Here are 4 interview tips to help you get ANY job!
After recently graduating from Uni, I have spent a lot of time in interviews for many different roles. Whether it’s a phone call or an open day, I feel as if i‘ve done it all over the past few months - some being much more enjoyable than others. But with each interview, I have been successful in moving to the next stages.
From this experience, I have noticed a few key things that stood out for me & these things will definitely help you cruise through any interview stage at many career levels. I have grouped the key tips for interviewing under the acronym R.U.D.E, standing for Research, Understand, Display and Express.
Research
One of the more crucial aspects of interviewing, you MUST ensure that you research the role AND the company.
First, start off by matching the role's requirement and responsibilities with your own requirements for a job - ensuring that you not only understand the role but also feel comfortable doing it.
Once the role is suitable for you, research the company and their industry so that you know the following key points:
What the company does
How the company does it
Why the company does it
What industry they are in
Where does the company stand within the industry - market leaders? start up?
Those points should give you a clear understanding of the purpose that you will fulfill within the team, avoiding any embarrassing moments if the employer was to ask the typical question "So what do you understand about the role?". This then leads me onto the 'U' of RUDE...
Understand
As mentioned above, you must understand the role and the company, but you must also understand yourself in order to explain WHY you are right for the role - remember, so many people are likely to be applying for the same role, you need to stand out!
To understand yourself, you can start by writing down your strengths and weaknesses, BUT here is where you must be clever in your answers. You do not want to give ACTUAL weaknesses, such as "I'm bad at listening", you want to give weaknesses that stem from a form of strengths. A good example of a weakness is that you dislike leaving projects unfinished, therefore you always go out of your way to complete projects as best as you can. From this weakness, you would have mentioned a strength that comes from it, showing how you overcome your weaknesses.
Another list that would be good to write is how your values link to the company's, hopefully you would have come across the business' values whilst researching. A firm's values are typically listed within their 'About Us' page or somewhere on their website, if you can't find it on there, Google "[insert company name] values" which may help. Basically, if you can't think of your values, look at the company's and adapt your own based on theirs. Typical values include:
Ambition
Customer-centricity
Determination
Motivation and so much more!
Now we move on to the easier part of understanding, which is understanding how your experience applies to the role and makes you suitable for the job. Again, so many people will be applying, so you must show your more relevant experience both on your CV and in-person. Wondering how to show off this fact? Well, here comes the D of RUDE, display...
Display
To really help 'display' yourself and what your capable of, it can be useful to bring in physical copies of content or examples of your work as saying "you can look on my website/CV" won't go down as well as nicely printed example pieces.
For example, as I was applying for marketing jobs, I brought in examples of content marketing that could be done for those company’s products or services. Anything that helps you stand out from the rest of the applicants is good!
Express
The 4th element of being RUDE is expressing, by this I mean expressing your interest in the role, industry and company. You may have all the qualifications and experience needed, but if you’re clearly not showing a true interest in the company, you’re likely to get pushed down the huge pile of applicants.
Don’t let the employer think that you’re just there for a pay day!
So there you have it, be RUDE & improve your chances of getting a job! But, if you aren’t successful with interviews, there may be external factors that you can’t control (a lot of the companies I applied for had decided to change their job descriptions during the process) so don’t let it get you down, each interview gives you great experience and all allows for great self development.
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