Interview Tips Please!!

ryan86uk

Hi all,

How can I prepare for an interview? I really really want this job. 160 applied, 12 got through to the assessment stage and now we are at interview stage and I've just recieved an email saying I've been successful. Got just over a week to prepare.

Any advise? Aviation related job. 25-30K pay band.

What can I do that can make me stand out from the other candidates? Any tips, anything at all!

regards

November5th

Came across this last week - I read it before every interview:

http://corporatehandyman.co.uk/for-candidates/top-tips-for-interviews

I also carry a list of good questions - as I tend to go blank at the end when they invite you to ask.

Good luck

Crossy

Remember to make eye contact, nice firm handshake (not too firm!).

Do your homework on the company, remember that the interviewer will probably ask "evidence" questions i.e. "tell me about a time you had a difficult decision to make at work, and what were the results" etc

Try to think of some questions to ask at the end like what are the career prospects, how big is the team, does the company provide training?

Good luck - be confident:)

ScribbleNInk

Asking questions at the end is really important as the other posters have said!

Also, even though it can be hard, try to relax and be yourself as much as possible. The more they feel like they got to know you/what you're like a bit during the interview the easier it will be for them to decide if you're the right fit.

Good Luck!

Corporate_Handyman

I'm a headhunter. Wrote the piece referred to above. If you follow the link 3 above, there's other interview advice you can find if you go to the 'candidates' link on the right hand side.

If I had three tips that are easy to remember:

1. Have 2 minutes in your head about yourself. Keep it very general. The interviewer will ask if they want more detail.
2. Listen to the question, I mean REALLY listen, and answer only that. Don't anticipate the next question and answer that too - you'll tie yourself in knots.
3. Have some good simple questions of your own - leave questions about salary to the end! Ask questions like "From your perspective Mr/s Interviewer, what's the most important aspect about this job?" or "If you could do one thing to improve your staff's service to customers, what would that be?"

There's more stuff on the links above. Best wishes!

Kathy535

A colleague gave me a tip which I thought was rubbish. She said to go into the bathroom before the interview and roar. I did it, felt really stupid and laughed at myself. Consequently, I entered the room smiling, more relaxed than I had been and gave a really good performance (according to the feedback). I didn't get the job (sad face - someone had more experience) but got loads of useful feedback and the reassurance that the bosses boss now knows who I am and thinks I'm ready for the next grade.

Other, more practical tip, practice, practice, practice. Ask yourself questions, sit in front of the mirror and answer them. Do it again and again, use different questions and different variations of the questions. It's not really about anticipating the questions, it's about having examples and answers at the forefront of your mind that you can 'slant' to fit a slightly different question.

Wear something smart that you feel comfortable in. If you are wearing your super smart suit that doesn't do up without biting into your waist then that will distract you and impact on your non-verbal behaviour. Better to wear your smart suit which fits.

Smile, make eye contact and smile again. Be enthusiastic about what you have doe and what you want to do. Being passionate about something is very engaging. I do a lot of interviews and am always engaged by someone who acts like they like what they do, are proud of what they have done and want to do more.

You may get asked what you are doing now or to tell the interviewers about yourself. They don't want to know your life history or your job description. So, prepare something short that covers your selling points (the elevator pitch) that you can back up with evidence (you said you are a self starter, how does that manifest itself in your day to day work?).

Good luck!

tommytynan123

Crossy wrote: »

Remember to make eye contact, nice firm handshake (not too firm!).

Do your homework on the company, remember that the interviewer will probably ask "evidence" questions i.e. "tell me about a time you had a difficult decision to make at work, and what were the results" etc

Try to think of some questions to ask at the end like what are the career prospects, how big is the team, does the company provide training?

Good luck - be confident:)[/QUOTE
The ''evidence'' or ''competence'' questions can be tricky. Practising is also difficult alone but so can finding someone to sit with you and fire Qs. I do some voluntary work with unemployed and attempt to cover this area by email as follows:
1. Based on the competences for the job they are being interviewed for I draft some competence based questions and list them on a document.
2.They are all in an individual 'box' (border) which is coloured BUT the question is in white font so invisible. They have to highlight the box and change the font colour to black/blue and ... boom .. question?? Almost how it would hit you at interview.
3. Just find someone to draft them for you - I would but not sure how thats achieved through this forum. ??

Mara69

An excellent question to ask at the end of the interview is 'What is one thing I could accomplish in my first 6 months here that would have the most impact?'

This shows you have interest in helping the company, shows you're motivated, and that you're already wanting to know how to help them.

Dunroamin

I'm sure you don't want to give too much away but "aviation related" could be anything from cabin crew to engineering; some interview techniques could depend on the sort of job you're going for.

paddyrg

Read up a bit about the industry and know what's news for the client. Know who the CEO is, know where the offices are, have a few questions related to whereabouts in the company you'll be working. For instance, will you ever be working 'airside' (ie screened to work in the bit of the airport beyond security gates). If you're even going near planes, have an idea how they work, show an interest in the whole sector.

Try a quick perusal of PPRUNE to look for insiders comments from the target airline/airport/whatever - don't let on that you did (it's full of moaners and not particularly the impression you want to give), but you can find some useful insights there too.

As for 'behavioural' ('evidence') questions, there's not a lot of prep you can do for those, however if they're asked they'll typically be along the lines of 'tell me about a time something went really wrong and what you did?'. Interviewers who ask 'what would you do if xyz happened?' get stock answers, the ones who ask what you did last time xyz happened will find out how you respond under pressure. People who flap will always flap, people who stand back will always stand back, so that gives them a feel for how you respond to pressure.

If they ask a 'how many aeroplanes in the world?' - type question, you're not expected to know the answer, but they will expect you to work out an approximation and judge you on how you respond to a curveball. Do you fluster, do you guess, do you look it up in an encyclopaedia, do you look blank, do you ask them to narrow down the question to find out the exact parameters of what they need to know etc. You can't prepare per se, but not flustering and digging down to find the actual requirement usually reflect well.