Interviews
There are many kinds of interviews and they can come at different stages of the selection process. Even if you are facing a mid-stage selection interview, you need to sell your skills and experience as if it was a final interview.
We have some best practice interview videos along with the additional resource material on responding well to the various types of questions on our website.
Preparation for interviews
It is important to get some practice in hearing and responding to common interview questions and potential competency questions, which you can get an idea what they might focus on because of the details in the person specification.
Also prepare for the very common early questions at interview:
- “What would you bring to the organisation?”
- “Tell us about yourself”
These types of questions are a request for you to detail some key selling points about your relevant skills and experience drawn from different involvements such as your degree and work experience.
- “Why are you interested in our organisation?”
- “What prompted you to apply to us?”
Questions like these are a request for you to outline your career motivation and why you are specifically interested in that employer. You are reflecting back to them some of your research on them and why they are the right next stage for your career.
because they are either framed against criteria on the job’s person specification or they are general and exploratory early-stage interview questions.
Online interviews
These are video interviews conducted online. Interviews can be pre-recorded or conducted live. The latter type is closer to a simulation of a face-to-face interview.
The advice given above applies to online as well as face-to-face interviews. However, there are additional considerations to be taken account of.
Prospects have very good preparation advice covering technical, body language and interview technique aspects of online interviews.
What our grads say
Name: Phoebe Wallman
Graduated: 2020
Studied: BSc Neuroscience
Current Job Title & Organisation: Psychiatric Researcher, South London and The Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
Preparation is key- read around the subject, current news in the field, company values and even about the interviewers themselves. For each part of the job specification identify an example of when you’ve utilised each specific skill. Interviews are always daunting but remember they are just as much for you as they are for the hiring team to see how you could fit in. Give yourself a shake and remind yourself you’ve got this far! My favourite quote is, “Enthusiasm is worth 25 IQ points.
Name: Chengyang Han
Graduated: 2018
Studied: PhD Psychology
Current Job Title & Organisation: Assistant Professor, Hangzhou Normal University
Before an important interview, ask your friends to have a mock interview with you. It helps you building confidence and gets you familiar with the feeling of interview. Additionally, your friends may point out your unconscious actions or wording that might disadvantage you. This gives you time to make changes and improve.
