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You’ve been job-hunting for a while when suddenly the phone rings and you’ve got yourself an interview. Great. Except you panic. You don’t do interviews well – so now what?
First off you need to breathe. Calm down. Be proud of yourself for a moment; your CV has done its job and landed you an interview. Well done.
Now you need to start thinking about how you’re going to prepare for the interview. The questions you need to be asking yourself are questions like:
What industry is this job in?
How long has this company been around, what do they do and why do they do it?
What skills could I offer this company?
(Hopefully you already did a bit of research on the company when you applied for the position. Yay for Google!)
Now think of the questions the interviewer is likely to ask you – these will usually be based on what you’ve already said in your CV as well as asking for extra details on particular things you’ve mentioned. The interviewer may also ask questions based on your personal life, like what societies you’re involved in, what you do for fun etc.
You may also be posed the ominous question: “Tell me more about yourself.”
This, as tempting as it may be, is not an invitation to tell your whole life story. Leave out the bit about how you joined a mariachi band as a teen, or the time you broke your ankle jumping from the second story window as a dare.
Instead, tell the interviewer relevant things you’ve learnt from past jobs, skills you’ve gained and achievements you’d like to highlight (even though that’s less exciting than when you smashed that beer drinking record….).
Remember to dress and act appropriately for the job you hope to get. It would be weird for you to rock up to an interview for a sports shop wearing a suit and tie (this literally happened at a store I worked at long ago), just like it would be inappropriate to wear spandex to any interview that’s not exclusively at a gym (and even then you shouldn’t).
What’s most important, however, is that you’re well prepared (that guy in the suit and tie had done his homework and ended up getting the job, even though our first impression was, “What the…”).
The interviewer will see that you’ve done your research, have the necessary skills for the job and clearly WANT to be a part of his organisation, which is what counts most when all is said and done.
Staff Training is a South African soft skills training company. Contact us at info@StaffTraining.co.za for more information on any of our +30 training workshops or call (021) 839 3021.
Follow Women24 on Twitter.
First off you need to breathe. Calm down. Be proud of yourself for a moment; your CV has done its job and landed you an interview. Well done.
Now you need to start thinking about how you’re going to prepare for the interview. The questions you need to be asking yourself are questions like:
What industry is this job in?
How long has this company been around, what do they do and why do they do it?
What skills could I offer this company?
(Hopefully you already did a bit of research on the company when you applied for the position. Yay for Google!)
Now think of the questions the interviewer is likely to ask you – these will usually be based on what you’ve already said in your CV as well as asking for extra details on particular things you’ve mentioned. The interviewer may also ask questions based on your personal life, like what societies you’re involved in, what you do for fun etc.
You may also be posed the ominous question: “Tell me more about yourself.”
This, as tempting as it may be, is not an invitation to tell your whole life story. Leave out the bit about how you joined a mariachi band as a teen, or the time you broke your ankle jumping from the second story window as a dare.
Instead, tell the interviewer relevant things you’ve learnt from past jobs, skills you’ve gained and achievements you’d like to highlight (even though that’s less exciting than when you smashed that beer drinking record….).
Remember to dress and act appropriately for the job you hope to get. It would be weird for you to rock up to an interview for a sports shop wearing a suit and tie (this literally happened at a store I worked at long ago), just like it would be inappropriate to wear spandex to any interview that’s not exclusively at a gym (and even then you shouldn’t).
What’s most important, however, is that you’re well prepared (that guy in the suit and tie had done his homework and ended up getting the job, even though our first impression was, “What the…”).
The interviewer will see that you’ve done your research, have the necessary skills for the job and clearly WANT to be a part of his organisation, which is what counts most when all is said and done.
Staff Training is a South African soft skills training company. Contact us at info@StaffTraining.co.za for more information on any of our +30 training workshops or call (021) 839 3021.
Follow Women24 on Twitter.
