The interview is easily the most nerve-wracking part of the process of getting into a school or landing a great job. This is the case for many reasons: it is important and so there is pressure involved, a question list is rarely provided and so there is an element of surprise, it can be difficult to gauge how well it is going once it has started, and finally and simply: there is a lot at stake for the 30-60 minutes it takes for most interviews to be conducted.
The longer I have spent in the business of helping people pass interviews, the more I have come to see that the ability to give a good interview is directly related to the amount of high-quality live practice done before the real thing, as well as the amount of assessment and correction conducted in-between these practice sessions.
For this first blog posting I will focus on the high-quality live practice, breaking it down into individual elements and focusing on each in reverse order.
Practice
This is exactly as it sounds. Learning how to ride a bike, develop a good golf swing, or become an expert piano player requires hard work in the form of practice. The same is true for developing yourself into someone capable of giving a good interview. It is not enough to understand yourself, your situation, your strengths and goals well - you need to be able to convey them effectively. This takes practice.
Live
For the three examples I gave above (bicycling, golf, piano) reading will only go so far - at some point the practitioner needs to put their book down and try. As they do they'll make mistakes and learn from them as they improve. The same applies for developing an interviewing technique. At some point the research needs to stop, and be replaced by oral practice where you (and hopefully someone else, as will be discussed shortly) are actually listening to the sound of your own voice. Without oral practice, true assessment becomes difficult to accomplish, and without assessment, it becomes difficult to know how effectively you are answering questions.
High-Quality
This last part is important. When seeking out advice, or feedback on how well you are answering questions, will just anyone do? Probably not. For most, the best person to participate in live interview practice will have one or more of these qualities:
a) experience giving or conducting interviews
b) experience helping people with similar goals prepare for interviews
c) deep knowledge of your backgrounds and goals, and/or the school/company to which you are interviewing for
d) an incentive to give you honest and direct feedback.
Consider this criteria - add other elements if you wish - when choosing whom to trust with your own interview practice. Make sure that along the way to preparing fro your interview you can minimize nervousness as the process of repetition, reassessment and progress helps you to feel more confident when it is time for the real thing.
I aim with this blog to give readers the tools to maximize the effectiveness of their interview preparation, by offering advice, examples and techniques - and in so doing help people give good interviews and achieve the success they have been working hard towards.
John Couke
john.couke@gmail.com
