hi in this video i'm going to cover the top three critical things you need to do when
preparing for an interview i'm Amri Celeste an HR Recruitment Officer and Career Coach
with over nine years hiring experience when you have a job interview how do you prepare or do you
prepare at all well after interviewing over 3 000 candidates i can tell you that lack of preparation
is the number one reason that candidates get declined for a job critical things are often
done too late or the night before like checking the location or reading the job description
when you prepare for a job interview in the right way it has a dramatic impact on how
you come across and you seem more polished and memorable it helps to combat brain freeze and
nerves in your interview and you feel prepared for almost any question it also helps to confirm
whether or not this job is one you actually want and whether that company is a place where you
really want to work as you'll be looking at those areas when you go through preparation
things like what to wear are decided in advance and can't trip you up on the day it may seem like
a small detail but this commonly makes candidates late for their interviews because they prepare on
the day and then realize that something needs to be washed mended ironed or they simply can't find
it for example i once interviewed a candidate who lived 15 minutes away from the office where i was
based at the time and he was 45 minutes late for his interview and when i asked him what happened
he actually told me that he didn't check the bus route until that morning and realized late that he
should have already left at the time this stunned me because it showed all sorts of poor judgment
he didn't even call ahead the manager refused to see him completely and he lost out on that
opportunity and this was for a company that was a market leader in its industry and was 15 minutes
from his house so what should you consider when you're preparing for an interview there are a lot
of different ways that you can prep but i'm going to cover three of the most important areas that
should be on your interview preparation checklist one is company research there are multiple places
online that you can look to find out more about the company that you have an interview with
such as linkedin or glassdoor i'm sure many of you know what linkedin is as it's pretty popular
but in case you don't it's the largest online professional network and a brilliant source
of information about companies glassdoor is an invaluable tool it allows current and previous
employees to leave reviews on companies and what it's like to work there so that's another great
place to look when it comes to company research think of it like this you should be able to answer
the question what do you know about our company candidates that go the extra mile and include
things like relevant stats about the company whether it's sales achievements for example
important acquisitions or who the competitors are always shine above other candidates in the
interview process and all of this information can be found online so if research and prep
are done you will stand out quick bonus tip regarding location so i spoke earlier about
a candidate who was 45 minutes late and lost out on the opportunity to interview regarding
location this may seem obvious but lateness is so common that it's important that i cover this
check how you will get to your interview as soon as you know what the address is
put it into google check out the street parking or nearest station give yourself much more time
than you need i can't stress this enough if google tells you that it's a half an hour journey give
yourself just over one hour if you then get there with 25 to 30 minutes to spare go to the building
so you know the route and once you're clear on where it is then you can wait nearby in a local
coffee shop or somewhere else nearby so that you can guarantee you'll be on time but you don't want
to be too late or too early now sometimes clients ask me why i don't recommend being too early and
this is simply because the manager has set aside a time to see you they are likely busy or in other
meetings so if you show up 40 60 minutes early it actually shows that you don't have a grasp on time
management because it's so far away from the time that your interview starts you need to be early
by a reasonable amount of time so i recommend going into the building 10 to 15 minutes before
your interview starts make sure you also do take a contact number for the relevant employer or agency
before your interview in case you're running late and do call ahead if this is the case two
is job research so you need to gain an in-depth understanding of the job prior to your interview
you need to link at least three to five points from the job description to your relevant skills
you can do this by aligning your key strengths and relevant experience with the points listed on the
job description i strongly recommend writing them down so you have a clear idea before your
interview three is practice your interview now i know that many people don't want to do this and i
know this because of the high volume of people that i interview that haven't done this and it
really shows just think about all the steps that you take to get to an interview in the first place
a long job search on multiple platforms sometimes registering with multiple recruitment agencies
screening calls and phone interviews with hr recruitment specialists such as myself
sometimes you need to complete online assessments for numerical skills or personality profiling
sometimes you need to prepare a presentation buy a suit or a smart dress
then making the trip sitting there in the room feeling nervous and after all that
missing out on the one step that can be the difference between an offer and a rejection
it's not as painful as many people think take some time well in advance not the night before
and go over some answers to common interview questions you will thank me because you will
feel the world of difference when you go into your interview there's a method of practice that
i strongly recommend which i cover in my ultimate interview prep guide which you can download below
i also include more detail on places online to research the company how to use your cv
to help you prepare and the types of questions that you should be asking in your interview and
more it's packed full of really helpful tips so click the link below to download that for free
so let me pass the question on to you how do you prepare for a job interview let me know in
the comments so to recap when preparing for an interview the minimum areas you want to cover
are company research utilize online avenues to give you more in-depth knowledge about the company
job research link your key skills and experience to the essential skills required for the role
and practice your interview prior thank you so much for watching if you got value from this tap
like subscribe for more and i will see you soon and personality profiling sometimes you need to
and personality profiling sometimes you need to prepare a presentation