My previous two posts focused on how to prepare for job roles and how to ace the application. Here I focus on the interview.
Female staff who completed the Springboard programme at Warwick and who subsequently secured promotions share their experience and wisdom.
- Use the STAR method to prepare for interviews. Many interviews follow a pretty standard formula. Behaviour/competency-based questions are all looking for what you did and what impact it had.
- Identify potential practice interview questions working from the person specification and the essential criteria. Highlight the key skills in the Person Spec. Competency questions will be drawn from these. e.g. ‘Can you give us an example of a time when you had to….solve a complex problem/deal with a challenging situation/manage a project.’ Identify examples for each by using the STAR framework to create a mini story for each skill.
- Practice answering questions and record them. Play the recording back and make a note of how you could improve.
- Keep a note each week of your achievements. This helps with Annual Reviews as well as applications. Think of it as journaling but for your career. It’s a great way to capture examples of your impact.
- The Amy Cuddy power poses work pre interview to boost your self-confidence.
- GlassDoor interview index is very useful. Or you might ask Chat GPT. Enter details of the job role and organisation. While there are no guarantees the questions suggested will be asked, they can help you prepare.
- Be yourself and be enthusiastic about the role. You need to be yourself because you don’t want to get stuck in an environment you don’t enjoy, with people who don’t get you!
- Try to think of the interview as a 2-way conversation. This can help shift the power dynamic and ensures you don’t come across as desperate for the role. Each party is checking the other out- it’s not a one-way process.
- The key to both applications and interviews is impact and evidence, so try not to just say what you do but how you do it and what the result is. Effecting change is often a big winner so if you can demonstrate improving a process then talk about that. The best way to evidence your work is to talk about the impact it had.
- No harm in pausing after being asked a question in order to compose yourself. Repeating the question back to the panel can help you make sure you’ve understood the question before answering it.
- Have a notebook to refer to. You can use this to jot down possible questions for the panel. If you’re asked if you have any questions at the end, you can say- “I did have some noted down” and then check. This also works even where you don’t have any- as you could say “I did, but I think you’ve covered everything I needed to know during the interview.”
- If you feel at the end of the interview that you’ve not had a chance to say something you wished you had- you could ask: “is there anything else I can add that would convince you that I have the skills and experience you require for this role?” See also my post for other possible questions for the panel.
- At the end of the interview, thank the panel and confirm your enthusiasm for the post
One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.” Arthur Ashe
