Five tips for a memorable interview

Interviews may feel intimidating but they can also be a positive experience. If you have researched the organisation well enough and identified your key skills, you should be prepared for the interview.

Here are some tips to make sure that you focus on the right elements:

1. Build a warm relationship from the start

Make the interview feel like a comfortable conversation, showing the interviewers how easy you are to get along with. Interviewers come to a conclusion about you in the first few seconds while you’re settling into the room. Making the conversation easy forms a strong first impression about whether you will fit into the organisation.

2. Showcase your best skills

Your CV may contain hundreds of facts, but in an interview you will only make a few points. Make it clear to the interviewer that you have thought about your experience in advance and how that applies to the role. Avoid talking about obvious tasks and focus on how your skills specifically added to previous roles.

3. Turn your examples into stories

You will have plenty of opportunities to discuss your experience and skills, but remember that stories stay in people’s minds longer than a list of facts. Prepare the right examples and practice presenting them in a way that will excite your interviewer.

4. Make sure they meet the real you

Personality is a key aspect of ticking all the right boxes for an employer. Job descriptions give some clues about personality traits, but you can dig deeper. Don’t just talk about the best aspects of your personality, reveal them through good examples of where you have performed well.

5. Be credible and stay authentic

Interviewers want your answers to come across as fresh, open, authentic and not sound like they came out of a textbook. The right kind of preparation matters. Be clear about the stories you will tell at the interview and keep them brief. Match these stories to the role. List what you believe to be the top 10 employer requirements on a sheet of paper, and against each point, make a note of a skill story.

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