5 Key Interview Tips for Graduates
When you have an interview coming up it’s completely normal to feel nervous. Carrying out thorough preparation for your interview should go some way to calming your nerves and allow you to show why you’re the right person for the role.
- Show off your skills
Demonstrate succinctly how you’ll transfer your skills, success and capabilities into the role. Be prepared to elaborate on your areas of development and how you and the company can work on these.
- Demonstrate your research
Fully research and make sure that you can identify with the company culture, values and perspectives. Make certain you can live and breathe these values and bring them to life via what they mean to you.
- Make an impact
The average interview lasts between 45-60 minutes, it's a small window of time to deliver the right message. Make sure you've made credible impact with your competency answers; utilise the situation, task, action, result, learning (STARL) model and get a feel for whether the interviewer is happy with your answers.
- Ask insightful questions
Show your self-assurance by asking insightful questions during the interview. For example:
- “What constitutes success within this role and company?”
- “How will I be measured in this role?”
- “How will your company help me develop and progress?”
- Gain a commitment
It’s vital to make sure you gain a commitment at the end of the interview. Close down the interview with something along the lines of:
- "Do you see me fitting in with your team?"
- "Do you need me to demonstrate any further skills or examples to convince you to take me forward to the next stage?"
- "What does the next stage look like?"
This will bring the interview to a neat conclusion and pave the way to the next stage.