Being able to present your experience, personality and suitability for a position, through the interview process is critical in being able to secure your dream career move.

Whilst each recruitment process can be unique, and the style and questions can vary, there are critical things you can do to prepare to ensure you ‘ACE’ your next interview.

Here are 5 points the team at Hunter Manning know will help; 👊 

▶ Research the company thoroughly – Being asked, “what do you know about us?” or “why do you want to work here?” Are 2 very common questions. Ultimately the interviewer is assessing your ‘care factor’ or how much effort you’ve put into the process. Make sure you know their history, key news, core values and latest financial information.

▶ Research the interviewers – Knowing who you are meeting, their background and who they are can be critical in helping you frame your answers or approach to the interview. Use Linkedin and company websites to gain this information, find common denominators with yourself and help it to build concise questions about working there.

▶ Know your CV and achievements – Knowing your CV seems obvious but make sure you have read it thoroughly. More importantly spend time thinking about achievements or challenges you’ve overcome in your career/most recent position. Having clear and concise examples of achievements will help you answer any competency based questions as effectively as possible. 

▶ Avoid talking negatively about past employers – Whilst there will be reasons why you are looking to leave your current employer, or previous employers, avoid being overly negative about your manager or past companies. Make sure you answer any questions around why you left correctly but in a measured way. 

▶ Answer competency questions using STAR technique – Structuring your answer to competency based questions in the right way is critical to an 'ACE' interview. Staying on point with answering the question, whilst not waffling but providing enough information to demonstrate competence is key. Using the S.T.A.R technique (Situation Task Action Result) will allow you to frame the answer is the best way.

Getting the best advice, support and preparation for an interview will be the difference between you getting the job or not.

Working with a specialist agency like Hunter Manning who Invest the time in making sure you’re as prepared as possible will give you the best opportunity to ‘Ace’ that interview!