Advice and tips please! I have 2 days to help shy and unconfident DS18 smash an interview!

[SilkySuky]

Hi there! DS has just been emailed that he has a face to face interview on Tuesday for an engineering apprenticeship that he really wants.

This will be the 4th stage of the process, he has been in to the business to do skills tests and hand speed tests as well as written personal statement and initial application.

It's with a multi national company with a very good apprenticeship programme.

We are guesstimating that he is down to about the last 30-40 applicants , there are 10 positions.

We have all day Thursday and Friday to prep.

We've watched videos, come up with some answers to common questions, talked about the person spec and how it fits with his strengths/ weaknesses etc.

No clues given as to whether it will be competency based situation type questions or? I'm self employed so haven't had an interview myself for over 15 years....I'm sure things have changed!

Is there anything else anyone can think of?

I really want to give him the best chance.

TIA

• have a look on glassdoor at past questions for the role and organisation
• practise for real (eg if it will be on teams, both do it on teams in different rooms)
• consider beginnings and endings (practise going into the room and smiling, and leaving)
• see if a neighbour or friend who he doesn't know can do a brief one with him too and give brief feedback
• look at the person spec for the job and the key skills sought, and think of three examples before hand of when he has done these, and have a rough sense of the one which is closest to the context of the job for each one. Aim to cover a range of examples during the interview, so it shows the range of experience. Having three examples of when used means, if he goes blank, he has fallback ones. Also ok to have taken notes and say, my mind's gone blank, can I just look at my notes...
• discuss what he is concerned about now, and brainstorm what he might do. E.g. if mind goes blank, 'I'm so sorry, could you repeat question.' Smile to reassure panel. If still really blank, 'I'm really sorry, could we come back to this one at the end.' Then remind them at end to come back to it.
• Have some questions to ask at end.
• Smile and sound enthusiastic for this role in this organisation:)
• Good luck.

Teach him the STAR technique to use as a frame for his answers- Situation, Task, Action, Result.

Encourage him to think outside the box for answers to questions- his answers can come from school, extra curriculars, clubs/sports etc.

Remind him that the interviewers want him to do well- it makes their lives easier when they have good candidates to choose from!

Make eye contact and smile! Teenage boys always seem to struggle with this.

@redmapleleaves1
This is brilliant thank you.

Never thought of Glassdoor, and 3 examples for key skills is a good shout
I did wonder if written notes would be ok to take in but your post seems to indicate that it wouldn't go against him?

We will do the physical practices as well as I think while he might think it's me being over the top, it would actually help.

Just some general advice, I interview students and graduates for similar roles a fair bit.

Maintain eye contact and don’t forget to smile. These simple things go a long way in demonstrating how engaging that individual is.

Dont worry about writing the question down or asking to repeat the question. Also, don’t worry about taking in notes and prompts if it helps but don’t read out notes or answers verbatim. Just use notes as a prompt.

Have a bit of an elevator pitch prepared about why this company, why them - an opening warm up question is often “tell us why you’re interested in this role”

if questions are competency based, structure the answer so that it’s easy for an interviewer to glean what the situation was, what task the individual therefore had to do as a result of that situation, what action they took to fulfil the task and then what the results were.

prepare a few questions to ask them at the end.

good luck!

@FirstFallopians that's a good technique I've not heard of before we will look at that, thanks.
@Hairyfairy01 absolutely, he does struggle with this.

Try and be confident. It's hard. Reframe the nerves to being excitement - it's the same bodily reaction - butterflies, jumpiness etc - but framed positively :).

He can pause before start to answer - don't have to jump straight in and start responding before have worked out what will say. Take a few seconds to think. When does answer, speak slowly - when someone gets nervous, they tend to speed up and rush speech. If you actively slow down what you are saying, you are likely to be the right speed for the listener, and it also allows you more time to formulate what you are saying and finish the answer thoughtfully and strongly, rather than it tailing off into "so yeah...." and can avoid it being too punctuated with a lot of "erm, uhm, like, yeahs".

Think of a couple of questions to ask at the end if they ask.

Consider how to demonstrate in answers that he understands the scheme and has read the material available about what it involves. The questions asked at the end shouldn't be about repeating that material, but if you ask the right question you can demonstrate that you've read that material carefully and are interested.

I was told when I was at school doing mock interviews to imagine there's a monkey. It jumps between the shoulder of you and the interviewer. The interviewer starts with the monkey. You want to control the monkey for as much of the interview as you can by speaking with gravitas, holding their interviewer's attention, building rapport, them being interested in what you are saying, them asking follow-up questions because you've said something interesting rather than moving onto something that you may find it harder to discuss, etc. If it's going badly, you tend to want to get rid of the monkey back to the interviewer, by rushing the answer or giving a brief or unsatisfactory answer. The monkey sort of made sense to me, but also, I find imagining the cute monkey makes me less nervous so I've held onto this metaphor.

Good luck to him!

I agree entirely with eye contact / smiles, even if it feels awkward. So much in an interview depends on likeability!

Watch the ted talk by Amy Cuddy (I think) called “fake it till you make it” really helped me if he’s a bit under confident! Good luck!

Role play role play role play
With as many people as possible
With people he doesn't know very well
Practice practice practice basically to make it a completely normal thing to do and not a Big Scary Interview

@SidekickSally we have spoken about an elevator pitch type intro and I think we will write bullet points down for him in case nerves get to him at the beginning.
Thanks for your advice.

Get him to talk to the mirror, practise that first hello and welcome and sitting attentively but not too nervous, smile, be aware of himself. Then he’ll be able to visualise himself in the interview

@FusionChefGeoff @Heyheyitsanotherday
This is all gold thank you!

If it is a large multinational try to find what their values are. A quick google should do it. They will probably structure their questions in a way that he can demonstrate them.

Good luck - my only advice is practice a good handshake. That’s a deal breaker for me when judging a person 🤣

@SilkySuky well done to your DS for reaching this stage of the process. A few things occurred to me as I was reading your post which may or may not fit the bill.

How about preparing an answer to the questions 'What attracts you about this company?' and 'What would you bring to this company?' (if you haven't already done so.)

Does your DS have an elevator pitch if he's asked 'Tell us about yourself' - a 60-second run-through of what he's done so far (academic, sporting, musical, volunteering, scouts, Duke of Edinburgh etc), his ambitions and aspirations?

Polish up half a dozen scenarios of your DS at his best, which he can then use to respond to competency-based questions. A single example tends to be adaptable eg illustrating team work and decision-making and keeping calm under pressure.

Has your DS practised making eye contact when responding and talking steadily? You say he is shy and unconfident, which may mean he trnds to look down and talks quickly.

A technique I have used with myself and others is making a voice/video recording of a mock interview. If you ask people before they watch it how they think they come across, most often people reply with negatives. When they watch themselves, most people realise they sound and look competent and together.

Have examples of things related to the interview plus things such as times he had worked as a member of a team, with the exalted split it up, what was the example, what did he actually do and what was the end result? When I interviewed recently we were very clear, you can take notes on and you won't be penalised for it, the person we appointed had notes with her, keep them brief so he isn't tempted to bury his head in them. Make sure he's got a note of any questions he wants to ask, if they've already been answered it's absolutely fine to say 'I had a list but you've already answered all of them'

There's a great ted talk about power posing too.

Studies done on people holding 'powerful' positions before interview performed better. You need to stand in an assertive pose for a few minutes before going in e.g. the wonder woman, upright with hands in hips. It apparently has an effect on confidence. Tell him to stay standing before the interview not crunched up in a waiting room chair. Straight backed and head up.

He had a few other interviews which were awful, two were via video where he recorded his answers to pre recorded video questions and then had a personality test type thing. I think the format completely threw him.
Luckily this one is f2f which I think he will be a bit more comfortable with, we plan on role playing and I'm going to try to rope my friend in on Friday if I can.

PS. Have him say to you now how he wants to come over e.g. interested, engaged, competent, teamplayer and write this down. Consider what this might look like together e.g. introducing himself and having a brief chat with another candidate in the waiting room... I do this myself for difficult things and it works surprisingly well to set a standard, think concretely and depersonalise.

Also remind him all the candidates will be nervous. So if he meets one who comes over as an idiot or a real bragger, remind him, this will be them being nervous.

Finally, while he might be feeling this is all or nothing, remind him he has done brilliantly to get this far, and if he weren't successful this time and really wants it, could always reapply next year, with the insights and practice from this year. Could help take some pressure off.

Ah, definitely no video! The STAR technique, suggested by a PP, is brilliant.

@redmapleleaves1 Btw Glassdoor was a good shout, there are questions on there from past interviewees for the exact scheme DS is applying for!

I know other people have said it, but please, please at least read the company website so you know something about them and why you might want to work there. If you can find information about the company values or behaviours then have a think about what they mean to you.

I have interviewed loads of people who hadn't bothered at all and it's such a bad first impression! One lad even told me he had deprioritised finding out about us because he had a few interviews on the go. He'd already told us he'd had to travel down to the interview, but he seemingly couldn't even spare 5 minutes while he was waiting around!

@SpacesNotTabs yes we have definitely done our research on the business but will be brushing up tomorrow, someone IRL suggested looking at their social media to see current news etc so will do that also.

Is it cringey to ask the interviewer what they like about working for the company?