Interview preparation

Research the organisation

Employers will expect you to know something about them before you come to the interview. Make sure you are familiar with their:

• industry
• products or services
• culture
• competitors.

Do this by:

• looking at their website, annual report and other promotional material
• reading industry journals, BRW, Financial Review and business sections of newspapers
• talking to people who work in the industry, similar organisations or members of relevant professional associations.

Research the job

Read the job description or duty statement and make sure you understand the:

• employer's expectations
• role and responsibilities
• skills and qualifications needed
• experience required.

Evaluate your suitability

You need to be able to speak with confidence in the interview. Spend time selecting your experiences and life examples, which demonstrate your suitability for the role.

Think about how you can describe your experiences to show that you:

• can do the job
• want to do the job
• will fit into the organisation.

Consider the following questions and prepare answers with specific examples:

• why is working in this industry and role important to you?
• what skills and qualities will you bring to the role?
• what have you learned in your degree that might be relevant to this role?
• what have you learned from work or extra-curricular experiences that may help in this role?

Prepare your answers

Think about the questions you will be asked

You will need to give natural responses to interview questions. However, it is useful to anticipate what will be asked and think about how you would answer. These sample interview questions can help you do this.

Also think about the generic skills that this job requires. You will need to demonstrate examples of your employability skills.

Practise your responses

Choose a few of the key questions and try answering them aloud, as if you were in an interview. You may find this hard at first, but gradually the right words and examples will come. The more familiar you are with the process, the more comfortable you are likely to be in the interview.

You could practise:

• in front of a mirror
• by recording yourself
• with a friend or family member asking the questions.

Attend an on campus interview skills seminar.

Our career education consultants also run 1 hour mock interview/practice sessions for small groups of up to 4 students to provide you with feedback on your interview skills.

Contact your campus careers office to book a practice session.

Resources

Graduate interviews videos.