Advance Employability -Interview Preparation

Introduction

After spending hours researching a company and tailoring a CV and cover letter to meet the company's needs, you may get invited to an interview. Interviews can be daunting, simply because they are not a common occurrence or a daily event in our lives. Interviews take practice and confidence to complete successfully. Career development practitioners have a role to play in preparing clients for interviews and refining their responses and self-confidence. Career development practitioners can assist clients in preparing for interviews and briefing them on what to expect. It is common for practitioners to hold mock interview sessions with clients, which helps relieve some of the tension. Practitioners need to be familiar with how interviews take place and the different ways in which a client can be interviewed.

An interview is a detailed discussion that occurs between a job applicant and a potential employer. Essentially, an interview is a conversation during which a candidate and a potential employer exchange information. The candidate's objective is to secure the job, while the employer's objective is to gather information from the candidate. This information will include whether the candidate has the necessary skills and knowledge to do the job, further reasons why the candidate should be hired, and whether the candidate is suitable for the organisation.

Steps to consider when preparing for an interview

1. Create an interview checklist.

1. Examine the job description — read it carefully to identify exactly what is being asked for, and note any terms or requirements you are unsure about so that you can research them further.

2. Research the role.

3. Research the company.

4. Know what you are going to wear.

5. Practise your posture.

6. Arrange your transport.

7. Prepare questions to ask the interviewer.

Make sure you know about the company before you send an application through. Many people feel that submitting multiple applications will secure the desired job, but there is nothing worse than going through an interview and knowing nothing about the organisation. In order to do this, candidates need to be aware of the following:

- The required skills and qualifications needed.

- The main responsibilities and duties of the role.

2. Research the role. This might appear to be the same as researching the role in general, but it does have more depth. Every job evolves within its environment. Companies might provide a broad description of what is required, when in fact the nature of the job may be more demanding than described. Embark on a fact-finding mission — if you have internal sources, ask as many questions as possible about the job or the previous candidate. Make use of external and reliable sources to find out more about the extent of the duties involved.

3. Research the company. Researching the company is just as important as researching the role. This expresses your passion for the company and verifies whether you actually want to work for the organisation. The company's mission statement will give you an overview of its values and culture. Find a way to integrate this into your responses. Research their social media accounts or their corporate social investment initiatives.

4. Prepare your clothing. Make sure you are properly attired, in smart casual wear or a business suit that is not too flashy or overly casual.

5. Practice your posture and handshake. Be mindful of your body language. Sit up straight, and lean in slightly when engaged in conversation with interviewers. Do not chew gum during the interview. Smile, breathe, pace your speech, and be confident. Own what you are saying.

6. Prepare your travel. Are you driving, or taking public transport? Work this out before the day. Being late and stressed is avoidable if you plan ahead. Arriving late also creates a very poor impression — interviewers will not take kindly to latecomers.

7. Questions to ask the interviewer. You will usually be invited to ask questions about the role. This is an opportunity to show your enthusiasm for the role. Ask intelligent questions related to the role.

Now that you have a few tips on creating a checklist, let us focus on interviews in greater depth.

Types of interviews

1. Telephonic interviews. Often, for the first part of the process, some companies prefer to hold a telephonic interview. This serves as a screening measure for further shortlisting. During this interview, the employer seeks to find out why the candidate applied for the role. It is common for the employer to email or call the candidate first to set a date and time for the interview. Candidates will also be informed of the expected duration of the interview.

2. Video interviews. Video interviews are fast becoming very popular and may take place on a platform such as Zoom or Skype. This is preferred because companies find it a convenient and inexpensive way to interview candidates without the outlay of travel costs. The Covid-19 pandemic also made video interviews the preferred way of interviewing without risking exposure to the virus.

3. Face-to-face interviews. Face-to-face interviews are the most common type of interview, irrespective of whether the role is part-time or full-time. There is always a strong chance that candidates will go through a face-to-face interview before being selected for a post.

4. Group interviews. A group interview is a phase of the interview process where candidates are interviewed alongside other candidates who applied for the same position. The most important reason group interviews are held is to see how candidates interact in team situations.

5. Technical interviews. Technical interviews are held so that employers can assess a candidate's technical ability relating to the job. Engineers or information technologists might face this type of interview more frequently than others. Technical interviews may also take the form of a skills test. Another reason for technical interviews is that employers may want to test a candidate's problem-solving ability or numerical reasoning ability.

6. Behavioural-based interviews. Behavioural-based interviewing highlights how a candidate acted in a specific situation in the past. It rests on the assumption that past behaviour helps predict future performance. Behavioural-based interviews require candidates to illustrate times when they faced problems and how they went about resolving them. When answering behavioural-based questions, candidates will benefit from illustrating a real-life situation and detailing how they resolved the issue using the STAR technique as a guideline. This is an acronym that stands for:

   1. Situation — candidates set the scene by providing background on the problem experienced and giving the necessary details.

   2. Task — candidates describe their responsibilities in that situation.

   3. Action — candidates explain what steps they took to resolve the issue.

   4. Result — candidates share the positive outcomes their actions achieved.

Suggestions on how to handle behavioural-based questions

1. Identify a suitable example from past experience. Find an appropriate story or scenario from your professional experience that you can expand on. While preparing for the interview, it is advisable to choose a few scenarios and organise the stories according to the STAR framework. It is impossible to predict exactly how questions will be posed, so be prepared to adapt your responses during the interview by asking for some time to reflect, if needed.

2. Lay out the situation. Once you have chosen a scenario, set the scene so interviewers understand the situation and its complexities. If you fail to emphasise these complexities, interviewers may miss the main point, and by the time you reach the outcome, the message may have lost its impact.

3. Highlight the task. In highlighting the task within the scenario, you let the interviewer know where you fit into the overall situation. Here you provide the specifics of your responsibilities and mention any objective you set. An example: The task — "As the career development officer, my target was to increase our industry involvement by 50% in three months."

4. Describe the actions taken. Having given the interviewer a sense of the steps you took to reach your goal or solve the problem, use this opportunity to showcase your specific skills. Did your contribution involve teamwork or any specific type of software? An example: Your actions — "I used a previous, older database and started reaching out to industry partners. Relationships had broken down, so I took steps to mend those. I also added new industry partners by liaising with universities and NGOs. I invited other career development officers to join and offer their input and resources, and we hosted industry partner events, which involved media coverage. I hosted the events and gave awards to industry partners, publicly acknowledging their contributions."

5. Describe the outcome. This is where you emphasise the positive impact of your actions. Interviewers want to see how you work, but also what impact and benefit your actions had. An example: The outcome — "As a result of the networking strategies I employed, I was able to increase the industry database by over 50%, and I was able to secure bursaries and sponsorships for learners, because industries could now see how their money was being invested and were more willing to contribute."

How it comes together

Through another example, assume the interviewer asks: "Tell us about a time when you employed a strategy to meet all of your top priorities."

Your response:

Situation: "In my previous position, I had to manage student registrations in addition to my daily responsibilities as a schools liaison officer."

Task: "The goal was to register students into their respective degrees within a short space of time, while also maintaining relationships with feeder schools."

Action: "This meant I had to be careful about time management so that I could balance both of these demanding roles. Each day, I blocked out three hours in my calendar for a month and dedicated this time to clearing the backlog of student applications. I used this time to transfer student data and approve registrations. For the balance of the day, I would conduct outreach to high schools and speak to students about careers and subject choices."

Result: "As a result, the backlog of 18 000 applications was cleared within one month, and 20 feeder schools were visited, with a total of 4 000 high school learners receiving career information."

From the example above, you can see how the STAR method is put into practice. This method will help you arrange your thoughts in an organised way.

Conclusion

Career development practitioners have to update their knowledge of interviewing techniques regularly. The client's main objective is to practise their responses and help improve their confidence levels before the interview. The internet provides a wealth of information that a practitioner can use to improve their own skill set.