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Prepare to succeed

A job interview holds nothing to fear if you are willing to invest time and effort beforehand, says Carol Banks

EVERY WEEK thousands of jobs are advertised and thousands more hopeful people apply for them. How do you ensure that you are the successful candidate? An interview is about testing competence and probing compatibility between you and the employer. Anyone can make claims when applying for a job but at the interview these must be demonstrated and substantiated with evidence. And to succeed you must show an employer how you can bring benefits to them.

The key is preparation. Remember, failing to prepare is preparing to fail. First you must research your prospective employer. If it has a website, explore it. Read relevant reports and professional journals. And seek advice from colleagues who have worked for that employer or who specialise in the relevant field.

Next you must research the role. Update your knowledge about the field, including new guidelines and procedures. Search the internet, carry out literature searches and read up on core requirements for the post. Then match your skills against the post requirements. The interviewer will check the claims on your application form and request demonstrable evidence.

Good preparation requires the extraction of key requirements from the advertisement and job description, and identifying the essential skills and knowledge from the person specification. For example, these may require effective, up-to-date, research-based clinical practice, communication, leadership and teaching experience. There may be a need for team management or community experience or knowledge of the NHS agenda and current primary care issues.

Match your most relevant skills, recent experience and accomplishments to each of these requirements. Each statement should be substantiated with one or two examples. If you have limited job experience, look to general life experiences to demonstrate skills. If you have wide-ranging experience, pick different types of examples to show variety and breadth. Revise your application. Ensure that each claim can be supported with examples.

“Be prepared to answer difficult questions.”

It also helps to consider the questions that may be asked at the interview and your possible answers. Think about your responses to standard interview questions. These often seek a brief career history relevant to the post or seek to establish why you applied. Practice summarising your experience, skills and achievements in two or three sentences. Think of potentially difficult questions such as those that require you to disclose failures or weaknesses. Prepare possible answers that show you learnt from these experiences.

If the interview process includes a presentation this must also be carefully researched and prepared. Once written, have a test-run to ensure it can be delivered in the allocated time. Practice aloud until you know the key points and can deliver them naturally. The interview tests communication as well as knowledge and skills. Long-winded responses that fail to answer a question will lose you points, as will presentations that are too long or do not cover the assigned topic.

An interview is a two-way process and an opportunity for you to examine the employer and work environment. Think about your priorities and the questions you want answered.

Having prepared all this, you must finally prepare yourself. Check your journey to ensure that you will arrive on time. Check that appropriate equipment will be available and ensure that your outfit is smart but comfortable.