The key words for any interview: Plan, prepare, practice.
You cannot ‘wing’ an interview , your performance is down to preparing for it.
Plan:
Research the company/organisation.
What are their values/ethos/vision?Do you fit in with these?Ensure you know all of these.
Know the interviewer’s name, and use it during the job interview.
Be very familiar with the job description.
What are the needs/responsibilities of the role?
In addition to indicating what you know about the company, you should also try to develop a connection with your interviewer.
Identify your strengths to match with the needs of the role.Write these out in bullet points.
What is your understanding of the role?
Be very familiar with your CV and be able to talk about it in depth – every single line.
Know the dates you worked in every organisation as you could get caught out if you mention dates that do not correlate to the CV you sent to the organisation.
Prepare:
Write your answers to possible questions
Write, Write, Write. Edit, Edit, Edit.
Reduce what you write to concise, nuanced answers in bullet points and know them off by heart.
Get to the relevant point of your answer without taking the scenic route – keep answers sharp and to the point and do not get side tracked.
Practice:
Practice reading your answers out loud
Listen for “rise and fall” in your delivery while developing a flow in your answers – keep your delivery strong at the end of an answer.
Take time for a breath to pause – take it slow.
A benefit of an online interview is that it gives you time. Use your breaths to think about what you are going to say next.
Record the answers into your phone and then listen back and ask the questions – are you articulate are you sayinh “um” a lot? Are you impressing you?
Strong answers are those that are specific but concise, drawing on concrete examples that highlight your skills and back up your CV.
