Hands up how many of us have sat in an interview and sweated, cringed and stumbled over what we really wanted to say? I know I have! And the only outcome is you don’t get the job (unless you’re really lucky) and you beat yourself up over it for days after. So, I’ve put together 3 top tips to help avoid the nervous verbal incompetence!
1. Prepare for the inevitable stumbling question ‘So tell us a little about you’.
All an interviewer really wants to know when they ask this is how well do you work with other people, are you friendly, patient, and can you use your own initiative as well as working in a team. The only way to give a really good answer to this is to prepare it first! Jot down a few points about how great you are and practice putting into coherent sentences. Don’t get too well rehearsed – they don’t want to hear you just reel off a speech in the interview!
2. ‘What are your weaknesses?’
This sounds like a horrid question to get in an interview, but you can make it work to your advantage if you’ve done your preparation. The interviewer is looking to see if you can be analytical about your own behaviour and objective enough to take action. The best way to counter this question is give a specific example of when you have been weak in a situation and give an explanation of how you would have handled things differently. Make sure they understand that you can learn from your experience and take change on onboard.
3. ‘What would you do in this situation: (fill in an awkward example relevant to the position you’re going for!)?”
This boils down to making sure you know your subject! Be on the ball with new policy, practices and health & safety. Make sure your clinical knowledge is really top notch and that you can be concise and calm when presented with a difficult situation. If you don’t understand the scenario given, feel free to ask qualifying questions to be sure you understand exactly what they are presenting you with. The only preparation you can do for this is to think through and practice speaking through different scenarios that might occur in your new role (which if course you will get!).
All that remains is not to panic. If you naturally panic, sweat and go into meltdown before an interview be sure that you shower before you go, use a strong deodorant, don’t wear clothes you aren’t comfortable in, do you hair early so it’s not fly away when you arrive and most importantly walk into the building with your head held high. An air of confidence is very reassuring and even if you don’t feel it inside, it can be projected so your body language displays it.
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