Principle and Purpose of the Interview

The purpose of the interview is for the employer to assess whether you have the skills, interests, values and motivation required for the job applied for.

You have already shown in your application that you meet these criteria. The interview gives the interviewer an opportunity to explore your evidence in more detail and you to find out whether the employer and/or job match your expectations. Interviews are usually based on the premise that past performance in key tasks and skills can predict future performance in them.

Preparation

The structure and content of the interview will be based to some extent on the information you have given in your application. Read through it and think, in view of the job description, what the key areas are and how you can elaborate on what you have said in a factual, detailed and positive way.

You need to know about the employer

The employer will usually want to find out what you know about them and why you want to work for them. It may be that, in fact, they are only one of a number of organisations you would like to work for but you need to convince them that you have chosen them because of the distinct if not unique match between what you and they can offer.

• Read through whatever information you can get on the organisation such as their website, recruitment brochure, annual report, publicity materials.
  
  
• Research what it is they do, their size and structure, corporate plans, general ethos, competitors. Also read the relevant press to find out what is happening in that particular sector.
  
  

Continue to view an example of a company profile