Welcome to HR coffee time. It’s wonderful to have you here. If we haven’t met before, I’m Fay Wallis, your host for the show. I’m a career coach and outplacement specialist with a background in HR. And I’m also the founder of bright sky career coaching. I make a new episode of the show every week, they come out on Fridays, and they’re usually made, especially for people who work in the HR and people profession, to help them have a successful and fulfilling career without working themselves into the ground.

Fay Wallis: 00:00:37

But this episode, and the next couple of episodes are going to be a tiny bit different, because they’re going to be relevant for anyone who is looking for a new role at the moment and worrying about their job interview and just wanting to do the best that they can in it. So it might be that you’re listening to this because you’ve been made redundant, or you’ve just decided it’s time to move on. So if you’ve been sent a link to listen to this, and you’re thinking, Well, I don’t work in HR, why on earth has Fay or someone else sent this to me, it’s because just for a little while, the podcast is going to be for you as well.

Fay Wallis: 00:01:12

And the reason I decided to create this short series of episodes, especially targeted at interview help, is because for my company’s most recent piece of outplacement work, we ran some online workshops for a group of people who sadly have lost their jobs due to redundancy. And at the end of the workshops, we ask for feedback, we always ask, What did you like most about the workshop? And what would have made this workshop even better? And one person commented in the what would have made it even better question, saying that they would have loved to have even more tips and resources they could refer to once the workshop had finished.

Fay Wallis: 00:01:51

Now we do have some other resources to help with interviews. I’ve created some videos in the past. And I’ve written articles, I’ve even had some of my advice around interviews published by the Metro newspaper. So that was pretty exciting. But the feedback made me realise that actually, I’ve never created any podcast episodes about this topic at all. So I’m really hoping that by making these it’s going to help all my regular listeners, as well as anyone new or anyone who really does want to do well in their interview.

Fay Wallis: 00:02:26

And before I dive into this episode, to share seven tips to help you feel more confident about your job interview, I just want to say a really big thank you to the two most recent people who have reviewed HR coffee time on Apple podcast for me. So Jennie, thank you so much for your lovely review. It’s wonderful to hear that you’ve been enjoying it. And I know who you are, because you’ve very kindly sent me an email to let me know. Which means I’ve been able to email you back to say thank you properly, but I’m not sure who the other reviewer is.

Fay Wallis: 00:03:00has appeared on Apple is Burty: 0611Fay Wallis: 00:03:39

The very first tip that I’m going to share with you out of the seven tips to help you feel more confident for your job interview is to get clear on what it is that you’re most worried about when it comes to the interview. Because it’s so important, you can pin that down. Once you’ve pinned it down, you can start taking steps to address it. Because otherwise, that worry is going to be niggling away. And no matter how much practice or work you put into other aspects of the interview. If you haven’t addressed that, then it’s likely to always be bubbling away as a bit of a concern. This is usually the first question that I ask anyone who comes to me for interview coaching, because just like I said back in episode one of the podcast when it comes to confidence generally, there will be some aspects of the interview that you do feel confident about.

Fay Wallis: 00:04:37

So for example, you might feel confident about what to wear or you might feel confident talking about specific examples or you might feel confident because you know quite a lot about the company. So if you’re asked any questions about why you’re interested in working for them, you’ll be able to give a strong answer. The thing that could be worrying you might be complete be different to someone else. There’s no point really in getting too broad when it comes to preparing for your interview without having first narrowed down and honed in on what your biggest worry might be. So to try and bring this to life a little bit for you, I can give you some examples.

Fay Wallis: 00:05:18

I can immediately remember one client who I helped with interview coaching. And when I said to him, What is the thing that you are most worried about when it comes to this interview, he said to me straightaway, I just don’t know how to explain the fact that I want to leave my current role, because I’ve been there for a really long time. So I feel like anything I say, is going to be bad, which of course, isn’t true. Often the things that we’re worrying about, we just build up in our minds.

Fay Wallis: 00:05:49

And because we don’t, then talk about them with someone else, or write them down or start to try to address them, they become even bigger, and more scary and worrying than they are. So that was the very first thing that we started focusing on. And it didn’t take long at all to be able to come up together with an answer that he was happy in sharing as to why he wanted to move on. And that answer was very truthful. I have had people say to me, oh, gosh, you know, I’m worried that this answer doesn’t look good enough, should I lie, I would never encourage you to lie that’s going to make you feel even more nervous.

Fay Wallis: 00:06:29

But just by thinking, okay, so what am I worried about? Now, I’ve said it out loud. So say it out loud to a friend or a colleague or someone you trust or just write it down in your journal or on a piece of paper, if you don’t feel brave enough to talk to someone yet, having it down in writing can help you come up with a plan as to how you’re going to address that. Again, other people who have said to me, they’re worried about explaining that they’ve been made redundant. And of course, I’ve been able to reassure them that, especially since the pandemic hits, unfortunately, redundancy has become a completely accepted part of our working lives, there are statistics that show that it’s very likely we’re all going to be made redundant more than once in our careers.

Fay Wallis: 00:07:15

And people are expecting it. They know that it’s not just because you weren’t good at your job. Redundancy has nothing to do with that. It’s very much about the fact that your role isn’t required anymore for a huge range of reasons. But of course, it can feel quite emotional talking about these things. So if that is something that you’re worrying about speaking about, I’d firstly like to reassure you to say no one is going to judge you for this, this isn’t going to reflect negatively on you. But then to try and encourage you to practice what your answer to that could be, so that you can feel composed when you’re given the answer. And as far as your answer is concerned, you can be very matter of fact about it.

Fay Wallis: 00:08:00

Often when redundancies happen, it’s because the organisation might be in financial difficulty, or there might be a huge restructure, there could be huge numbers of people who are losing their jobs at the same time. So just by giving a tiny bit of context about the situation, the interviewers are going to understand, I do think it’s something that we can build up in our minds as being a worry. But although I’ve just given two examples, the possibilities are endless, because we’re all different, we’ve all got our worries that are quite unique to us. So try and pin down what it is that you’re worried about, write it down or talk to someone, and then try to take a step back from any emotion that is caught up in that worry, so that you can look at it quite objectively.

Fay Wallis: 00:08:49

And if it’s hard for you to look at objectively, then of course, please do try talking to someone else about it. It’s always incredible how another point of view can help us to find the answer that is then going to make us feel much more confident. So that’s tip number one.

Fay Wallis: 00:09:07

Tip number two to help you feel more confident for your job interview is to ask for information about what to expect from the interview in advance. Now, the very first client that I supported with interview coaching, I remember her saying to me, oh gosh, I just feel really nervous because they could ask me anything. I just don’t know what the format of the interview is going to be. They haven’t given me very much information. So we said well, it’s fine to ask them for the information. That’s not going to make you look bad. That’s going to make you look good. It shows that you’re really committed to this process. You’re really interested in working for them. You’re clearly going to put your all into doing well in the interview. So she emailed them and said I’m really looking forward to the interview.

Fay Wallis: 00:09:52

Thank you so much for inviting me to make sure that I’m as prepared as possible and can do my best in the interview. Can you share some more information about what the structure is going to be, so that I can prepare. They wrote back and said, yes, it’s a competency based interview. And as an aside to this, just to let you know, I will be creating another podcast episode that looks specifically at competency based questions to help you with that. But anyway, coming back to this story, they said to her, it’s a competency based interview, here are the competencies that you’re going to be assessed against.

Fay Wallis: 00:10:28

Here are the questions that we’re going to be asking you. So she couldn’t believe it, that she had the questions there and then and could really prep for them and do her best. Now, she was very lucky, it’s not likely that you are going to be given all the questions, although I do hope that that’s changing. Because from a neuro diversity perspective, organisations are realising the benefits of being inclusive in all sorts of ways, including making sure they’re being inclusive for anyone who applies for roles, who is neuro diverse.

Fay Wallis: 00:11:04

So by neuro diversity, that might mean that you’re dyslexic or dyspraxic, or you have ADHD, or you have autism, or you’ve got Tourette Syndrome, I’m sure, I may have forgotten some of the things that fall within the umbrella of neurodiversity. But if you have been diagnosed with one of those conditions, then it may be that it’s a disadvantage to you to not know what the questions are going to be. And I have just been absolutely thrilled to see that organisations are realising the benefits in giving up interview questions in advance. I don’t really see a downside to this, because I don’t know why or everyone wouldn’t do this, really, because it really helps people prepare.

Fay Wallis: 00:11:50

But even if you aren’t given all the questions, just knowing that it’s going to be a competency based interview, that means that you can look through the job description, see what the competencies are, that you’re going to be assessed against, and then start thinking of some answers to questions that you might be asked around those, you may be told that actually, they’re going to be asking you questions based on their company values. So again, it means you can then go away do that research really get to grips with what their company values are, so that you’re going to be able to give some good answers that show that you’re in alignment with them. So that is the end of Tip number two, asking for more information about what to expect from the interview.

Fay Wallis: 00:12:32

Tip number three, is to practice your answers out loud. I’ve had so many people come to me to say, Oh, please, can I have some interview coaching? I just don’t know what’s going wrong. I have all of my interview answers, perhaps they’re all written down. But when it comes to the interview and saying them out loud, it just seems to fall apart. And I don’t know what it is. But it seems to be this strange thing that we can think, oh, I’ll just plan out the answer to that in my head, or I’ll write down a detailed answer on paper. And then when you’re asked about it, it’s very hard to remember everything that’s written on that piece of paper, or to really clearly articulate what it is that swirling around in your head. But if you practice saying your answer out loud several times, then it becomes much easier to get into the rhythm of the answer to remember the key points that it is that you’re going to say.

Fay Wallis: 00:13:32

And it’s less likely that you’re going to get stuck when you’re sitting there in the interview. And knowing you’ve done that practice and preparation can really help you feel more confident. Now, I’m not saying that you should memorise your answers, I’m not saying that at all. But even having had a bit of a practice at running through them, just noting down maybe what some of the key points are that you’re going to cover are going to hugely increase your chances of doing well and just boosting your confidence levels.

Fay Wallis: 00:14:01

Now I know it can feel a bit weird practising answers out loud, it might help to practice them in front of a mirror. I don’t know what it is about that. But it means that you’re more drawn to carry on looking at your reflection instead of keep looking down at your notes. So you get better and better at being able to give the answer without having to check your notes. One thing that I think is a great thing to do now that we’ve all got snazzy smartphones, they’ve normally all got the ability to record yourself on there. So I have an iPhone, which has a voice memos section, I’d really recommend that you actually record yourself saying your answer. And I know that might feel really cringy.

Fay Wallis: 00:14:41

But if you’re putting in a lot of practice and prep, and you don’t have an interview coming up straight away, or you have got an interview and a couple of days before the interview, not directly before moments before you go in there. But a little bit closer to the time. It can be really useful just to listen to yourself. have listened back to those great strong answers that you’ve been practising just to really help them lodge in your memory and make it much more likely that you’re going to perform at your best in the interview.

Fay Wallis: 00:15:13

Tip number four is a really simple one. And that is to take enough copies of your CV into the interview for you. And for however many people are going to be interviewing you. There are so many times when the person interviewing you is rushing to get to you, they may not even have read your CV. And I know this can feel heartbreaking, because you’ve probably put a huge amount of time and effort into your CV. So it just feels horrendous to think someone would be interviewing you without having even read it. But that does happen. Or it could be that they read it a little while ago, and they thought you look great on paper, but they forgotten a lot of the detail that’s in there.

Fay Wallis: 00:15:55

Again, I’m terrible at remembering exact statistics. But there are lots of statistics that show that when someone reviews a CV, it’s for such a brief amount of time, it seconds to begin with. Now, hopefully, anyone who has invited you for an interview has done more than just glance at it. But it’s very unlikely that they will really have read it in depth. While they might have done you do come across some interviewers who are very good at having heavily reviewed and studied your CV and drawn out specific questions from that. But I would say from my experience, that’s the minority of people, it’s not the majority. So just to show how prepared and organised you are, you can then give them a copy of the CV if you notice they haven’t got one.

Fay Wallis: 00:16:38

But also it can be helpful for you to have a copy of your CV in front of you. In case they ask you any specific questions about it. And you’re thinking, oh, gosh, where did I put that, or I can’t remember what the stats was I put on my CV for that. It’s just very reassuring to have it there in front of you. And of course, if you’re having a video interview, so you’re being interviewed online on Zoom, or Microsoft Teams or Skype or something like that, then you can just have your CV ready and saved on your desktop. So you can open it up and have it there to look at if you need to do you can even screen share it if you feel that that would be relevant and useful at certain points in the interview.

Fay Wallis: 00:17:22

Tip number five is to say take some notes in with you of key information that you don’t want to forget. So as you’ve probably just noticed, I find it really hard to remember numbers off the top of my head, if I haven’t got them written down, and I’m under pressure. So I’m partway through recording a podcast or I’m being asked for a statistic or a number and an interview situation. Oh my goodness, that just gets me into a panic. So it’s incredibly helpful if I’ve got them written down. So if I had been much more organised for this episode, I would have written down this statistics that I’ve already mentioned. So please be more organised than I’ve been here. And anything that you’re just feeling a little bit worried about, or you know, it would be useful to have written down to refer to didn’t just jot them down as notes.

Fay Wallis: 00:18:15

You don’t want to take in pages and pages and pages have incredibly long scripted out answers to interview questions. That’s probably not the best idea. But some key points, some key facts, you can have them in there. And if you feel nervous about mentioning the fact you’ve got notes or referring to those notes, all you have to say is something along the lines of I thought that you might ask me something around this and to make sure that I give you the absolute accurate statistics for that I have made a note of them and brought them in with me, I’ll just refer to them now. Or if it’s not statistics that you worry about remembering it some other key points, you can say, Oh, yes, I thought that we may want to talk about this key point. I jotted down a couple of things that I wanted to make sure I mentioned to you, let me just quickly refer to them.

Fay Wallis: 00:19:06

Anything like that is just going to help you look good. It doesn’t look bad. I think people really worry that if they take notes, then it’s going to look bad for some reason. But actually, so many people in the interview workshops that we’ve run are in the one to one coaching say that that has been the thing that’s really helped lift the feeling of pressure from them. And of course, what often happens is, once you’ve got your notes in there with you, you never need to look at them. They just end up acting as a bit of a safety blanket, but it is still reassuring to know they are there in case you do want to check them.

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Tip number six is to find a way to relax just before your interview. So before you either switch on your computer to have a video interview or before you walk into that interview room, make sure that you’ve given yourself some time and found a technique that works for you So something that I find really helpful is a simple breathing exercise. I learned about this when I was doing some research about feeling calmer in public speaking before you step onto the stage. So of course, although this episode isn’t about public speaking, I think that the tip can be just as helpful for when you’re walking into an interview. So I’ll just talk you through this particular breathing technique that I really like.

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Now, the first thing to do is to put your hands on your tummy. Because if you’re breathing deeply to take in plenty of oxygen, it means you’re breathing right down into your diaphragm, you don’t want to be taking shallow breaths, which are just near the top of your chest. Because if you’re taking shallow quick breaths, that can mean that you start to feel a bit panicky and a bit anxious. So we’re going to begin by breathing out that you can try this along with me, I just want you to try and breathe out all the breath that is in your body, breathe out through your mouth, and have your hands on your tummy at the same time. So I’m going to do it now.

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So you’ll see that after you’ve breathed out all of your breath really, really long and slowly, it forces your body to take in a really nice, deep, relaxing breath. And you’ll feel while you’re doing this, your hands move on your tummy because you’re breathing right down into your diaphragm. Now, this might feel a bit weird or sound a bit weird, because you might be thinking, well don’t I just breathe out for as long as I breathe in. But actually, no, it’s been shown that if you can extend the outbreath, so that it’s longer than the in breath that it actually helps to slow your heart rate down. So when you’re slowing your heart rate down, then that means that any pounding heart feelings come down, any feelings of anxiety and stress starts to go away.

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So the exercise that I just did, ideally, you want to repeat that a few times for it to work. The first time I did it, I just did it once and thought, well, this isn’t making any difference. But the second time I did it, I tried it quite a few times in a row. And it’s absolutely amazing. Really, you just start to feel yourself relaxing. There are lots of other ones that you can try. All you’ve got to do is go on YouTube, and there are loads of people demonstrating them, or just do some research online. If you don’t like the idea of trying breathing exercises, there are other things you can do as well. If you go back and take a listen to episode 36 of the podcast, which was for simple and powerful techniques to banish impostor syndrome. In this episode, my guest Joanna Lutz talks you through how to use something called PQ Reps as a way of calming your mind when you’re feeling stressed or anxious.

Fay Wallis: 00:22:59

So if you’d like to consider some different things to help you relax, I’d definitely recommend going back and having a listen to that episode. Joe takes you through and demonstrates how to do the reps live so you can do them along with her. That brings me to the final tip tip seven, which is to have questions ready to ask the interviewers at the end. When I was in my former HR and recruitment career, my heart would sink when we got to the end of an interview. If we were interviewing someone for a position and said, Do you have any questions for us? And they just said, No, I think you’ve covered everything. Although that’s an okay answer. The people who really stood out were the ones who had some well thought through questions that often made us as the interviewers think as well.

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One thing to point out before I dive into some examples of the kinds of questions you might want to ask, is to just say, although yes, it’s really good to have questions to ask at the end. Please don’t ask questions about salary or benefits or annual leave. This isn’t really the right time to do that. It’s much better to save that up for when you’re being made an offer. Or if you’re in contact directly. With the HR team, it isn’t a great idea to bring up that kind of thing in an interview. Instead, think about asking things that are going to be genuinely helpful for you.

Fay Wallis: 00:24:30

Because remember, it’s important that no matter how much you want to get a new job, it’s really important. It’s the right job for you. And by having a moment to ask questions, it really gives you a chance to check up on this. You can ask questions that are going to help you figure out is this the right organisation? Is this the right team? Is this the right opportunity for you? And depending on what it is that you want from your next role that is going to guide some of the questions means that you ask. So, for example, if career progression and professional developments are really important to you, you might want to ask what the learning and development opportunities are for the role, or what the typical career paths are for this kind of role in that organisation.

Fay Wallis: 00:25:16

If you’re going to be working in a team, it’s could be a really good idea to ask about the team. So you could say something like, can you tell me more about the team I’ll be working with, no matter what job it is that you’re going for, I think it’s always a good idea to try and figure out what the culture is like that. And there are different ways that you can do that. But I don’t think it’s always the most helpful thing to ask that question directly. So if you say, what is the culture like it, it can be really hard for people to articulate that. And often, they’ll just give you quite bland, generic statements. Instead,

Fay Wallis: 00:25:53

if you ask the interviewers, what do you most like about working here, you’re much more likely to get a flavour of what some of the culture might be like, and what some of the benefits are of working there. Of course, if they say something along the lines of I love the fact that everyone’s really committed and works until 10 o’clock at night, every night. And you’ve decided you want a role that’s going to give you work life balance, well, that’s a big red warning flag that it might not be the right role for you.

Fay Wallis: 00:26:21

But going back to what I was saying a moment ago, that if professional development is important to you, and they talk about the fact that they love the fact that they get professional development, and they’ve really been able to progress in their career, then that’s such a positive sign to you about the culture, that it’s one that does develop and facilitate learning and growth. But of course, what they say could be absolutely anything at all. And another good thing about asking them that question is, it’s a question about them. You’re asking them what they like. And as people as humans, we like to talk about ourselves. So I’ve seen this happen lots in interviews, no matter which side of the table I’ve been sitting on, where one, the person being interviewed asks that question, the interviewers sit up a little bit straighter, they look a little bit happier.

Fay Wallis: 00:27:16

Oh, brilliant. Here, they’ve been for the last hour listening intently to someone else? Well, now’s an opportunity for them to say something and to really talk about themselves and why they enjoy working there. So I actually think that’s a good question on a couple of levels, predominantly, because it’s going to help you to get a bit of an insight into the culture. But also, because it’s a way of helping, hopefully, the interviewer has to warm to you and to remember you positively and to feel like they’ve enjoyed the interview experience with you, particularly the ending.

Fay Wallis: 00:27:53

I’ll just with three or some other questions that you might want to ask as well. So a really good question that I’ve seen people ask in an interview, that has actually completely changed the course of what happens next is, is there any other information I can give you to help you make your decision? Because in this instance, when I first heard someone asked this question, I was interviewing them along with a line manager. And actually, they hadn’t answered one of the competency based questions particularly well, it had left a few questions hanging over in both our minds, my mind and the other person who was interviewing.

Fay Wallis: 00:28:36

So the line manager actually picked up on this and said, Well, yes, actually, I did have a couple more questions around your answer earlier. I wasn’t sure what you meant by x. And it gave that person an opportunity to explain in more detail, some of their previous experience. And that actually resulted in us really crossing the line and thinking, actually, let’s offer them the role. Whereas before that we had a bit of a hesitation.

Fay Wallis: 00:29:08

If you’re feeling really bold, you can say something along the lines of Is there anything I’ve said today that could hamper my chances of getting the role? It’s quite a similar setup to that is there any other information I can give you but a bit more directed? So you’re really encouraging the interviewers to tell you if they’ve got any hesitancy at all or any doubt in your mind. So that hopefully then in the moment, you can address that doubt. And you can stop them from feeling hesitant about whether you are the right person for the role or not. Questions that show that you’re genuinely interested in the company and thinking about the organisation on a deeper level than perhaps just your immediate job right there. And then is what are the company’s plans for growth?

Fay Wallis: 00:29:55

Other questions that show that you’re really thinking about the role And that are going to help you as well, especially if you get invited for another stage of interview are things like, what do you think the biggest challenges? The person who gets the role would face? Or if you’re feeling confident, you can say, What do you think the biggest challenges would be that I would face in this role? In fact, that might be a stronger one. Because then, again, if you haven’t asked that question on, is there any other information I can give you? It might be at that point that they mention a concern or a challenge that hasn’t come up so far in the interview, and you can put their minds at rest that don’t worry, I can handle that challenge. That’s no problem at all.

Fay Wallis: 00:30:41

Another question in a similar vein, is what would be most important to achieve in this role over the first few months. Now, this can help in lots of ways, it might give you a little inkling into the culture into the state of the team, potentially, into the state of the organisation. But also, it’s a clear signal as to what the absolute priorities are for that role. And it could be that they haven’t all been explored in the interview already. So you can hopefully talk to them a little bit about how you would be able to do that. Or you can talk about it in length of a second interview. Or if you go away and reflect on the interview and think Oh, actually, there’s even more I could have told them about this, you can always send them a follow up email thanking them for the interview, telling them you’ve reflected on that answer to that final question, and that you have some additional ideas you would like to share with them.

Fay Wallis: 00:31:36

The final questions that I’ll share with you are all about wrapping up the process. They are very practical ones there. What are the next steps in the recruitment process? And when can I expect to hear from you about a decision? Because it can be agonising when you’re wasting for ages. But if you’ve been told that, actually they’re not going to be able to get back to you for a few weeks, it lessens the agony slightly it makes it a bit more tolerable. At least you’re prepared for it. So you’re not wondering, oh my gosh, Has something gone wrong? Have they decided they don’t want to progress me? So that can be quite a helpful question as well.

Fay Wallis: 00:32:16

That brings us to the end of our time together today where I’ve shared seven tips to help you feel more confident for your job interview. As a quick reminder, they work number one to get clear on what you’re most worried about, and then make a plan to address that. Number two, ask for information about what to expect from the interview in advance. Number three, practice your answers out loud. Number four, taken off copies of your CV with you or have one on your screen ready if it’s a virtual interview. Number five, have notes ready and take them with you if you’d like to, if that’s going to help you feel more confident. Number six, relax. So try breathing exercise beforehand or go back and listen to episode 36 where you can learn about and try out something called PQ Reps that can be really helpful at helping you to relax and quieten and calm your mind. And finally, number seven, have questions ready to ask the interviewers at the end.