Following on from our earlier article regarding CV tips, this blog provides some suggestions on how you should prepare for, and conduct yourself through, an interview.  Many candidates get nervous before an interview so the points outlined below should ensure that you are well prepared for the situation.  It is also important to remember that you have already passed the first stages of the selection process; to actually get an interview means that the potential employer has vetted your CV and believes that it is a good fit with the role.  All that remains is to prove that to them in a face-to-face meeting.

Preparation

Preparing yourself for an interview is relatively straight forward but very important.  You should make sure that you read the interview notification letter very carefully.  This should provide details of the date and time for the interview, the locations and, potentially, provide details of the interviewer and the format of the interview.  You may also be asked to confirm the date and time and also to bring certain documentation with you to the interview.  To prepare for your interview we suggest that you:

1. Research the company; you should as a minimum look through the company’s website to learn more about their: history, corporate identity and core services.  More detailed research may involve looking through recent press releases and company reports.

2. Review your CV; you should review your CV and identify key achievements and strengths through your employment and academic history.  Make a note of these and elaborate on them at the interview.

3. Review any specialist knowledge; if you have any specialist skills or areas of expertise, make sure that you are up-to-speed on latest developments in these specific areas.  If you are being interviewed for a role in a specialist area you may be asked for your views on the impact of recent or future developments.

4. Prepare your questions; if you have any questions about the organisation or the role make sure that you think about these beforehand and put them to the interviewer at the appropriate time.

5. Research the interviewer; in many cases you will be told the name of your interviewer; finding out a little more about them and their background may give you some indication of the questions they may ask and the interests they may have.

6. Look up the location and work out the travel time; you should ensure you know the location where the interview will be held.  Work out the time it will take you to get there and allow for contingencies, such as travel delays.  You should always aim to turn up early; if you are delayed you must ring the organisation’s HR department and warn them that you will be late.

The Interview

 The interview process is relatively simple in its aims; the interviewer will ask a set of questions to assess: your technical competence, your attitude/ motivation to undertake the role and your ability to fit into the organisation/ team.  These attributes will be assessed not only from your responses to the questions asked but also on the manner in which you answer.  The following points will help to ensure that you make the appropriate impression: 

1. Presentation is very important; first impressions are important, especially for accountancy and finance firms where many of the roles are client-facing.  You should dress to be smart and professional.

2. Listen and be brief; the interviewer will, in many cases, already have a model answer for each of the questions that they ask.  You need to be alert and listen to the question and ensure you address all the points raised.  Do not interrupt when they are speaking and try to be brief and concise when you answer.  It is very easy to stray off the subject and ramble, especially if you are nervous.  Try to constrain your responses; if you think other things are relevant mention them and ask permission to go into them in more detail.

3. Sell yourself; the first interview is really all about how well you present your competencies for the role to the interviewer. So when answering their questions try and highlight your skills in relation to specific elements in the job specification.  The interviewer will also be assessing your ability to interact with others so you should be confident in your responses and make sure you make eye contact.

4. Don’t lie; make sure you are sincere and truthful, don’t lie or pretend to know something that you don’t.  If you are unsure about something then say that you do not know.

5. Ask questions; the interviewer will expect you to interact throughout the interview so feel free to ask relevant questions when appropriate.  It is also a good idea to get the interviewer to explain their interpretation of the role and duties early on; this will help you to focus your subsequent replies.  If you have prepared some generic questions about the role or the company and these have not been addressed through the interview then ask them at the closing stages, when the interviewer has signalled that he is ready for your questions.

6. Next steps; at the end of the interview, the interviewer, or a member of the HR team, will normally describe the next steps in their recruitment process.  They will provide you with an indicative date when you will hear back from them.

After the interview

 After the interview you will have to wait for the employer’s HR department to contact you.  There are only two real outcomes, either you are unsuccessful in your application or you will be invited back for further interviews. 

1. Send a thank you note; although there is no requirement to do so, it is appropriate in some cases to send a thank you note to the interviewer or their HR representative.

2. Unsuccessful applications; if your application is unsuccessful and you would like to understand why, that you can ask the employer’s HR department for feedback.  Although there is no obligation on the employer to provide this, some employers do provide details of why your application was not progressed.

3. If you don’t hear from the employer; if you have not heard from the employer within the time they indicated then you should contact the employer’s HR team for an update.

Second Interview

1. Second interview; if your initial interview was successful you may be invited back for subsequent interviews.  Most organisation will hold just one other interview, the second interview.  This will focus more on assessing your ability to fit with the organisation/ department/ team and may include a short session with a member of the organisation’s senior management, e.g. Partner or Director.  However, this may also include a shorter competence assessment, so be prepared.  Remember that this is your final hurdle and you will need to be attentive, confident and enthusiastic.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 22nd, 2007 at 12:39 pm and is filed under Accountancy & Finance, Accountancy jobs, Finance jobs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.