What is an interview?

“An interview is a two-way conversation with a purpose; a meeting between a buyer and a seller where a deal is either struck or not.”

The interviewer’s role in this is to establish your worth and discover whether you are aligned to the organisation and job specification; in other words, whether you have the right fit.

Your role is to establish whether the organisation is aligned with your values and expectations and whether it is the best next step in your career!

Preparation is the key to a successful outcome by:

• Having an understanding of the organisation’s business, purpose and vision
• Being able to demonstrate through successful examples of how your performance in your previous role(s) will be repeated in this position
• Demonstrating how you will make an impact on the employer’s business

The Traditional Interview

This is the most common type of interview and is often referred to as an ‘informal’ or ‘screening’ interview.

Interviewers will attempt to assess whether you’re a good fit for the workplace culture and would normally ‘walk’ you through your CV or Application Form, asking questions about your career to date, your relevant experience, strengths and achievements and, in the process, would expect your ‘real character’ to shine through as well as your key values and motivators.

It’s worth mentioning that many ‘traditional’ interviews have also started incorporating competency questions into their structure - refer to Competency-Based Interviews; it’s therefore important to prepare accordingly and to consider how best to present your answers.

Let’s look at some of the questions you may be asked to uncover some essential information about you:

“Tell me about yourself.” — This is a frequently asked question and often misinterpreted.

“Why do you want to work for us?” — Your answer will reveal whether you’re a serious candidate.

“Why have you/are you leaving your employer?” — Potentially explosive and demands a well-structured answer.

“What are your greatest strengths?” — Sound straight forward, but?

“Do you have any weaknesses?” — We all have weaknesses, don’t we?

Our Coaching will:

• Ensure that you have tried and tested structures in place for answering these ‘tough’ questions with confidence.
• Enable you to articulate what value you brought to your previous employer and the difference you made to your previous role.
• Broaden your understanding of what the interviewer wants to discover about you and how to engage with him/her in a natural and flowing manner.
• Maximise your opportunity of getting through to the next stage of the interview process.
• Allow you to experience mock interviews and with realistic feed-back.

 
Interview Skills Workshop
Details & How to Register
 

The Competency-Based Interview

This interview style, sometimes referred to as a situational or behavioural interview, has gained popularity in recent years and is designed to assess how you’ve handled specific employment related situations in your previous job which will help evaluate your future performance.

You’ll be asked questions to find out how you’ve used specific core skills which are required for the job as well as questions designed to establish how you’ve approached and resolved problems, improved efficiency, increased performance or overcome challenges. Your answers may be probed with questions such as, “what made you do that?” or “how did you get around that problem?”

Our Coaching will:

• Teach you the ‘SARLA’ approach, the best tactic for preparing for this kind of interview and one which will make a difference to your interview performance!
• Show you how to select and structure appropriate examples.
• Ensure that you integrate key words into your examples which will gain you high scores.
• Show you how to transform your examples into engaging stories.
• Conduct mock interviews and give you realistic feed-back.

First Impressions Count

“Speech is power: Speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel.” - Ralph Emerson

How you communicate with your voice and body in a face to face or virtual interview will have a significant effect on how the interviewer reacts to you ... this can be the difference between success and failure!

In fact, it’s how you deliver the words and how you use your body that will resonate with the interviewer.

Did you know that there’s a part of your brain called the brain stem, or primitive brain, which makes snap judgements about everybody and everybody around you uses that part of their brain to make snap judgements about you; this brain stem decides whether you should approach someone or not and it does this in a matter of seconds!

Our Coaching will:

• Help you unleash the power of your voice
• Improve the tonality of your voice
• Make a difference to the way you engage with people
• Give you more confidence in speaking publically
• Add value to your presentation skills
• Greatly assist in overcoming fears and anxieties

Are you ‘Fearful’ of Interviews?

“The only difference between the pros and the novices is that the pros have trained the butterflies to fly in formation.” - Edward Murrow

It’s natural to feel anxious about a job interview. The first step towards overcoming your fear is to adjust your mind set about interviews. To do this, you have to understand what fear is.

What is fear?

Fear is one of the most powerful emotions; an emotion so strong that it has a significant effect on your mind and body! Fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain or harm.

So is it always real or can it be imagined?

Well, fear can be a reaction to a real emergency or physical danger; for example, if you are being attacked by someone or something, or caught in a raging storm or find yourself in a situation where you are engulfed by flames!

But fear can also be a psychological emotion brought about when you are faced with a non-dangerous event: having to give a presentation, being interviewed for a job, sitting an exam or even attending a party or function.

Fear can arise in response to a threat, which can either be real or perceived! It begins with this interesting fact:

The brain does not know the difference between real and imaginary events.

That’s right; the two are the same as far as the brain is concerned!

This is where your journey begins and from here we will teach you tried and tested strategies which will enable you to conquer your fears and enable you to perform at your best in interview situations.

Our Coaching will:

• Enable you to understand why we become fearful.
• Teach you strategies for overcoming your fear.
• Give you techniques which will to stop your voice from trembling.
• Enable you to put together a confidence formula that really works.
• Help you develop a stronger and more confident presence.

 
Overcome Your Fears
Workshop Details & How to Register