How To Prepare For A Job Interview

Employer Interview Preparation

The job interview enables you to assess the candidate’s suitability for your role. You can establish what work experience and specific skills they have and determine whether the candidate will fit the culture of your company.

You can use an interview to get to know your candidate on a more personal basis – to be as sure as possible that this is the right person for the role.

The more preparation you do, the easier the interview will be for you and the candidate
Make sure you know the job description really well and think about any potential questions the candidate may have for you regarding the role or your company.
The interview room should be booked and prepared, and don’t forget to let reception know you are expecting a candidate for interview.
Be sure to allow enough time for the interview, you do not want to rush. Be sure to greet your potential employee with a friendly smile and handshake and introduce yourself to them, this will get the interview off on the right foot.

Commonly, first interviews are for you to get an overall impression of the candidate

The format is often unstructured and you’ll ask open questions that lead to discussion and conversation. Of course, you’ll prepare a list of questions to ask and have in mind some specific areas you want to explore. Good questions to ask are:

Tell me about yourself
Are you committed to ongoing training and development?
How would you describe your personality?
Why does this role appeal to you?
Why should we hire you?
What do you know about the company and why do you want to work for us?

Competency based interviews are designed to target a specific skill or competency

The candidate is required to back up their answer with specific examples. It’s important to test skills and competencies relating to your role. You can relate back to the job description to identify these. Examples of competency based questions:

Personal Development – What do you consider to be your strengths and weaknesses?
Generating and building on ideas – Can you tell us about a time when you have had an idea at work, to either improve something or introduce a new way of working?
Strategic Thinking – In what past situations have you shown most evidence of visionary/strategic thinking?

Planning – Can you tell us about a time where you had a really busy day? How did you prioritise?
Deadline Management – Can you provide an example of when you’ve set a deadline? Why was this and how did you deliver the message?
Objective Setting – What measurements have you put in place in the past to monitor performance?
Drive for achievement – What has been your biggest achievement to date?

Building Relationships – Tell me about a recent situation when you had to build a relationship with a new colleague. Why was the relationship important?
Teamworking – Tell us about the last time you worked as part of a team.
Influencing – What are your strengths in terms of influencing others?
Customer Awareness – Tell me about a recent situation where you had to build a relationship with a new customer.

Leadership – Think of someone who is particularly effective in providing leadership. What do you think they do successfully?

Gathering and analysing information – Can you tell me about a time when you had to gather together some information, what was it and how did you go about collating it?

Decision Making – How do you normally go about solving a problem.

As part of an interview, tests and practical exercises using actual work material or examples can be useful, enabling a practical assessment of the candidate

The candidate can be asked to prepare and give a short presentation about themselves, or how they would approach the job or a particular challenge.

You can split the interview into part unstructured and part competency based, or have more than one interview; often this depends on the technical aspect or seniority of the role. It can also help to get more than one person’s opinion of a candidate.

At Gotcha, we can help you prepare to interview the candidates we have shortlisted, ensuring your questions and assessment tests will help make the right decision.