You’ve finally made it to the job interview after all your efforts on writing a great CV have paid off. However, the hardest part is still to come!
Nerves can always get the better of us, and job interviews are probably one of the most difficult things to do. Keeping your composure is important, and the best way to gain confidence and stay calm in the interview is to plan ahead.
Here are 3 great tips to help you ace that job interview and land your dream job:
Guess the questions
Although you won’t be able to predict exactly what you’re going to be asked in the interview, you can still consider the most common questions and build up some mock answers in advance.
You’d have to be quite unlucky not to be asked a couple of the most obvious questions, like what your weaknesses are and why you want to work for the company. So preparing some answers to these common questions will make things go much smoother.
Ask questions
A fantastic way to impress the employer and show how keen you are is to ask your own questions. Most of the time the interviewer will ask you at the end of the interviewer if there’s anything you’d like to ask, and this is your chance to really shine.
Write down some questions and take a notepad into the interview. This will ensure you don’t freeze up and forget any questions you may have. You can also consider asking questions on the fly during the interview when the time is right. Engaging with the interviewer and asking questions in return will further demonstrate your interest in the role.
Find out more : 10 Job Interview Questions You Should Ask
Dress rehearsal
One of the best pieces of advice we could give to ace a job interview is to practice beforehand with a friend or family member. You’d be surprised at how much of a difference this makes when you finally attend an interview.
However, don’t give the questions to the mock interviewer, and instead ask them to create their own based on the job advert and the job description. Your friend should create their own questions so it is much harder to answer them. Obviously knowing the questions in advance means you are at a huge advantage, and this will not be an accurate representation of a real job interview.
Finally, don’t just practice one time with someone else. You should ask them to keep coming up with different questions so you can try again on another day. The more you practice, the better you’ll get at improvising and thinking of answers on the spot.
You should also ask for their feedback and consider recording yourself. This will help you to understand what the employer will see and hear, and you can continue to improve each time. Are you quite a shy person, or do you come across as confident? All of these things can be addressed brilliantly from a video recording, and it will help you to get over any nerves.
“Preparing for a job interview is the key to success. Knowing what the interviewer might ask is half the battle, and having some unscripted pre-prepared answers ready will not only give you a boost in confidence, it will also help your answers flow much easier.” ~
