Interviews, usually the final hurdle to clear on the road to recruitment, a nerve-testing, quick thinking and research led exercise in proving you deserve the job.

World of Work Careers Zone Information Assistant, Jenny Brizell, tells us about her experiences of interviews and how she makes sure she’s at her best on the day.

‘As someone who finds interviews nerve-wracking, I always feel that the more aspects of the interview that are in my control the better.

‘Being interviewed can be a stressful process. You’ve spent hours putting together the perfect application form. You’ve done everything right – tailored your application to the specific job, attended CV workshops and visited a careers service to receive feedback on your application form and IT’S WORKED! You’ve got the interview for your perfect job but then if you’re anything like me that’s when the nerves hit.’

The nerves she talks about are not rare, Ally Coulson in our last blog post told us how she prepares before an interview which helps alleviate some of the nerves, read that blog here: https://ljmucareerszones.wordpress.com/2015/04/08/preparing-for-your-first-graduate-interview/

Jenny echoes Ally’s thoughts about preparations to alleviate stress, as she approaches interviews the questions that flow through her mind include:

‘Will the interview be face to face or on the telephone? Will there be a presentation element? How many people will be on the panel? Will it be super formal or more of a relaxed chat? Will there be a test or maybe it is a full assessment day? Over the years I’ve been through quite a few different types of interview but the best way to deal with an interview (and to control those nerves) is through preparation.’

She also believes that you should spend more time preparing yourself to answer questions about the company and your motivations for working for them rather than your own qualifications and skills:

‘In my opinion, preparing for a job interview is not just thinking about what your skills are and what classification you got in your degree – you’re you, you know you better than anyone else does. There are other ways that you can prepare such as; learning about the organisation, what work they already do, who their customers or clients are and then you can think about how you would fit with that organisation.’

‘The World of Work Careers Centre offers the opportunity to take part in mock interviews to get feedback on your interview style advice on how to improve your technique. You’re also getting the opportunity to practice answering the types of questions you will be asked at interview as it is likely that the same issues and types of questions will crop up at most interviews.’

Finally, some words of wisdom:

‘By putting in a bit more time and really preparing well you will feel more confident and much more likely to give a great interview and get your perfect job.’

But you may be wondering; how much ‘extra time’ should I put in? 20 minutes could be a great start!

This week in the Aldham Robarts Careers Zone on Friday 27^th April at 12:00pm we are hosting our first ‘Learn how to interview well in 20 minutes’ session. If you’ve got 20 minutes free to improve the standard of your interview technique, you’re more than welcome!