Job interview training – practical advice to help you to ace that interview
It’s not just media interview training that we offer. Among our communications training courses, job interview training is an increasingly popular choice for ambitious professionals.
Over the last few years, a growing number of people that we’ve provided media training for have asked us if we can help them to deliver better job interviews. They know that professional job interview coaching is essential if they want to get the role that they’ve set their heart on. That’s why we’re providing this bespoke job interview advice for senior executives and others.
Our job interview coach Gareth Sinclair has an impressive track record of helping everyone from senior executives through to graduates to achieve success in job interviews. He can often pinpoint within the earliest stages of the job interview coaching session why someone with a great CV is not breaking through during interviews. He then provides coaching with practical advice including authentic role play.
Media interview training
As with our media interview training, we create each job interview workshop from scratch to meet the exact needs of the person that we’re training. However, here are a few things to bear in mind if you’re going for a job interview. Many of the principles of media training and job interview coaching are similar. After all, you’re trying to sell something in both cases. You’re looking for that essential mix of knowledge, authority and experience on the one hand and human warmth on the other.
This means thinking about the audience. Are the things that you consider important top of the agenda for the person or people who are interviewing you? Understanding their concerns, aims and priorities is essential. Being very clear on you’re the interests and needs of your audience, be it your prospective employer or the readers, listeners or viewers of the journalist is essential. This means identifying relevant key messages and focussing on them.
Once you’ve identified these key messages you then need to ensure that you get them across to the journalist or the interviewer. This involves including them right at the start of your first answer and repeating them regularly. It means focussing on them too – giving people too many messages is distracting. The chances are that the person who is interviewing you won’t remember any of them.
Back up these key messages with examples
Whether you’re talking to a journalist, a CEO or an HR professional, you need to back up these key messages with examples, case studies and stories. These do two things. They illustrate what you mean – and they prove it.
For instance, you might claim that you’re good at inspiring and empowering your teams. But anyone could say that. However, including details of how you created and launched a new product or reduced customer waiting times will demonstrate what you mean by inspiration and empowerment and will prove your point. You could say that you can turn around projects quickly and efficiently. A case study can prove that you really can do this.
You’ll also need to think about difficult questions that might be asked. In our job interview training and our media training workshops we work with clients to identify these tricky issues. If you’re going to do a job interview this might be gaps in your CV or issues about an organisation that you’ve worked for. It could be that perennial horror, “What are your faults?”
Job interview coaching sessions
We tell the people going through our job interview coaching sessions what we tell those in our media training courses. You really need to have done your thinking before the interview. Trying out a new answer or a new line on an issue or telling a story that you haven’t told before can be risky if you’re doing it the first time in a live interview situation. This is where preparation comes in and we help those doing our job interview training to prepare thoroughly before going up for an interview with a prospective employer. This includes anticipating questions – easy or difficult – and having answers ready for them.
But, of course, it’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it. You might have an impressive CV and the relevant skills and experience. But, if your performance is underpowered, if you look nervous and shifty and if your body language and facial expressions are distracting or seem to contradict rather than complement what you’re saying then you won’t come across well. A quiet confidence without arrogance and authority but with warmth will work as well if you’re being interviewed for a job as it does if you’re being interviewed by a journalist. In our job interview coaching as with our media training we’ll video record you and play the recording back for review.
Our job interview coaching is like our media training
We know that no-one likes to see themselves on the screen but it’s incredibly useful and informative. Our job interview coaching is like our media training – both are challenging and demanding. But they include a range of practical tips and recommendations that will help you to ace any interview – whether it’s for a media report or for that dream job.
Job interview training
Come and talk to us about how we can help your organisationwith interview training. You can follow us on LinkedIn here.
