Employers will have very different expectations when interviewing a prospective Finance Director compared with a less senior member of staff, so of course all interviews are different. As interviewees we also have different approaches to interviews. So naturally this can only be a guide designed to help you, and to ensure you have a checklist of essential preparation – things which are likely to be just as applicable to senior Qualified candidates as they are to trainees. It often helps to break the different phases of an interview down. And whilst not all interviews will follow this pattern, generally speaking we can consider most interviews to have 4 distinct phases as follows:
- The Meet and Greet. To include your arrival at reception, first introductions and getting to the interview room.
- About Us. Most interviewers will tell you about the company, the role, why it is vacant, etc.
- About You. Here, the interviewer will ask you questions and focus on your skills, work history and suitability for the role.
- The Wrap Up. To include an opportunity for you to ask any questions you have, the end of the interview and the process of leaving the building.
Each of these phases has different requirements of a candidate, and by considering them in isolation
it is often easier to prepare thoroughly for your interview. In addition, there are of course,
preparation steps that all candidates, however senior, ought to take. These will include:
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- Ensure you are familiar with both the Job Description and the version of your CV from which the interviewer will be reading.
- Be able to draw parallels between these 2 documents.
- For each key responsibility on the Job Description, you should be ready to give an example of work you have performed, and successes you have had, to illustrate your suitability for the role.
- Potential Employer Research – The key to engaging/impressing a potential employer is research. So many candidates arrive at an interview with little or no knowledge about company history etc therefore DO YOUR HOMEWORK:
- be familiar with their web site, any recent news articles, download their most recent accounts from the internet, know who their main competitors are, have an idea of recent results and, if applicable, share price movements. Utilise this knowledge when in your meeting, demonstrating your ability to go the extra mile and that you’re genuinely interested in their business.
- Think about how you will answer the common, standard interview questions should they arise:
- Why do you want this job?
- Why do you think you are a strong candidate for this job?
- What do you like most about your current job? (be careful not to be negative about your current employer)
- What are your strengths/weaknesses? Etc.
- Interviewer Research – look for LinkedIn profiles and do a Google search to gain some background knowledge about the person you will be interviewed by.
- Have some intelligent questions to ask, preferably ones that are relevant to the role you’re being interviewed for.