How to Get a Good Job after 50 by Rupert French

Author:Rupert French
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Exisle
Published: 2015-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

Performing well

in information

and job

interviews

Interviews are something that many people dread. Yet virtually everyone can learn to perform well at interviews, whether information interviews or interviews for a job. The key to successful performance at interviews is thorough preparation. The strategies for effective interview preparation described in this chapter can bring success to most job seekers. What is more, if at the moment you dread interviews, you will find that as a result of thorough preparation you will quickly become skilled and you will start to enjoy them.

If you are already quite confident, some of these strategies may seem ‘over the top’ and you may want to leave them out of your job search campaign. Being successful is what is important; if you find that you are not being as successful as you would like, you can always reconsider your decision.

Interviews are meetings

Essentially, interviews are meetings between two parties, and most of us like meeting people. What puts us off is the stress that almost invariably seems to accompany an interview, especially job interviews but also those for information. I can’t promise that you won’t be nervous when you attend your first few information interviews to gain specifics from someone who would be useful to you in finding and winning a job and in building your network, but I can just about guarantee that when you have completed a few, you will start to find them easier and less stressful. Once you have gained some confidence in information interviews, you will discover that you perform more confidently in job interviews as well. As you become more confident in interviewing, you will find it easier to get your informants and prospective employers to like you and this has to be the prime objective of any interview, whether for information or for a job.

Preparing for information interviews

There are four parts to preparing for information interviews:

1. Prior research: As we said in Chapter 9, the more thoroughly you research the target organisation, the more confident you will be at the interview.

2. Preparing questions to ask: We discussed the questions to ask in an information interview in Chapter 9. Questions to ask at a job interview are covered in Chapter 12.

3. Reconnaissance: Visiting the place for the network interview beforehand so that you are not in unfamiliar territory.

4. Psyching yourself for success so that you can establish a good rapport with your informant at an information interview or be successful at a job interview.

The same four parts also apply for job interviews as well as the major task of preparing answers to possible interview questions.

Prior research

Hopefully, by the time you have reached the interview stage, whether for information or for employment, you will have already carried out extensive online research. Research is crucial. The more thorough your research into the organisation, the more confident you will be at the interview itself. This is just as true for information interviews as it is for job interviews. In part, this will be because you feel so much better prepared.

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