THE INTERVIEW PROCESS GUIDE
INTERVIEWS
Interviews are an important part of the recruitment process.
During an interview an employer will try to figure out if and how you fit into their company or organisation. But any interview is a two-way street.
You’ll also be figuring out if it’s an organisation you want to work for.
See yourself as a valuable resource that is potentially available to an employer.
TOP TIPS FOR INTERVIEWS:
Be Ready to Talk about Yourself
To succeed in any interview, you need to be clear on what your strengths are and what skills you can bring to the role and organisation.
Make sure you evidence anything you claim with examples – this includes anything you have written on your CV or application form.
Controlling interview nerves
It is normal to feel nervous at interviews, but proper preparation will give you the confidence to handle the most common interview questions.
Accept that there will be some questions that you aren’t prepared for, perhaps because they relate specifically to that job and company/industry but remember that all interviewees will likely be in the same situation.
You can ask for some time to think about your answer, and you can admit to a lack of knowledge on a particular topic. These questions provide a good opportunity to demonstrate your enthusiasm and problem-solving abilities.
INTERVIEWS
TOP TIPS FOR INTERVIEWS:
Don’
t
try to memorise long answers
While it’s a good idea to prepare answers to common questions and STAR-formatted answers to likely competency questions, you’re unlikely to be able to remember everything you’ve prepared – especially if you’ve written pages of example answers.
Trying to remember it all will increase any interview anxiety you have. Instead use this preparation as a starting point. Move from it to using mind maps, mnemonics or brief one word bullet points.
Reframe your anxiety as excitement
Research suggests that when people reframe anxiety as excitement (e.g. saying "I am excited" out loud) it can help them to perform better in situations that have prompted the anxiety.
It is thought that this is due to the body's responses to both states as being similar on a physiological level. The reframing won't make nerves disappear, but can lead to perceiving the experience more positively, leading to better performance.
Visualise
Before an interview people often get nervous through thinking about how it could go wrong. Positive mental imagery can improve motivation, confidence and self-efficacy so instead of imagining the interview not going well, try to visualise it going brilliantly.
Visualise yourself walking into the room, shaking hands, smiling and confidently answering all the questions.
BODY LANGUAGE TOP TIPS
The Importance of Eye Contact
Make eye contact for a few seconds at a time with each member of the interviewing panel. Come back most frequently to the person who directed the question to you. If eye contact is difficult for you, looking at noses or eyebrows is a good substitute.
Stand/sit-up straight.
Rest your hands in your lap and try not to cross your legs. It is perfectly natural to move a little, and to use hand gestures. Sitting perfectly still or sitting on your hands can leave a robot-like impression. Try to avoid excessive fidgeting especially jiggling your legs up and down, jangling keys or playing with a pen.
Don’t forget to smile
A smile gives a great first impression, especially when you walk into the room, but also smile when you are listening to questions.
More top tips can be found on the Monster website.
INTERVIEW PREPARATION
Response to Interview Invitation
Respond quickly to the interview invite to confirm your time, date etc. If it’s in person, make sure you know the name of the person you are meeting.
Research the Organisation and Industry
Try to get a good feel for what the organisation does. Some companies provide information on MyFuture as well as on their own website.
Pay special attention to details of their mission, strategy and values. Try to bring these into answers about your motivations to work for that organisation.
Learn who their clients/customers are. Think about who their competitors might be.
Look at what their employees have said about them on Glassdoor (You will need to register to use this service. These employees often provide useful interview advice.)
Take time to investigate what is going on in their industry at the minute and how that impacts upon them and their clients/customers.
Research the Role
Read and then re-read the job description. Make sure you know what it says and can refer to it in your interview answers.
Some graduate careers websites have general role information for example, Prospects. Look for opportunities to speak to people from the company at on campus events.
Consider your Selling Points
Once you understand the organisation and the role for which you are interviewing, think about your key selling points for this job and your evidence for each of the elements in the person specification. It can be useful to use a mind map to remind yourself of elements from your degree, your extra-curricular activities and your work.
Pay attention to the things you really enjoyed and the challenges you overcame. Use this evidence to prepare STAR-formatted answers for each of the skills elements in the person specification.
INTERVIEW PRACTICE &USEFUL RESOURCES INTERVIEW PRACTICE &USEFUL RESOURCES
Practicing Interview Questions
Regardless of whether your interview is in person or online we have set-up an interview area with some common questions for you to practise in our career management tool MyFuture, which is available to Queen’s students during their studies and up to two years after graduation.
You can use the questions in the tool, or make your own questions and there is the ability to record and playback.
Find out more about the MyFuture Interview Practice Tool in our Careers Blog.
Log on to MyFuture using your Queen’s student login and start using the Interview Practice Tool.
Current Queen’s students can book a room during normal working conditions in the One Elmwood Student Centre for the purpose of undertaking virtual interviews.
If you require a room, please contact su.reception@qub.ac.uk
Useful Resources for Interviews
·Common interview questions
Queen’s students can also book a Careers Consultation to discuss interview prep for up to two years after graduation!
Book a Careers Consultation through MyFuture www.qub.ac.uk/myfuture
·Common interview questions and answers
·How to answer competency based questions
·How to succeed in strength based interviews
· Questions to ask at the end of an interview
·Tricky interview questions