Interviews

Review your application documents and identify key competencies that you have already successfully highlighted in your application.

You will have already submitted one or more of the following already:

• a professional-looking CV that focuses on your achievements
• a well-written application form which emphasises your strengths
• a positive cover letter that emphasises your main ‘selling points’ and conveys your enthusiasm for the job.

It is wise to have a print-out of your application documents in preparation for the interview.

You can highlight the essential competencies you have demonstrated, specific examples and other critical information you may either be asked about or that you feel you want to sell further in an interview.

Before attending an interview, it is important that you have a solid and in-depth understanding of the company/course concerned.

You need to research the organisation – its background, the range of goods/services it provides, its policies and so on.

LinkedIn is a key resource for research as it is often updated frequently with recent and relevant information the organisation wants to share. You can also find potential future colleagues' profiles and build your understanding of what similar roles involve.

Glassdoor is another useful resource and is often referred to as the "Trip Advisor for companies". It will help offer insight on company information and interviews based on the experiences of previous candidates.

Another key preparation stage for an upcoming interview is to scrutinise the job specification and highlight the key competencies the employer is looking for. 

Here’s an example of the ‘skills and experience’ an employer is looking for on a section of a typical job description for a graduate role.

The graduate has attempted to highlight the key competencies for the role:

Job description: skills and experience

• Able to work as a member of a team.
• Able to use own initiative.
• Able to prioritise own workload and to work to deadlines.
• High level of interpersonal skills to communicate with internal/external stakeholders.
• Able to lead and motivate other members of the team
• Able to exercise confidentiality when necessary.
• Willing and able to attend training as necessary.
• Willing and able to deal with people from a variety of backgrounds.
• Must satisfy relevant pre-employment checks.

You may find conducting this exercise yourself will be useful in identifying the transferable skills you have and how they link to the skills and experience the employer is looking for in the job description.

There are various types of interview questions so let's look at three of the most common types of interview questions:

Motivation questions

These questions check your understanding of the opportunity and assess how much you really want the job/position. To answer these questions, you need to:

• Research the opportunity and organisation
• Understand your own motivations and values
• Your answer should explain what you know about the opportunity and the organisation and why that has made you want to apply. Refer to how your own motivations and values fit with what they are offering.

Example motivation questions

• What is it about this opportunity that interests you?
• Why do you want to take up this opportunity at our organisation specifically?
• What makes you interested in this sector/field in general?
• How does this opportunity fit into your career plans?

Things to consider when preparing for motivation questions

• Why have you chosen this specific opportunity? How does it differ to other opportunities you have looked at?
• Why have you chosen this particular organisation over their competitors?
• Why are you interested in this sector, industry or field?

Think about these questions for yourself in an honest and detailed way so that you can prepare an answer in advance which is unique to you and your current situation.

Competency-based questions

Also known as skills-based questions, competency-based questions assess your ability to use a skill successfully or efficiently. They often start with "tell me about a time when you..." or "describe a situation in which you...".

Employers will ask about competencies related to the job description. If teamwork is a big part of the job description, you're likely to be asked about it at interview. These questions are best tackled using the STARS framework.

Read an article from Prospects about competency-based interviews/questions

Example competency-based questions

• Tell me about when you’ve faced a difficult challenge, and talk me through the steps you took to overcome it.
• Give an example of when you had to persuade a group of people.
• Tell me about a time when you have demonstrated good teamwork skills.
• Describe a time when you’ve shown excellent time management skills. Outline your actions and the outcome of these.

Strengths-based questions

These questions are designed to see if you are a good fit for the organisation by helping the recruiter understand more about your natural preferences and abilities.

For example, they may assess what engages and energises you with questions like "What comes easily to you?" or "When are you at your best?".

They might also ask you about your preferences. For example, 'What do you prefer: working in a team, or working independently?'

They are harder to prepare for but you can think in advance about your personality and how you like to work. It is good to use examples from your past experience to evidence this. Aim to be honest and natural in your response in order to let your personality come across.

Example strengths-based questions

• Which is more important: Taking extra time to produce high quality work or completing work more quickly but to a lower standard?
• How do you think this role will play to your strengths?
• How do you deal with setbacks?
• How do you feel when you don’t achieve the results you wanted? What do you do in this situation?

Make sure you leave yourself a good amount of time to prepare questions and answers in order to practice multiple times with a family member, friend, careers coach at the University or even in front of a mirror!

You can book a mock interview with one of our career advisors. By booking a mock interview appointment we can help you to best prepare for your real interview. Feedback and coaching following a mock interview will be extremely valuable in your preparation process. Login to your graduate MyCareers account to book a mock interview.

You may want to consider using ChatGPT or other AI to help prepare likely questions. For example, you could provide the AI tool with the job description of a role you have an interview for, and ask the tool to provide you with some example interview questions. Also, you could write out an answer and ask for some feedback or suggestions for improvements.

When faced with competency-based questions to help ensure your answer provides a clear vision and covers these areas we suggest that you use the STARS framework.

• Situation – Set the scene and give the necessary details of your example
• Task – Describe what your responsibility was in that situation
• Action – Explain exactly what steps you took to address it
• Result – Share what outcomes your actions achieved
• Self-reflection – How did you reflect upon this experience/what did you learn?

Look to allocate roughly 20% of your answer to the situation and task sections and the remaining 80% to the latter three parts. The focus of your answer needs to be on your actions and the result of those.

Example: Describe a past experience in which you led a team successfully

“I was assigned to lead a group presentation to a number of important potential clients during a micro-internship I took part in¹. I then delegated sections of the presentation to various team members based on their strengths and systemically reviewed their progress as a team, ensuring that the messages were cohesive and made structural and narrative sense. I also led a series of practice sessions to ensure that everyone was confident and had full understanding of the role they were playing². As a result, the presentation went very smoothly and we ended up receiving extremely positive feedback from internal and external stakeholders³. I was able to reflect on the feedback from the group as well as the challenges which I was presented with, so that I could further develop from such a positive learning experience⁴."

As we can see in this answer, the situation and task¹ is kept fairly brief while the majority of the answer is focused on the specific actions this student took², as well the result³ and the self-reflection stage⁴. The answer is weighted sensibly and is answered specifically and concisely.

Microsoft Teams (or Zoom) interviews have become more common since Covid-19, not only for students who may be unable to attend a face-to-face interview (for example during a year abroad), but also for job applicants.

There are a few key aspects you should pay attention to during an online interview:

• Check your Wi-Fi connection and test the platform you will be using during the interview.
• Plan a mock interview with a friend/family member a day or two before so you know the ins and outs of the software – including screen sharing in case you need to deliver a PowerPoint presentation. You can of course conduct an online mock interview with a careers advisor at the University too.
• Prepare your set-up (including a charger on hand, a drink of water and a clear background). You can either choose to change your background setting or blur your background, unless it is already clean and professional looking.
• Join the meeting approximately 5 minutes before the start time. You do not want to be too early as the interviewers may be preparing for the interview, while joining late is unprofessional.

Further to this, remember to:

• Dress appropriately – Dress as you would for a face-to-face interview.
• Practice where to look – Try to look into the camera to replicate eye contact if you feel comfortable doing so.
• Be aware of time-lag delays - Although in day-to-day conversation we sometimes speak at the same time as a person we are talking to, it's nearly impossible to communicate this way using Zoom. So if the other person is speaking wait until they have finished before you say anything.
• Finally, if you wish to book a mock interview, it would be a good idea to book an ‘online’ mock interview so that you can replicate the feeling and technological set-up before your actual interview.

Recorded video interviews are now a common tool used by recruiters early on in the application process as an efficient and fair way to perform a large number of interviews simultaneously.

Usually, video interviews are conducted using specialist software such as HireVue, Launchpad Recruits, or InterviewStream. You record yourself answering a number of questions and your footage is then later reviewed by the recruiters. Whilst some software will allow you to re-record your answers, this is not always guaranteed so practice and preparation is key.

In a typical video interview, you're presented with pre-recorded or written questions before being given a short time, perhaps 1 minute to prepare your response. You'll then be given a set amount of time, around 2-3 minutes to record your answer.

Prepare your environment

• Always keep a clear record of your applications, preferably in a file next to the telephone.
• Inform your flatmates that you have applied for jobs and that you may get a call from a company.
• If you have a call out of the blue and you are unable to locate your file, then try and arrange a more suitable time to take the call. 

Top tips during the interview

Telephone contact means that there are no visual clues unlike a face-to-face interview, therefore the tone and rhythm of your voice become more important. 

Let's take a look at some of the key elements to pay special attention to:

• Your voice! Pay attention to your tone (intonation), word stress and your speed while interviewing over the telephone. Without other cues for the interviewer, they will be paying special attention to not only what you say, but how you say it.
• Smile! Amazing as it might sound, smiling whilst you talk really helps. You will come across as more friendly and confident. Try it!
• One advantage of a telephone interview is that you can have notes and information with you such as prompts for possible answers. However, don't over prepare. You could consider small sticky notes with key bullet points to remind yourself of your main points/examples to highlight.
• Be organised - have a pen and paper to hand and your diary ready in case they like the sound of you and want to invite you to a meeting.

Remember a telephone interview is a precursor to a face-to-face interview and very few companies, if any, will offer jobs based only on a telephone interview. However, creating a good impression at this stage will certainly go a long way towards helping at the face-to-face stage.

The final stage of preparation and practice should be to prepare your own questions for the interviewer. It is important that you have questions prepared to demonstrate your interest in the opportunity.

Try and think of a list of questions before the interview. Some of them may well be answered during the interview – and if this is the case don’t ask them just because they are on your list! Be flexible.

Keep your question(s) related to the job role itself, such as: "How does the management training scheme work?" "What will my induction programme entail?" rather than “How much sick leave am I entitled to?”.

After you have prepared for your upcoming interview, take the time to reflect on your practice before the upcoming interview day.

Look to identify your strengths and weaknesses based on your own reflection and any feedback you may have obtained from a Careers Coach or from previous interviews.

Possible reflection points

• Think about your responses that weren't as clear as you wanted them to be.
• Analyse the responses that were incomplete.
• Take note of the responses when you did a great job.

For example, is there a certain type of question you are struggling with? Such as competency questions or a specific competency question.

Try to identify the reason for that struggle

• Are you struggling to come up with good examples for certain competencies?
• You haven't yet perfected using the STARS technique?
• Are nerves hindering your ability to best communicate your responses?
• Do your motivations lack focus? Perhaps you need to conduct further research on the opportunity or organisation.

Do you feel you are waffling - losing focus with your answer?

• Is this happening on a particular type of question?
• Is it down to nervousness or do you simply need more practice?

Highlighting and reflecting on these struggles will help you assess what you can improve, or whether you would benefit from further advice and/or practice. Consider a career coaching appointment to reflect on your feelings or certain struggles, or simply book another mock interview where you can further practice particular types of questions in a pressure free environment.

Finally, consider and prepare the basics, from logistics such as travel, to your Wi-Fi connection, and even how you will dress.

Browse information from Prospects on how to prepare for an interview and key tips during an interview

You can learn a lot from attending an interview, whether or not you are actually offered the job. Asking for feedback can help you prepare for future interviews.

The time to ask for feedback is not immediately after the interview, as the interviewers will need time to discuss and reflect on the interviewees' performances. Ask for feedback when you are told the outcome of the interview regardless of whether you were successful or not. If you were unsuccessful, you may be informed via email that you did not get the position. In this case, email them back and ask for a brief call to go through some feedback on why you were unsuccessful.

• Interview advice from Target Jobs
• Interview tips from Prospects
• Interview questions from Prospects