In the job interview
As discussed in the interview preparation stages, the best way for you to achieve a professional and well organised interview is for you to have some well rehearsed answers and a few specific points to get across to the interviewer.
In the interview, the candidate should be prepared to incorporate these key points into their answers:
An answer to the inevitable “tell me about yourself” question.
Three positives attributes and a couple of challenges or opportunities for improvement.
What success looks like once you are in the role.
Having a small number of key, relevant points allows you to stay focused, and not deviate or ramble. If you have the key points locked down, then you won’t feel rushed to think on your feet and you can confidently answer each question and even elaborate by providing work based examples (where appropriate) which relate to the questions.
When providing work based examples, you should always ensure all answers are specific to your role and your contribution to a project or work deliverable. Don’t say “the team did this” or “we were successful when”…. the interviewer doesn’t really care what the team achieved, they care how you contributed to the success and what specific attributes you brought to the team to enable it to thrive.
At the end of the interview, you should always have questions prepared for the interviewer. These can be identified and noted down when researching the company in the interview preparation stage. You can also ask questions about the position to clarify key points. For example:
Other than the obvious deliverables what are the key attributes of success for this role?
How would you see the role changing or growing in the next 2-3 years?
How do you measure success?
Is there much interaction / knowledge sharing between teams or offices (if there are many offices in different cities)?