How to perform better in job interviews: practice answering questions

I send my short listed candidates some questions they might be asked in their interview. This to start them thinking about how to describe their key achievements and qualities in a succinct way. Expect questions about how your skills and experience meet the selection criteria. Review the selection criteria several times, jot down some points next to each about what you’ve done that shows you meet each of them. Are there any parts of the job description, or areas in your CV that may be of concern to the panel? Think of what you can say that you will do to assuage any concerns. Remember to remain realistic and honest!

Don’t assume the panel are as familiar with your CV as you are! In the interview draw out the highlights from your CV that support your claims for this role.

Practice behavioural questions

Behavioural questions are extremely popular in interview and most of us aren’t good at answering them. 

The key to both types of questions is to have already thought of examples of what you have done, how you have handled conflict that provide evidence of how you would act in the role you are interviewing for. For my candidates I offer to conduct a mock interview and this further gets people thinking about how to better phrase their accomplishments in interview. It quells the nerves, too, as it makes behaving in an interview a more recent experience. It’s a bit like jumping into cold water before a race, so that the initial shock is already dealt with. Or, another analogy: remember a time when you got back onto a bike, or horse, when you had not ridden for a while? It can take some readjustment to find your comfort zone.

Even if you aren’t dealing with a supportive recruiter like me, practice into a mirror, with a friend or record your answers and play them back to see how you might improve. 

Remember you can pause and take notes

You may get asked a confusing or convoluted question. Or in your excitement, you get off track and you answer the wrong question. Jot down the key words of any slightly complicated question, and glance at them during your answer to make sure you cover all the points. Make sure when you finish to ask the questioner if you have answered their question, it’s possible they are nervous too and asked garbled question that didn’t serve their intentions.

How to perform better in job interviews: Other resources

If you are a few days before your interview, concentrate on these preparation tips so you don’t bewilder yourself. 

If you have some more time, check out my interview tips bookmark stack on Delicious: http://www.delicious.com/stacks/view/LWrehD 

And my company website: http://www.desailly.com.au 

And please drop me a line to let me know what works well for you!