The only way to produce your best live, one-off performance is to be meticulously prepared, from the clothes you’ll wear to the most unlikely question your interviewers might throw at you.
Prepare yourself thoroughly for questions about your skills and work history. Draw up a strong statement of your main aims, your proudest achievements and your core skills. Make lists of your skills, your achievements and the kinds of projects you’ve worked on, and go over them again and again. Not only does this allow you to have them ready for when the inevitable question is asked, but it also gives you an important reminder of quite how skilled and experienced you are, because every bit of confidence-boosting helps when you’re facing an interview.
Make sure you have strong answers prepared about the less impressive areas of your work history as well. A sacking, a period of unemployment or a very short stint in a job will draw an interviewer’s attention, but doesn’t have to be fatal. They will be aware that everybody has difficult periods, but they will still want to hear a clear explanation, allaying any suspicion that you’ve got something to hide and sending a message that the problem was specific to that situation.
If you can, rehearse the interview. Ask a friend to act as the interviewer, and get them to ask questions, both simple and tough. You will be able to tell which questions are causing you problems, and you can then apply yourself to developing and practising stronger answers to them. A little coaching can go a long way.
