Ahhhh, I hate interviews!!! I have an interview tomorrow for a new job. Hopefully it'll be more successful than the last promotion I went for But if I get a job offer I need to sweet talk Graham into thinking its a good job choice for me.
Speaking as someone who's been working in recruitment for fifteen years a couple of tips for the interview (of course feel free to read on or ignore!) Find out as much as you can about the role and company (obviously) Ask the interviewer what's most important to him/her about the new person Highlight what you have done/what skills you have that match what s/he's said is most important Don't bring up the subjects of money, benefits or holidays Never talk about why you wanted to leave a previous job - talk about why you wanted to join the next company (pull factors, not push factors) And here's the best bit of advice I can give. One that's been helping my various candidates for years. At some point near the end you're going to get asked "do you have any questions for me?" Very few people know what to say unless there's been a big old problem flagged up. Most end up asking about benefits etc. Well, one of the key things you should be doing in an interview is making sure that the interviewer has a big list of green ticks against your name in his head or on his bit of paper. And as few red crosses as possible. Now a lot of the time people don't get jobs because of those red crosses - the reservations. And a lot of those reservations are made because the interviewer has assumed or misunderstood something. Your job is to make sure the reservations that are plainly wrong are eliminated. So you ask what they are to give yourself a chance to make them disappear. So a professional way of finding out what he doesn't like about you is to say "Is there anything I've said that makes you think I couldn't do the job?" You're giving him the chance to say out loud what he's thinking without offending you and in a professional manner. And he'll tell you. And then you can say "I see how you might think that, but it isn't a problem because..." And hopefully you can turn a few of those red crosses into green ticks. So rather than the any questions bit being absolutely useless you'll show that you are professional, can confidently express yourself and you've had more time talking about how great you are! Best of luck.
Well I had my interview today and I think it went ok. I should find out next week. It was not Pete interviewing me - that would have been a shock!!! ) I didn't wear a red nose just in case though. ) Helen, I need to sweet talk Graham as the job is 45 minutes away so a bit of a trek for me everyday. Thanks for the good lucks, I looked at them before going in
