5 tips for interview preparation

1.When preparing for an interview, put yourself in the shoes of the interviewer. Based on your CV what areas would you want to explore further and how might they assess whether you have the competencies required for this position? Come up with some questions and consider what examples you could give.

2. Research the interviewer. It is all very well (and necessary) to research the business you're hoping to join, but what about the interviewer themselves? Do you know their background? Use the tools available to everyone: company website, social media profiles or other contacts of yours who might know them - certainly your recruiter. Knowing more about them might help to identify shared experiences and areas to focus on (e.g. for accountants you might both have qualified in small practice).

3. Check where you're going. If you don't know the route, or are having to rely on public transport to get you there, make sure you're 100% confident you know where they are and how long it will take you to get there. You should ideally aim to arrive at reception around 5 minutes ahead of time (any more than 10 minutes early is just annoying).

4. Make sure you can get away from the office. If you have arranged an interview at lunchtime or after work, it's a good idea to make casual reference to a personal appointment you have to attend (e.g. lunch with a relative or dinner with a friend). This can be communicated informally to avoid suspicion, but will reduce the risk of you being asked to attend a meeting or to work late at short notice. 

5. Avoid rehearsing detailed answers. Preparation is essential to leaving a good impression with an interviewer, but over-preparing your answers to potential questions can be risky. You run the risk of hearing the questions you want to hear, rather than what is being asked, and you're likely to sound robotic in your rehearsed replies. 

Use your Recruiter for interview preparation!

Guest Blog: Daniel Cumberworth @ Balance Recruitment
Daniel is a Senior Recruitment Consultant at Balance Recruitment, having joined the business in 2010. He recruits for permanent, contract and interim accountancy positions for Law Firms, primarily in London.


To many people, the term 'interview preparation' is nothing more than scanning over an employers website the night before to try and remember some key facts about the business.  

I'm not saying that's wrong, but to give you that extra edge in the interview process, why not work collaboratively with your recruiter to give you the best chance of securing the role?

Recruitment Consultants will have built up a business relationship with line managers and HR contacts over a period of time, and should therefore be best equipped to provide you with an insight into their personalities, and what to expect at interview.  Often line managers will use similar technical and scenario based questions in every interview, therefore getting this advice up front from your recruiter can really put you ahead of the pack.

In the days leading up to the interview, it's worth having a good think about your current role (i.e. key achievements, core responsibilities, difficulties overcome etc) and jot some ideas down on a piece of paper. Don't be afraid to pick up the phone and call your recruiter to discuss this, it's part of their job. 

Whether it's a case of not knowing what achievements will be relevant for this interview, or maybe there's a specific competency based interview question that you've struggled with in the past, run it past your recruiter.  They encounter these scenarios on a daily basis and should be able to assist.

The better prepared you are for the interview, the more confident you will feel. This will become clear in the interview and you will have a better chance securing your next career move.

Naturally, a good recruiter will volunteer this information and arrange a time to have this discussion, but if not, make sure to chase them up and make a note to use a different recruiter in future!

What to do if recruiters don't seem to be helping you?

Firstly, I want to start this blog by stressing that it’s in every recruiter’s interest to help a job seeker secure new employment. If there is a reasonable chance they can help, they will certainly try to do so. 

There are however plenty of instances where a recruiter feels they are unable to assist. This could be for a number of reasons; some perfectly logical, and some based on the recruiters own instincts. 

They may for example concentrate on permanent vacancies and struggle to secure interviews for individuals with a series of temporary placements over a number of years (logical). Or they may just feel they have met with several other individuals with similar experience who they feel would be more likely to be of interest to their clients (instinct).

So what do you do when you find yourself in a position where the recruiters who hold the vacancies you are interested in don’t seem able to able or willing to help you? 

Firstly, you need to assess whether it’s just the market conditions that are the hold up (perfectly likely over the last few years). If not, you need to get some honest feedback from them. It may be that you’re being unrealistic in the opportunities you are applying for (lacking suitable skills & experience, being overqualified, being too expensive etc), or it may be for reasons an inexperienced recruiter is a little uncomfortable raising with you (e.g. poor grammar on written communications with them, concern over interpersonal skills, your approach, etc). Try to find out the issue and in some circumstances, be willing to take on constructive feedback.

Whatever it may be, it’s never personal and can be invaluable feedback to take on board. Remember that a recruiter has every incentive to place you with their clients and will want to do so if they can. If you can take their feedback and use it, it’s likely to have a positive impact on your career prospects.

It may mean having to reassess your career expectations, even if only for the short term. If several recruiters have fed back to you that you don’t have the level or type of experience required for the move you want to make, they could be on to something. In this circumstance, can they give some advice on how to address this or keep you posted on stepping stone opportunities that can get you there? 

If you find that you’re still banging your head against a brick wall and getting nowhere with your job search through recruiters, you may experience more success applying for roles directly with employers. Work out which firms you’d like to work for and add the ‘Careers’ page of their website in to a ‘job search’ folder on your internet browser. Check the sites weekly to see if any new suitable positions have become available. 

A bit of networking (real life and social) could also strike gold. Speak to your network of contacts and former colleagues to ensure they know you’re looking for a move. Make sure you have a professional online profile, by setting up an account on LinkedIn and update it frequently.

Researching an employer ahead of an interview

Everyone knows they've got to do it. The majority will spend time on it. But how many see value in it, other than to prove during interview that they've done a bit of research?

From my experience, I'd make an educated guess that's it's around 50/50. That's a high proportion of people who don't understand the benefit of doing some homework prior to an interview and therefore put themselves at a disadvantage in the recruitment process. If you fall in to this category, it's time to change!

Employers do of course want to know that the individual they're interviewing has looked through their website. It's the minimum expectation. Depending on the firm, their website may well provide nearly everything you need to know to get an impression of the firm from a potential employee's perspective. A detailed 'careers' section and a content rich 'news' feed are great sources of information. Many company websites don't provide such useful info however, and in these cases you'll need to look further afield. 

When asked at interview what you know about the firm, very few interviewers want to hear just stats and facts, e.g; "I know the business was established in 1845 by Sir Joe Bloggs, and now has 42 offices in 25 countries across the EMEA region, with 2500 staff serving over 600 clients". They want to see an understanding of what the business actually does, their culture, how they engage with their customers and what they're trying to achieve. It's also reasonable to expect that if they've been in the press lately (trade press or mainstream) the interviewee may well be aware of it.

The key point here though, is that you might not actually be asked "what do you know about the business?". If all you've done to prepare is memorise the number of offices and staff they have, you're going to struggle to drop it in to conversation naturally and are therefore unlikely to leave the impression that this is a business you know much about and are genuinely interested to join. 

Fortunately, other sources of information are easy to come by. A simple search of the employer name on Google, filtered to 'news' results may bring up some invaluable topical information about the business. Wikipedia might provide some useful data too. One of the best sources however is online trade publications e.g. in the UK, for a Law Firm visit: www.thelawyer.com, or for a Retail business: www.retail-week.com. All industries will have something similar (and if they don't - there's a good business venture!). 

Finding topical news articles can create great opportunities to show your interest and understanding of the business, by asking questions such as: "I read that you're opening an office in Paris this month. Would this role have any involvement with the overseas offices?". This can set you apart from other interviewees and is very helpful to have in mind when you're asked in the interview if you have any questions.

If you're interviewing via a recruitment business, the other key source of information is your recruitment consultant. A good recruiter will be a goldmine of information, and will expect (rather than wait) to be involved in your preparations for interview by sharing their knowledge of the firm.