5 ultimate tips to ace your first job interview

You’ve spent time perfecting your job application and now have your very first job interview coming up. You’re feeling nervous… yet excited. While you can’t make your nerves magically disappear, there are things you can do to feel fully prepared for the big day.



Do your research about the company

Before you attend the interview, learn as much as you can about the company that you’ve applied to work at. In particular, research into:

the services and products that they provide
their history and position in the industry
their ethos and set of moral codes
their customer base/demographic
their competition and how they differ
Equipped with this knowledge, you’re sure to feel more confident entering the interview room. You’ll be in a better position to understand the questions that are asked to you and will be able to tailor your answers to the company’s needs.

Start with the company’s website but go beyond that to achieve a more extensive knowledge – think social media feeds, news articles and YouTube videos. Then, when you’re in the interview, bring up any interesting articles that you read about the company organically into the conversation to really impress the interviewer.

Turning up to the interview full of knowledge about the company shows that you’re serious about the job role and will be an enthusiastic and hardworking addition to the business.

Practice your questions and answers beforehand
Interviewers usually have a set list of questions that they ask each person invited to interview. This wildly varies from company to company, but you can anticipate certain varieties of questions and practice answers to those in good time before your interview.

Common interview questions include:

Tell me a bit about yourself.
Why do you want to work here?
What are your three greatest strengths?
What’s your biggest weakness?
Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?
Tell me about a challenging situation and how you overcame it.
Tell me about your biggest achievement and why.
Tell me about a time you went above and beyond what was expected of you.
How do you deal with pressure?
Do you have any questions for me?
While some questions are quite broad and could be improvised, others ask for specific examples of instances where you’ve used your skills. These anecdotes about your experience show the employer that you do indeed have the skills that you claim to have.

If you don’t have any work experience, there’s no need to panic – you can use your experience in education as an affirmation of your skillset. Have you gained any practical experience in your course? Have you mentored another student? Have you volunteered? Think about specific projects when you’ve worked in a team or solved a problem.

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