Making Your Job Interview Preparation More Effective

You have made it to the job interview stage and have been invited to interview.

Now you are a huge step closer to landing your next accounting job or next job in your professional field.

Before the interview you want to prepare.  Most understand this.

Trouble is what people understand and what they do is often very different.

From informal research I’ve been doing I’ve realised something really scary.

About 12% do enough preparation to give themselves a real chance of landing the job.

Let’s put this in context.

Just over 1 in every 10 candidates do enough preparation.

Enough preparation for me is at least 10 hours.

Many accountants and professionals are really shocked when I tell them this.

They scratch their heads wondering what on earth are they are going to be doing for 10 hours.

Let me help you.

2 Hours or 20% is Research

Hiring managers expect you to have done your homework before the interview.

It’s so easy to do and you would be surprised how many skip this stage or just take a look at company website.

4 Hours or 40% Identifying Potential Questions and Coming Up With Answers

Employers often give a lot of information.

There’s the job advert, job description and person specification.

All these documents are pure gold for you as a candidate.

If you review them forensically you will identify somewhere in the region of 50% of the likely questions you might be asked.

If you write out answers you are going to feel confident going into the interview.

If you are confident you will perform so much better in the interview.

4 Hours or 40% Practicing

Practice makes perfect is a phrase you might have heard.

What’s important is that your practice is effective.

Audio record yourself answering questions.  Video yourself answering questions. Do a proper mock interview with someone independent and objective.

All of the above can give you little edge that can make the difference between success and disappointment when it comes to job interviews.

Ace The Job Interview

Learn how in this free online course.

About the Author Duncan Brodie

Since 2006 I’ve worked with in excess of 8,000 accountants and professionals in workshops, seminars and one to one helping them land their next jobs and become better leaders, presenters and business partners. Before that I spent 25 years in accountancy climbing the career ladder from Payments Clerk to FD. I’m a CIMA Fellow, Certified Professional Coach and Team Coach Facilitator.

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