Interview Tips and Tricks

I speak to many candidates every day, who are at both the beginning of their career and who have ample years’ experience, usually sitting on the other side of the table being the interviewer! Either way whether your experienced or not, interviews can be a pretty daunting process, especially when you feel out of practice.

I’ve included the below interview tips to help you with your preparation and make you feel at ease:

Best Foot Forward:

When you are preparing for an interview, punctuality, and the way you present yourself at interview is crucial. It gives a lasting impression, arrive not too early or too late, I suggest 5 mins before the interview. Speak with your recruiter and get a sense as to what the dress code is, is it formal, or are we talking smart / casual? Make sure you make eye contact at interview; it shows your engaged and confident.

Be You:

A lot of the time, hiring managers are looking for that individual that stands out from the crowd, as much as they are keen to tick off the technical skill boxes, they also want to really get to know you and your personality. The famous open-ended question “tell me about yourself?” Is an opportunity for you do this – Who are you? What are your hobbies? Do you have pets? What do you do when you’re not working? The trick is though – be articulate and straight to the point.

Research / Research / Research:

The more research you do, the more confident you’ll be on the day of the interview.

• Start by reaching the website and go on LinkedIn and view the hiring Manager, get a sense at their background and current tenure in their role.
• Start to research the website and social media channels – covering Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Pinterest / LinkedIn
• Think about the role and the skills they require? What can you bring to the table? / What key examples to you have that highlight your experience: 
• Any examples of work/ projects/campaigns from previous roles that align?
• Think about your past key achievements – What were they? How did you achieve these?
• What challenges have the previously faced in your role and how did you overcome this?
• How do you build relationships with your peers? / How do you problem solve?
• What are your key areas that you wish to focus on developing?

S.T.A.R Technique:

These days interviews tend to be a mixture of behavioural, competency and situational type questions, start to really think about fresh examples you can share in your interview. Your interest/ understanding of the industry and culture fit will play a key role in this position so please ensure you research the company in depth. Your ability to articulate yourself well in interview will be key – remember the STAR technique (Situation / Task / Action / Result). Break your answer into 4 parts,

(e.g. The situation was we were not hitting growth, the task I was given was to develop a marketing strategy to generate new customers, I developed a clear strategy focused on customer acquisition and retention, using data to formula a robust plan, the overall result proved successful as we hit 12% YOY growth.)

Waffle:

A standard interview should normally go on average for approximately one hour. This is your window of opportunity to shine. As you navigate through the questions, be methodical and articulate your answer concisely. It’s important to get straight to the point, to avoid going too over time.

Your Questions:

Think about smart question to ask at the interview. Some examples here would be:

• What type of new projects and campaigns do they have planned for the next 6-12 months?
• Key challenges that I may face? / What’s the culture like? / Why do they like working at Client…….X
• What is the hiring managers management style? how do they like to manage the team?
• Take along with you a notebook and prepared questions so you can take notes.

Conclusion:

Once the interview has been completed its important to thank the interviewer for their time and for the opportunity to meet with them. It's also a lovely touch to follow up on email, with a thank you. If you are not successful for the role, its important to always ask for feedback, and learn from it.

Good luck with the Interview, please reach out to me, should you have any questions on the above, and I’d be happy to help / advise.

The above are some key tools to keep in your interview toolbox, setting you up for success and getting you ready to impress!

Contact Lucy!

If you would like to have a conversation about your career, reach out to Lucy at New Chapter Talent via:

✉️ lucy@newchaptertalent.com.au

Or connect with Lucy on LinkedIn. She is a wealth of knowledge in all things recruitment!

For more insights, news, career opportunities and job vacancies, follow New Talent Chapter on LinkedIn.