seremify007
Junior Member
I'm often asked via PM for my thoughts and tips/tricks on the one-on-one interviews, and with the recent round of scholarships, internships, cadetships, graduate roles, etc... I thought it would be worthwhile sharing my views publicly rather than responding to each and every PM.
Here are the four things I would think about before I go for any interview;
1. Why am I doing an interview?
- what do I hope to achieve?
- what are the short, medium, long term positives as well as negatives?
2. Who is doing the interview?
- is the person interviewing me a manager in a company, a partner, a MD, a sponsor, an alumni?
- what does this person care about? what are they motivated by? (e.g. a sponsor wants to get bang for buck, an alumni wants someone they might connect with, a partner wants someone they can work with/mould, etc)
- sometimes the interviewers can change; and if they do, be prepared to change as well.
3. What am I applying for?
- is it a job? is it a scholarship?
- what will they want from me in the future?
4. Why are they asking the questions they ask? (everyone has a different motivation)
- is it to prove I'm ready to work?
- is it to prove I am willing to do this?
- is it to test my commitment?
- is it to see whether I am presentable?
These are just some of the things I'd think about before I go into an interview to plan my responses, how I'd interact, etc... and you will need to be agile in changing on the fly to suit your audience/interviewer at times. Obviously you still need to do the usual prep of thinking about your examples, identifying what areas you want to emphasise, giving yourself ample sleep beforehand so you are ready, calming yourself before the interview (noone likes a fidgeter), etc...
This year I've seen people tell me everything from sob-stories to people who admitted they had done absolutely no research into the career path they were applying for. This all comes back to what are you applying for, what is the person interviewing you looking for, etc... there's no point telling a sob-story if there's a set criteria for working as it's not going to make you any better or worse at a particular job, and when you only have a limited amount of time to convince them you're the one, you should be using the time to help advance your case.
I'll probably add to this later but thought it makes good food for thought. Good luck for now
Here are the four things I would think about before I go for any interview;
1. Why am I doing an interview?
- what do I hope to achieve?
- what are the short, medium, long term positives as well as negatives?
2. Who is doing the interview?
- is the person interviewing me a manager in a company, a partner, a MD, a sponsor, an alumni?
- what does this person care about? what are they motivated by? (e.g. a sponsor wants to get bang for buck, an alumni wants someone they might connect with, a partner wants someone they can work with/mould, etc)
- sometimes the interviewers can change; and if they do, be prepared to change as well.
3. What am I applying for?
- is it a job? is it a scholarship?
- what will they want from me in the future?
4. Why are they asking the questions they ask? (everyone has a different motivation)
- is it to prove I'm ready to work?
- is it to prove I am willing to do this?
- is it to test my commitment?
- is it to see whether I am presentable?
These are just some of the things I'd think about before I go into an interview to plan my responses, how I'd interact, etc... and you will need to be agile in changing on the fly to suit your audience/interviewer at times. Obviously you still need to do the usual prep of thinking about your examples, identifying what areas you want to emphasise, giving yourself ample sleep beforehand so you are ready, calming yourself before the interview (noone likes a fidgeter), etc...
This year I've seen people tell me everything from sob-stories to people who admitted they had done absolutely no research into the career path they were applying for. This all comes back to what are you applying for, what is the person interviewing you looking for, etc... there's no point telling a sob-story if there's a set criteria for working as it's not going to make you any better or worse at a particular job, and when you only have a limited amount of time to convince them you're the one, you should be using the time to help advance your case.
I'll probably add to this later but thought it makes good food for thought. Good luck for now
