Well done – you’ve been short-listed for an interview! Now it is time to prepare.

An interview is your main chance to sell yourself by highlighting your experience, skills, personal strengths and achievements in a way that isdirectly relevant to the position for which you are applying.

Helpful tips 

what you’re able to do, proving you have the ‘competency’ to do the job. Don’t beafraid of using examples which didn’t turn out well as these show what you learnt from the experience. Explain what went wrong, why it went wrong and what you would do different next time.

• Review your own CV and highlightinformation which relates to any competencies you may have identified and other details you might want to talk around.

• Consider what potential questions could be asked and then get a friend to put you through your interview paces to get in some practice.

• During the interview listen to what the interviewers are asking and tailor your responses to suit. It is important to adapt your preprepared answers to address thespecifics of what they are asking.

• Take time to read the job description/ specification and pull out specific skills,knowledge and experience requirements that are relevant.

• Capture broader insights from the company website and LinkedIn get a feel for the style andattributes of the organisation.

• Find out what you can about the widerindustry and the types of people whoare leading the way within it. Industryjournals and websites can be a useful source of this type of information.

• Interviews at NSA clients are usually competency based, comprising of questions aimed to find out if you havethe specific skills, knowledge, attributes, training or experience required and find out how you would approach problems, tasks and challenges. They are open questions usually beginning with ‘what’, ‘why’, ‘when’, ‘where’ and ‘how’ to encourageyou to speak freely. When you’re preparing for a competency based interview, you need to know what you’re going to say so having a few

• Preparation is essential but it is equally important to sound naturalon the day. Try to relax as much aspossible so that as well as nailing the competencies you also convey your character.

 

The STAR question method

STAR is a technique for answering competency questions during an interview. It is based on the premise that one of the most reliable indicators of future performance is past performance and is an opportunity for the interviewers to obtain information from

you about the way you have handled different situations in the past.

Situation

 

Set the scene. Provide context and background. “Tell me about a time when you have had to deal with a particularly difficult customer on the telephone”

 

Task

 

Describe the purpose. Outline the problem and challenges. “What outcome did you need to achieve?”

 

Action

 

Explain YOUR actions. Advise what you did and how. ”What did you actually say to the customer?”

 

Result

 

Share the outcome. State the benefits and quantify the impact. “And what was the result of that?”

 

A typical STAR interview conversation may sound like this:

S

Interviewer: “Tell me about a time when you have had to work under a lot of pressure”

Candidate: “Well, once we had a big order that came in late on a Friday night, and that meant we had to process it

that night or it wouldn’t go out until at least the Thursday of the following week.”

 

T

Interviewer: “So, what was it that you actually had to do to make that the order was processed that night?”

Candidate: “The staff were due to finish at 5p.m. and I had to persuade two of them to stay late with me so that we

could get the paperwork processed that evening, I also had to make sure that there were no errors, and organise

thepaperwork in the best way.”

 

A

Interviewer: “How did you persuade two people to stay late and help you?”

Candidate: “I explained the situation and told them that this was a really important customer, and that I would

reallyappreciate them helping me out.”

Interviewer: “And what about organising the paperwork and checking for errors?”

Candidate: “We took five minutes to think about the best way we could organise ourselves and decided that one of

uswould check all the paperwork as it was completed so that any errors would be picked up immediately.”

 

R

Interviewer: “And what happened?”

Candidate: “We got through the paperwork in about half the time that I thought it would take – there were no errors,

and the customer got his order on the Monday and wrote to the General Manager about how pleased he was. I

showed the letter to the two who stayed on to help me. They were pleased.”

 

Other things to consider:

 

Have some questions ready that will demonstrate that you are keen and have done your research.

Have the job spec and your CV in front of you.

 

Dress smartly whether face to face or online.

 

All arrive a little early and research your route and parking.

 

Check out what is behind you if interviewing online and that you wont be disturbed. Practice using

Zoom or Teams don’t be caught out by technology.

 

Listen. From the very beginning of the interview, your interviewer will be giving you crucial

information make sure you hear and digest it. Let them know you heard and understood them. Observe

your interviewer and try to match their style and pace.

 

Don't talk too much. Telling the interviewer more than he needs to know could be a fatal mistake.

When you have not prepared ahead of time, you may ramble when answering interview questions,

sometimes talking yourself right out of the job. Prepare for the interview by reading through the job posting,

matching your skills with the position's requirements and relating only that information.

 

At the end of the interview if you feel it’s the role for you don’t be afraid to say how much you have

enjoyed it , ask if they have any reservations – this is your chance to seal the deal.

 

If you wish to talk things through just call the NSA team on                  020 3953 1984