Facebook Twitter Instagram
    Twitter LinkedIn Facebook
    Career Experts
    • Home
    • Job Searching
      1. Job Searching Tips
      2. Job Application Tips
      3. Best Interview Tips
      Featured
      19th December 20240

      Where To Look and How to Get the Job You Want With a Lasting Career

      Recent
      19th December 2024

      Where To Look and How to Get the Job You Want With a Lasting Career

      6th August 2024

      8 Tips for Landing a Job Straight Out of School

      22nd July 2024

      Global Job Market Trends That Will Stay With Us in 2025

    • Career Progression
      1. Work Skills
      2. Work Motivation
      3. Changing Jobs
      4. Salary Information
      5. Balancing Work and Life
      Featured
      27th May 20250

      How Long Does It Take to Become a Tiler in the UK?

      Recent
      27th May 2025

      How Long Does It Take to Become a Tiler in the UK?

      19th May 2025

      How AI And Automation Are Changing Sales Conversion Strategies

      19th May 2025

      How To Build A Strong Medical Foundation For USMLE Step 1

    • Management and Leadership
      1. Best Leadership Skills
      2. Managing People at Work
      3. Industry Trends
      Featured
      3rd April 20250

      Inclusive Workplace: Transportation Innovation

      Recent
      3rd April 2025

      Inclusive Workplace: Transportation Innovation

      28th February 2025

      The Future of Employee Benefits: What Businesses Need to Know

      25th February 2025

      How To Reduce The Chance Of Injuries Occurring At Work

    • Graduate Careers
      1. Choosing Your Career
      2. Find a Job
      3. Graduate Salaries
      Featured
      6th February 20250

      Unusual but High-Paying Careers You’ve Never Considered

      Recent
      6th February 2025

      Unusual but High-Paying Careers You’ve Never Considered

      5th November 2024

      5 Exciting Jobs That Let You Work with Wood

      13th August 2024

      Discover the Excitement: Top Reasons to Pursue a Career in Tourism

    • Post CV
    Career Experts
    You are at:Home»Job Searching»Best Interview Tips»3 Essential Steps to Ace Your Next Interview

    3 Essential Steps to Ace Your Next Interview

    0
    By CareerExperts on 5th August 2020 Best Interview Tips, Job Searching

    There are countless tips and tricks online about how to be successful in your next interview. However, this information overload is sometimes difficult to decipher and narrow down to what is most helpful. Here we will narrow it down to the most essential things.

    Did you know that, on average, only 2% of applicants get called in for an interview? If it’s that hard to get an interview, it’s more important than ever to get that interview right. The first time.

    1.   Practice

    You may only get one chance at a real job interview, so by the time you get there, you want to make sure you’re ready. Practising in the mirror is one thing, but what sounds good in your head may not sound good out loud.

    You can use online tools like Swyg Interview Practice that let you practice live with a real partner. The Swyg practice tool is pretty new and is great for anyone that is actively or casually looking for work. You get to see the answers of others to see how you compare and most importantly, you get independent feedback from Swyg.

    2.   Put yourself in the shoes of the interviewer

    A good interview is designed to measure a combination of skills, experience, and fit for the organization. When you’re answering a question, remember that the interviewer is looking for certain elements in a good answer.

    In other words, more and more companies are using structured interviews. What that means is that you will be asked predetermined questions related to the open role and then scored on specific skills or competencies.

    A common scoring methodology (and therefore a good answering strategy) looks for the following elements: Situation, Task, Action, Result, Reflection or STARR.

    For example, to answer the question “What is an example of a technical issue you resolved recently?” is:

    • SITUATION – Create some context:
      “Due to a mandatory upgrade of our system, one of my clients lost access to their account.”
    • TASK – Explain the challenge you faced:
      “It was my job to keep the client happy but also to make sure that the technical team prioritized the task to restore their account access.”
    • ACTION – What you did, focus on your own contribution:
      “First, I flagged the customer’s concern immediately to our technical team and I ensured the client was kept in the loop at all times and monitored the updates.
    • RESULT – A tangible outcome (and your contribution):
      “Because I repeatedly provided updates to the technical team, we were able to restore access in less than one hour” (Notice how I threw a quantifiable metric in there?)
    • REFLECTION – “What I have learned from this experience is that keeping everyone in the loop is crucial. It helped the client feel more valued and enabled the tech team to resolve the issue more quickly”

    The Reflection step is really important and most people leave that one out. Any employer will want to keep their best employees around for years to come and to make that happen, employees have to learn. The reflection step of the STARR method shows how you learned.

    3.   Prepare answers ahead of time

    You already know some of the questions you’re likely to get.

    • Can you tell me about a difficult work situation and how you overcame it?
    • What can you bring to the company?
    • How do you handle conflict at work?
    • How do you manage your time?
    • Tell me about the last time a co-worker or customer got angry with you. What happened?

    And many more. So for each of these common questions:

    1. Think about what the interviewer is looking for. Each question is looking for a specific skill or competency you have.
    2. Think of specific examples from your experience that demonstrate the skill or competency that you want to convey.
    3. Prepare an answer using the STARR method for each interview question. You can do this in advance. Don’t forget the last R, reflection is super important.
    4. Make the most of Feedback – Getting feedback can be rare but understanding what you do well and what you need to improve is imperative. Get feedback from a coach, a friend, or a relative. But remember, your answers should be your own.

    The best way to practice is with another person. It’s often the follow-up questions that make interviews hard. Make sure you use all the tools out there to help you practice interviewing and get feedback.

    Take the time to practice and you will see your interview success rate go up in no time!

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

    Related Posts

    Where To Look and How to Get the Job You Want With a Lasting Career

    8 Tips for Landing a Job Straight Out of School

    Global Job Market Trends That Will Stay With Us in 2025

    Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

    Recent Posts
    • How Long Does It Take to Become a Tiler in the UK?
    • How AI And Automation Are Changing Sales Conversion Strategies
    • How To Build A Strong Medical Foundation For USMLE Step 1
    • Finding a Job in Finance – Where to Begin?
    • Inclusive Workplace: Transportation Innovation
    • Popular
    • Recent
    21st February 2017

    What are the Best Graduate Job Sites?

    7th February 2017

    Job Hunting? 3 Ways You Can Make Jobs Come to You!

    11th September 2015

    5 Successful Phone Interview Tips

    27th May 2025

    How Long Does It Take to Become a Tiler in the UK?

    19th May 2025

    How AI And Automation Are Changing Sales Conversion Strategies

    19th May 2025

    How To Build A Strong Medical Foundation For USMLE Step 1

    About

    CareerExperts exists to propel and support professionals on their path for career success.

    We use our wealth of expertise and experience to help other success-seekers achieve their career goals.

    Newsletter

    Popular Posts
    21st February 2017

    What are the Best Graduate Job Sites?

    7th February 2017

    Job Hunting? 3 Ways You Can Make Jobs Come to You!

    11th September 2015

    5 Successful Phone Interview Tips

    Copyright © 2017 CareerExperts
    • About
    • Contact
    • Subscribe
    • Privacy Policy

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.