To ask for interview advice?

[Orgasmrendition]

I'm sorry, I'm sure this has been asked so many times before!

In the last 20 years I have had 2 jobs interviews which were both pretty much formalities as one was an internal promotion and one I was recommended for by several people within the company. I know have my first 'proper' interview within a council department and suddenly ridiculously nervous.

As well as it being over zoom, I just don't know how to prepare for it. Both previous interviews have involved preparing material beforehand and presenting it so just looking for some words of advice? Anything I can do to feel more prepared?

Now**

I’d say have some concrete examples to hand. Think of a time you’ve almost missed a deadline, you’ve built a good working relationship, how you’ve dealt with change. That sort of generic stuff (if it might apply). And some more specific examples to the role.

Plus a lot of companies want to see some evidence that you’ve done some research on them. Understand their culture and values etc.

Is it a good match for your experience/knowledge/skill set?

Good luck!

Try to relax! Think of it as a two way conversation rather than them just grilling you - this is also about them selling the job to you, they want the best candidate and they want to the role to look attractive.

If you’re presenting make sure you practice the material and know it well.

Think of and prepare a few generic examples of scenarios where you’ve done things well - solving a difficult problem, working well in a team, improving a process, going out of your way for a stakeholder etc. If they do competency based questions then it’s good to have a few situations handy which you can has as examples.

Ask questions at the end. This is a great opportunity to show how interested you are in the role and also to find out more about the job.

Good luck!

Was your application competency based? If so know your examples inside out and have back up examples incase they ask for another time you've.....xyz

Read up about the role/team/dept so you have questions to ask or can relate your examples to the role.

Be calm, have water to hand and think before you speak. If you get flustered ask them to repeat the question.

Good luck

Whenever I have been on an interview panel, one way people have impressed me is by asking questions at the end such as “what do you like about working for the company”, “what’s the biggest challenge facing the team at the moment”, “what would my first week look like”.

(As opposed to the generic questions such as “is there training?”)

Thank you, definitely helped to calm me down. The application was competency based with a detailed person spec I had to provide evidence for so the rational side of me knows there must be something there they like.

I always struggle to think of questions for the end of the interview so that's really useful.

Think I'm stressing that I know my one weak area is my lack of being able to speak the second language although it says training is supported to get to conversational level within 2 years.

I only applied as my company was making redundancies but now I have an interview I really want it!

Oh I always find that the way, researching and preparing finds me so emotionally invested. Sometimes meeting the people change my mind though. But sometimes it cements it.

People don’t tend to bother meeting candidates that they’re not interested in, especially at the moment (we are having so many applicants for every role!) so I’m confident you’re right about the “there must be something there they like”.

If there is support on the language then they’ve probably got realistic expectations that not everyone is at the level they’d want. Those things are (relatively) teachable but experience and personality isn’t.

Good luck, I’m sure you’ll do great.

Read 'Job Interviews for Dummies'
Really helpful tips. Very American style but look past that.

Oh and ask them when they’ll make a decision / when you’re likely to hear. I always forget and the wait afterwards is ten times worse if you have no expectation!

Council type interviews will be likely to be fairly standard. These things go on points and saying the right buzz words.

You'll be asked about what skills you can bring and you your career to date. Probably also your areas for development.

It's a council, so it probably has some sort of publicly accessible values framework. Questions are likely to be based on this and of the "tell me about a time when..."

Try to think of ask the things you want to put across about yourself and get them into answers.

If your interview is on zoom make sure the laptop is at eye level - a laptop riser from amazon is a good idea. The camera up the nostrils look isn't a good one!