance as you engage with the interviewer and put you at ease.
2. Don't Tell Them You're Nervous!
As individuals there are naturally some people who are more confident than others when it comes to interviews, especially when talking about yourself and your skills and abilities and the second of our interview tips is to think before you speak. If you are aware that you have difficulties with self esteem try to build this up prior to the interview by practising what you will say in the company of friends or family. This is a great way to build your confidence and get used to public speaking. A common mistake made by interviewees is to try to gain sympathy from an interviewer by expressing how they truly feel with comments like “I’m sorry I’m really nervous” or “I’m sorry I don’t normally do this” or “I’m sorry it’s been a while since I had an interview.” A polite and thoughtful interviewer will usually try to tell you that it is okay and encourage you to take your time, however by then the damage has already been done. Adopting this approach is likely in the vast majority of cases to put off prospective employers who are likely to be concerned about your lack of professionalism or your ability to deal with more demanding situations and it sends out the message that you have little confidence in your abilities.
3. Do Not Lie Or Exaggerate
In the heat of the moment it can be tempting to lie about elements of your work history or to exaggerate your skills and abilities in order to boost the interviewer’s impression of you as a person, but the third of our interview tips is just do not do it! I once interviewed a male in his late thirties for a programming position in an IT software organisation. During interview he presented as a highly impressive and technically competent person and knew all the right technical jargon. However when he came to undertake a simple technical assessment lasting thirty minutes he failed in spectacular fashion. You will always be found out in the end, so honesty is best policy and this is the most important interview advice that you will ever receive.
4. Disclosing a Criminal Conviction
If you have a criminal record it can often be confusing and difficult to decide how best to disclose this to a prospective employer but as fourth of our interview tips we recommend that you do disclose this appropriately. In the United Kingdom it is a criminal offence to fail to disclose a previous conviction if you are requested to at any point in the recruitment process, or subsequently as an employee. It is normal to be asked this question at the initial application stage and a good way to disclose your conviction is simply to tick the yes box, write name of your conviction and then right next to it that you will discuss this in full at any subsequent interview. This approach ensures that you are honest about your criminal record but writing a full explanation on paper can be open to interpretation by the reader and it is much better to discuss this face to face.
I can think of an example of a female who had been convicted of murder. Simply recording this information directly onto an application form would have been likely to result in people screening those applications to have dismissed her form out of hand based upon their own assumptions and prejudices. Whilst this was clearly a serious offence further exploration revealed that she had been the victim of domestic abuse for a number of years and that on the night in question her partner had again been physically assaulting her when she grabbed a knife from a work surface in the kitchen to defend herself and ended up stabbing him in the heart. It is open to debate as to whether her actions were or were not defensible and a Court of Law found her guilty, but sometimes the context of an offences needs to be seen to allow a potential employer to make an informed decision. Clearly had she used the approach of disclosure that I have just described, she would be able to describe the factors surrounding her offence directly to the interviewer and this interview advice may have been helpful in her personal job search.
Spent Convictions
These relate to criminal convictions that do not have to declare after a specific timescale has passed. They often relate to theft, burglary, motoring offences or minor violent crimes but it is not possible to provide a precise timeframe for which offences are considered spent at which time. This is due to the rapidly changing nature of the subject matter and changing legislation. However the Job Centre or Citizens Advice Beaureau have some excellent guidance on when a criminal conviction is considered spent, so get in contact with them to discuss this aspect.
It goes without saying that there are some serious offences such as murder or sexual offences for which convictions are never spent and you will be required to declare them for the rest of your working life.
It is however essential that you do not rule yourself out of any potential employment simply because you have a criminal record especially as employers are increasingly willing to offer individuals a second chance and are more likely to do so if you are honest from the start.
5. Competency Based Interviews
Organisations now frequently use competency or behavioural based interviewing techniques in the recruitment process and the fifth of out five interview tips is to prepare thoroughly for them. Competency based interviews are based upon a Cognitive Behavioural and evidenced based approach, which looks to assess your thinking (hence the word cognitive) and behaviours (hence the term behavioural) by drawing on a real life example of how you have responded to a similar situation previously.
Typically competency based interview questions and interviews will focus on certain aspects of the job or competencies that are essential for an employee to have. For example one essential competency for a Computer Programmer may be problem solving skills. In this example competency interviewing might be based around asking a question such as "Tell me about a time that you completed a complex task.”
In a Managerial Position a key competency might be good time management abilities, a typical question might then be posed "Can you give me a specific example of a time when you had to prioritise one task over another, what did you do?"
Competency based interview questions encourage the interviewee to discuss their work experience and their initial answers will give the interviewer an insight into there level of ability, breadth and depth of experience. The key is always to stop and think about a good specific example from drawing upon your experience. Competency based interview questions differ to general interviewing in that you are looking for specific examples and skills that are directly applicable to the job and not just asking questions like "Tell me about your plans for the next 5 years" or "what do you do in your current job" which are too broad.
The most important thing to remember when being interviewed is; 1. Use specific examples, even if they don't ask for it. (This demonstrates evidence of HOW you have dealt with a similar situation) Potential employers love to hear about your experiences and you can use this is show off how you have handled a variety of situations in a professional manner.
Good interview preparation really does make a difference so take some time to think through some of the points described here and use it as a starting point to prepare yourself for that all important job interview.
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