Some people love interviews. Others hate them. Whether you’re a lover or a hater, we can help you prepare to put your best foot forward in an interview situation. From our experience of interviewing hundreds of people for a wide range of positions, nerves can really affect the interview performance of all candidates. Some candidates forget everything they were going to say. Some candidates can’t think past their current position and keep providing the same project examples for every question. Some candidates can’t think of any examples at all.
If you have applied for the position and won an interview, chances are you have the required skills, experience and knowledge. The trick is how to overcome your nerves and communicate them in an interview.
We recommend that you use the template linked here to prepare for your interview.
The template has five sections.
1. Tell us about yourself
Record three brief dot points here with the top three things you want to tell the interviewer about yourself. These are not personal things. These need to be relevant to the role. For example, you’re an experienced project manager of ten years, you’re an experienced manager of teams over ten years, and you’ve applied for this role because you’re really interested in working for this company.
2. Capabilities required for the position
In the left hand column, write the key things that the organisation is looking for—one in each box. In a government job selection process, these will be the key selection criteria. In a private organisation’s selection process, these will be the ‘highly desirable attributes’, ‘capabilities required for the position’ or generally the list of attributes high up in the advertisement. For example, experienced project manager, ability to build relationships internally and externally, business development skills, etc.
In the right hand column, list up to three dot points per criteria. For the project management example, these might include ‘BHP Billiton Conversation Program’, ‘Investigations Capability Project’ and ‘Leadership Conversations Program’.
3. Key projects or examples
In the lower section of the page, write some examples of key projects that you have worked on. If you’re asked for a project that demonstrates your stakeholder management skills, quickly refer to the list and use one of your examples there. For a more entry level position, record some activities that you’re particularly proud of and that demonstrate your suitability for the position. For example, a change you made to a process, a team you led, etc. These can include school or university projects and also experience gained whilst volunteering.
4. Why should we hire you
This question is quite similar to the Tell us about yourself question but may be asked at the end of the interview. This is your last chance to impress the interviewer.
Record here three dot points that you really want to communicate to the interviewer. For example, you’re passionate about this type of work, you’re passionate about the company, and you have the experience they require.
5. Questions
Record here a couple of dot points of questions you might like to ask. Use one or two words if possible. For example, ‘measure success?’, ‘key projects?’ or ‘key responsibilities?’
Print this template and take it with you to the interview. It is good etiquette to check with the interviewer or panel if it is okay to bring your notepad into the interview. I’ve rarely heard of any interviewer refusing.
We guarantee this will improve your interview performance. Even if you don’t need to look at the page during the interview, you will have thought through what skills, experience and knowledge make you suitable for the role and will be drawing on these throughout the interview.
Best of luck!
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