1. Interview Skills www.kent.ac.uk/careers/slides.htm Bruce Woodcock
University of Kent
Careers and Employability Service
You can download a copy of this presentation at

3. Skills gained on a degree
Gather and analyse relevant information from a wide variety of sources
Identify and propose solutions to problems
Project management
Technical skills
Work independently (individual projects)
Communicate with others in a clear and articulate manner
Present ideas and arguments verbally in presentations and seminars, and informal discussions
Sell these on your CV, applications and interviews!
“Sell” your degree
List relevant modules (plus marks if good!)
Projects – especially if relevant
IT skills
Soft skills – evidence of teamwork, project management, problem solving etc.

4. HOW NOT TO INTERVIEW
Candidate had a fizzy drink just before interview and spent the whole interview burping.
Announced she hadn't had lunch and proceeded to eat burger and chips during the interview.
When asked him about his hobbies, he stood up and started tap dancing around the office.
Without saying a word, candidate stood up and walked out during the middle of the interview.
Dozed off during the interview.
Said he never finished high school because he was kidnapped and kept in a wardrobe.

5. Preparation for the interview

6. Carefully research the employer and the job
Commercial Awareness
What do you know about our organisation?
What are our main products/services?
What are the problems facing our organisation?
What changes have there been in our sector recently?
Who are our clients?
What do you think the job you would be doing entails?

7. Dress Smartly
Men - conventional suit with a conservative shirt - plain pastel shades or modest stripes and dark shoes. Don't wear light coloured socks or too much aftershave!
Women - conventional suit or coordinating jacket and skirt. Dark colours suggest authority but bright can work with care. Wear tights. Don't wear lots of frills, trousers unless smart, very high heels or lots of make-up, perfume or jewellery.

8. BODY LANGUAGE Shake hands warmly but wait to be invited to sit down.
Smile!
Eye contact
Try to relax: don’t sit on the edge of your chair, but don’t slouch.
Speak clearly and not too quickly
Don’t fidget

9. Interview nerves Nerves are expected in the first few minutes.
The interviewer may be nervous too!
It's not that important: there will be other interviews in future.
Preparation: makes you more confident.
Dress smartly: if you look good, you feel good!
Start in a positive way and you will continue in this vein: smiling, eye contact, a firm handshake.
Don't worry about making a mistake: everyone fluffs one question.
The day before write down everything you are worried about: “downloads” your worries.
Visualisation: the night before, visualise yourself undergoing the whole interview, step by step, and imagine everything going well.
Mindfulness techniques help to reducing stress.
Listen to empowering music beforehand!
Adopt power poses before (not at!!!) the interview: standing upright with hands on hips,  steepling hands.
For more see

10. PREPARE ANSWERS TO OBVIOUS QUESTIONS
How long should interview answers be?
Why are you applying to our organisation in particular?
Tell me about yourself
Why should we take you rather than the other candidates?
What are your weaknesses?
Do you have any questions you would like to ask us?

11. COMPETENCY-BASED QUESTIONS
Describe a situation where you had to .....
show leadership
make a difficult decision
overcome a difficult obstacle
refuse to compromise
work with others to solve a problem

12. Person specification
Experience/Knowledge
Essential
Desirable
Experience of prioritising competing demands √
Experience of working with a diverse client group
Skills/Abilities
Ability to achieve targets within agreed timescales
Ability to work autonomously and as a team member
Ability to work with people at all levels
Interview questions will be largely based around the competencies in the person specification e.g.
“Describe a situation where you had to achieve targets within agreed timescales”

13. Competency Questions
The hardest part of the form for most applicants - asking for examples of specific skills such as teamwork, leadership, problem solving e.g.
Describe how your personal planning and organisation resulted in the successful achievement of a personal or group task.
Give an example of where others have disagreed with your views. How did you deal with this?

14. COMPETENCY QUESTIONS: STAR APPROACH
Start by briefly outlining the Situation
Keep the focus on your specific Tasks and responsibilities
Say what Action you took, then try to summarise what you achieved. If it’s a group task, make sure you define your own role and contribution. This is the biggest part
Give concrete Results when possible. If you cannot be totally positive about the experience, say what you learned from it and what you might do differently next time.
Situation/Tasks/Action/Result =

15. HYPOTHETICAL QUESTIONS
"How would you deal with an irate customer?” (customer service interview)
Interviewer picks up a cheap biro from the desk. "Sell me this pen". (sales/marketing interview)
BA pilot interviewee: was asked what he would do if he met the captain wearing a dress in the hotel bar. (British Airways interview)

16. HYPOTHETICAL QUESTIONS
Used because it's impossible to work out your answer beforehand.
Test your ability to think quickly, logically, produce practical solutions.
Don't panic! Take a few seconds to think - this shows confidence.
Just try to think of one or two sensible things to say to start off.
There may be many possible solutions.

17. PREPARE QUESTIONS TO ASK
DON’T ASK about holidays, pensions and parking facilities.
DO ASK about training, career development and the work itself.

18. REAL QUESTIONS FROM CANDIDATES
What is your Zodiac sign?
Do I have to dress for the next interview?
I know this is off the subject, but will you marry me?
Will the company pay to relocate my horse?
When is pay day?
Would it be a problem if I'm angry most of the time?
Why am I here?

19. PREPARE QUESTIONS TO ASK
How is performance at work assessed?
What is a typical career path in this job?
Can you give me more details of the training programme?
What is the ‘‘work culture’’? i.e. informal, formal, do people work autonomously, does everyone come in early, stay late?
What are the challenges that the organisation is facing?
What is your personal experience of working for this organisation?

20. FOLLOWING UP
The interviewer will probably let you know when you’ll know the result. If they haven't made this clear, ask!
After the interview, make notes on the questions asked and what you could have answered better.

21. PRACTICE INTERVIEWS ONLINE
Teaching, postgrad. study, scientific research, IT etc.
Answers to 150 interview questions
Telephone interviews
Streamed Videos online
On-line Applications
Interviews
Assessment Centres

22. Assessment Centres
Assessment Centres
Coping with group exercises
Presentation skills
ELECTRONICS CAREERS PAGE

23. Duty Careers Adviser
A Duty Adviser is available to help with queries between am to p.m. and 2 to 4 p.m. every day.
No appointment needed - just drop in.
Other Presentations.

24. Moodle Careers Employability Award
14 Quizzes: need 75% to pass
Employability skills quiz
Employability skills quiz: drag and drop
How to develop the skills employers want?
Test your spelling and grammar!
What makes you happy at work?
How commercially aware are you?
Special interests topic lesson
Interview preparation
Practice interview
What are the most common interview questions?
Aptitude tests and assessment centres
CV quiz
CVs and covering letters: drag and drop quiz
Career planning drag and drop quiz
Assignments: complete 3 of these
Analyse your skills and learn how to make top quality applications
Do you want to live to work or work to live?
Researching careers
Choosing a career
Submit a CV
Social media
Action planning
DX_CEA Careers Employability Award (2014/15)

25. IBM Mentoring Scheme
IBM are mentoring first-year students looking to do a placement as part of their degree or second year students considering life after University. Mentors are Kent graduates and interns. You can be studying for any degree and don't need advanced computing skills. Why? IBM is keen to encourage students to consider their careers sooner. We want to make students aware of how competitive today’s job market is and give them guidance on how best to promote themselves. This will give them the best chance of applying not just to our schemes but other employers’ too. The scheme also provides a fantastic chance for students to improve and enhance their skillsets before they begin applying. It is a virtual mentoring scheme where the majority of contact with students is either via , telephone or by Skype. The scheme will run between January and April. If you would like an IBM mentor please with a copy of your CV and an answer in not more than 200 words to the following question in the next week. "How would you benefit from having an IBM mentor and why should you be selected for this scheme rather than other students who apply". The students with the best answers will be selected to take part in the scheme. The earlier you apply, the better your chances of acceptance. More details are at

26. Interview Skills www.kent.ac.uk/careers/slides.htm Bruce Woodcock
University of Kent
Careers and Employability Service
You can download a copy of this presentation at

27. Careers Employability Award
if you have problems enrolling

28. Application Process
The smaller company process is much simpler and you can apply much later (often after final exams) but salaries are usually lower and they offer less training and less chance to specialise.

29. Every question is designed to assess you against set criteria
“I tried to work out which of these criteria a particular question was pertaining to, and address that, rather than just the specific question.
In the public sector there are no really spontaneous questions and nothing is asked without a purpose: they have to do everything fairly and openly.
So there’s a grid of criteria, with questions that relate to those criteria, and each question you get asked will result in the panel writing down the evidence that shows you meet that criteria.
Each question is given a score, then the highest total score wins so you have to be hitting those criteria.
It’s a question of asking yourself, what do they ACTUALLY want from me with this one?”
Successful candidate for a library post