Ace your next job interview with advice from the experts at Be. Recruitment.
As the saying goes, ‘new year, new me’. Does that include a new job, too?
If you’re hoping to line up a role change for the new year, you’ll want to brush up on your interviewing skills to wow employers.
Read on to find out how.
As the Girl Guides say: Be prepared
Preparing answers doesn’t equal dishonesty, and answering spontaneously doesn’t necessarily equal honesty!
Consider the questions you’ll most likely be asked and work out how to best answer them to showcase your best self in a job interview.
Familiarise yourself with the key characteristics needed for the role and the organisation’s core values. Which examples from your professional experience best demonstrate your aptitude in each area?
Be. Recruitment cofounder Zena Clark shares,
“Surprisingly, it’s actually the candidates with more experience who struggle to give examples; they have so many to choose from!
“Newer grads might be more conscious of how situation aligns with best practice, as they might’ve just had to write an assignment on it, or whatever it might be. But to industry veterans, this will likely just be second nature – so it can be hard to identify examples without time to think about them.
“Choosing your anecdotes ahead of time helps you make sure they’re the best examples of the attributes the employer is looking for.”
Don’t get lost in the details…
After you’ve chosen some anecdotes, work out which details to include (or leave out) so your responses make sense to those who weren’t there for the story.
Boil the situation down to the basics so you don’t lose yourself – or the interviewing panel – in details that don’t support the overall point you’re trying to make.
…but spell out key protocols for good measure
When it comes to the procedures, practices and protocols of the sector, don’t skip over these.
As obvious as they might seem to you (and the interviewing panel), it’s important to demonstrate your thorough knowledge so they can have confidence in your ability to navigate the legal and administrative elements of the job.
Link it back to the question
Keep the underlying question in mind for every short example you tell so you can link your experience back to what the panel is asking.
A great way to do this is to finish each example with a short sentence summarising what you learned from the experience and how it shaped you as a professional.
Do what you can to calm your nerves
It’s normal to feel nervous before going into a job interview, but you can do plenty of things to help.
Make sure you organise yourself to be ready with ample time to spare.
If it’s in-person, that means planning your travel time to get there early… and then some, just in case of delays.
For online interviews, click through the prompts ahead of time to familiarise yourself with the software. You don’t want to click the link at the time of the interview only to spend five minutes setting up an account while the panel is kept waiting!
Present your best self
A good way to work out what to wear is by looking at how other staff from the organisation dress. If in doubt, it’s better to overdress than underdress for an interview.
Practice confident body language both during the interview, as well as beforehand to ease your nerves.
It’s ok to ask questions
Remember, a job interview is just as much about the panel getting to know you as it is about you getting to know the position and the company.
We all know how vital workplace culture is to job satisfaction – so it could be worth asking some of the same questions of the panel when you get a chance.
An excellent way to do this is to ask them to share recent examples of how the team you’d be joining demonstrate the organisation’s values.
You could also ask about what pathways are in place to ensure current best practice (particularly for clinical work) is applied across the organisation.
Use the resources you have
If you’re applying for a role through a recruitment agency like Be., ask your consultant to help you prepare. It should be free (it is with us!), so there’s no reason not to draw on their expertise.
Be Recruitment is reshaping lives through meaningful employment in health and social care. Get in touch for a confidential chat about the next step in your career – we’d love to hear from you.
Good luck!