If you don’t prepare strategically for an interview you may as well turn up in your pyjamas. An interview is your first and potentially last opportunity to shine and convince the hiring manager that you are the only person for the job. You need more than for the interviewer to ‘like’ you, you need to stand out from the competition both personally and professionally and in order to achieve this you have to approach the interview strategically. Here are our 5 ways you should be preparing for your job interview.<\/p>\n
There is a world of information at your fingertips if you know where to look and who to ask. It is your responsibility to find out as much information as you can about the company; from their company culture, what it is like to work there, their values, their past and recent successes, any awards or press. Knowledge is power.\u00a0The more you know, the better you’ll answer their questions and the better matched you’ll appear for the job. Remember to come prepared to ask one or two insightful questions of your own.<\/p>\n
Arm yourself with a little extra information on your interviewer. Use social media, LinkedIn and any other resources to find answers on their background or education. This will give you an insight into what is important for them, what they may be looking for in an ideal candidate and how you can impress.<\/p>\n
While most candidates go into an interview worried about how they will answer questions, the savvy job seeker knows that the secret-sauce to a successful interview is to come prepared with a list of intelligent questions. This means questions that you can’t find the answer to online or with a little research.\u00a0Something like \u2018What qualities would the ideal candidate have for this role?\u2019 or questions about the interviewer’s personal experiences with this company and it’s culture.<\/p>\n
Every word that leaves your mouth during an interview is an opportunity to ‘sell’ yourself and your suitability to the job. We recommend recording yourself doing practice answers so you get a chance to hear yourself and revise your answer before the real thing.<\/p>\n
When it comes to answering questions like what your greatest accomplishment are or\u00a0how did you overcome your toughest challenges your stories need to demonstrate your suitability to the role. Prepare for the interview by making a list of the qualities required by the job description and then think of stories that best satisfy these requirements. This will prove that you’ve already experienced successes in areas relevant to the role and show the hiring manager you’re the best candidate for the job. Also remember to back up your stories with quantifiable facts (numbers, dollars, or percentages if possible). Think of it as a start, middle and end; what needed to be done, what did you do and what was the result.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If you don’t prepare strategically for an interview you may as well turn up in your pyjamas. An interview is your first and potentially last opportunity to shine and convince the hiring manager that you are the only person for the job. You need more than for the interviewer to ‘like’ you, you need to Continued \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[301,217,218,176,398,390],"class_list":["post-1168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-job-interview","tag-hiring-manager","tag-interview","tag-interviewer","tag-preparation","tag-prepare","tag-success"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1168"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3140,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168\/revisions\/3140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}