Best strategy for interview Qs arriving 30 mins before interview

[WannaBeConfidentConnie]

I’ve an online job interview tomorrow and the interview questions are going to be emailed to me 30 mins before the interview. I want to make the best of this, without flying into a panicked 30 mins so that I’m flustered when the interview starts! Has anyone developed a great strategy for this?

I would write down all the things you want to talk about - your tangible examples of previous successes and results.

Then when you get the questions, simply map them to the ‘answers’ and work out the angle you need to take to make it fit.

This is what I do in an interview on the fly. I’ve largely decided what I’m going to talk about, it’s just about making it fit.

Maybe look online today for interview questions associated with your job role (or use chat gpt), so you semi-prepared.

Before tomorrow, think of work situations you can use as examples of where you’ve made an impact, turned something negative into positive, supported a member of staff, dealt with a complaint (from staff or client), motivated someone, etc.

Not sure what sort of job you’re going for, but one question my dh asked recently was ‘What would you do in your first 100 days in the new role?’ (Or something like that). Thought that was a good question.

Thanks @Stickortwigsand @Gundogday. Yes I’ve done loads of prep - it’s just whether I’ll be thrown a curve ball when the questions arrive 30 mins before! I was thinking of printing them out asap so I can see them and stick them up in from of me and write notes around them - reminders of other things I’ve prepared that would link to them.

Also, no idea why I said it was tomorrow, it’s next week! 🙄

Have paper and a pen and write down 3 bullet points for each question

I sympathise with this. I had an in person interview with questions sent just before.. so I was sat in car park, already flustered from finding my way and awaiting the questions- I looked at them and thought omg I can’t do this, wrote down a long answer for number 1 and panicked over the other 7 or so…

I usually get jobs I’m interviewed for but didn’t get this, I went in feeling awful and felt under too much pressure to give great answers.

I would write down key skills/what you want to say and then fit this into questions and read them all first before doing anything.

good luck!!

OK. So you need to treat when the questions arrive as the start of the interview. I.e. be at the relevant device ready to receive, dressed in whatever for the interview; have pen and paper to hand; have whatever other notes you want around you; mute all other devices.

When the questions arrive, printing them sounds like a good idea if your printer is fail-safe - otherwise it's just more stress.

Take a deep breath!

Read any instructions at the top: any scene-setting; or instructions like - pick 3 of the 6 Qs etc

Read all the way through the document, carefully, not stopping to answer anything now. Make sure you get all the way to the end. If you print out, does it match the number of pages on screen.

Then, you can start to jot down the answers.

As I understand it, this approach is advocated as being helpful for interviewees with autism, as well as being helpful for people who get nervous, so it's a bit of a trend. The overall idea is to help you deliver the best answers because you've had time to consider your responses and how they will best fit. After all, most of us don't have to spontaneously answer questions in our job, but take a couple of minutes to think about, and the reply. Just remember, the company is trying to be a good interviewer and employer, not catch you out.

Anyway - very good luck!

Let’s hope there’s no questions about days of the week then!

Thanks @Tablefor4that’s fab advice!

@okydokethenoh lord it must be a nightmare if it’s an in-person interview!!

Indeed! 😂

Good luck with the interview.
its a situation I’ve never experienced getting questions pre interview.

But then again it’s about 12 years since I last did an interview.

is this something a lot of employers are doing now? Or some sort of reasonable adjustment?

It is a really daft thing to do. For me it would be a red flag that the employer does not really have a clue about recruitment processes.

When questions are emailed in advance to all candidates it is usually to make sure that anyone with a disability is not put at the disadvantage. But emailing them 30 minutes beforehand is of no help whatsoever to anyone with an impairment.

I have had a couple of interviews where questions were emailed in advance to all candidates and that was done a couple of days before the interview.

I think it best not to over prepare. My work do the whole sending questions out thing. Interviewees then use Google and give an answer that isn't really them. It means people can get the job but be rubbish in reality as you are not getting them, but a model answer.