The interview.

Covid-19 saw a new way of hiring – remotely. For the first time, employers were hiring without having actually met the candidate in person. Whilst employers are now increasingly meeting candidates face-to-face as part of their hiring process, there will often still be a virtual element, usually in the initial stages.

This can be beneficial to both parties, particularly the candidate as the need to travel is taken away and this reduces the time taken away from your day, but it does also raise its own challenges.

Whether in person or virtual, we have put together some tips to help you put your best foot forward and make a good impression:

• Dress for the occasion. Always assume the interview will be formal, unless told otherwise. This goes for interviews that are virtual as well as fact to face. You should dress to impress (suited and booted). You can always ask the recruiter for advice. Sometimes interviews will be a more informal “coffee chat”. It’s still advisable to dress professionally unless you’re told otherwise.

• Prepare your environment (virtual interviews). Make sure you’re in a quiet environment, move the dog/cat to another room, put your phone on silent and make sure there is nothing distracting behind you. You want the interviewer to focus on you. Test the link out beforehand and make sure you’ve got a strong WIFI signal. Have a pen and paper handy. Try to avoid typing your notes as this can be distracting for the other person.

• Make a note of important numbers and prepare examples in advance. When answering questions, you want to be able to give examples to strengthen your answer and make a bigger impact. Revenue figures, targets, team size, transaction sizes etc.

• Practice answering competency-based questions. You can read more about these in our interview styles (will be a link) article. Have some examples ready.

• Keep your answers succinct and relevant. It can be easy to go off on a tangent when you’re nervous. Practice answering mock questions beforehand and structuring your answers with the STAR method (situation, task, action result) (link https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/interviewing/how-to-use-the-star-interview-response-technique).

• Speak positively about previous employers. Whilst you should always be honest, it can be tempting to be too honest when it comes to speaking about previous employers. You shouldn’t speak negatively about or criticise a previous employer. Whether it was down to cultural fit, a bad boss, difficult working conditions or internal politics, you can always put the situation on its head and talk about it in a positive way e.g. Instead of saying it was hard to make changes, to make decisions or get anything done, you could say you’re looking for an environment where you truly make a difference, play an integral part in the development of the team and where your ideas are valued. Get in touch with us (link to contact page or email address) if you’d like some one-on-one coaching for your specific situation.

• Body language and non-verbal cues are important whether you’re interviewing in person or virtually. Without the body language cues of traditional in-person interviews, tone of voice becomes even more important – you want to be confident and enthusiastic. Be aware of your posture, gestures, eye movement and facial expressions. Don’t be distracted by something else on your screen or your phone.

• Have a list of at least 5-10 questions to ask the interviewers. Some interviews are more conversational and you will have an opportunity to do this throughout. Usually, you are given the opportunity to ask questions at the end. It’s likely that some of your questions will be answered during the introduction from the interviewer so having 5 or so questions will ensure you have something to ask. Only ask questions you genuinely want to know the answer to – try not to ask questions that you think sound good or aren’t really interested in knowing the answer to as this will likely come across in the interview. We have put together a list of questions (link) to give you some ideas.

• End the interview asking if there is anything else they would like to ask you, anything else you can answer, or if they have any concerns around your application that might prevent them from moving you to the next stage. This is a great opportunity to address any genuine concerns they may have there and then, and may just bag you that next interview.

Afterwards

If you are working with a recruitment consultancy, you should contact your recruiter to give them your feedback on how the interview went, your thoughts on the opportunity, and whether you’re interested in pursuing it further. The recruiter should be able to give you feedback from the interviewer once they’ve received this.

Whether positive or negative, it’s always useful to hear feedback so that you can use this as a learning tool to help you with future interviews.

Read our Interview Styles to find out more about the different interviews you could come across and to help you prepare no matter what.