In my Recruitment career I have conducted and helped thousands of candidates through the interview process and helped countless people get amazing IT jobs in Ireland and the USA. It’s incredible the difference you see between confident and shy, prepared and unprepared, relevant and irrelevant and the odd spoofer. If you don’t fancy reading to the bottom of the article, well your more than likely one of those folks that doesn’t like to prepare too much.  So in a nut shell – Be Yourself, have good manners and be clear in your answers and don’t waffle.

Now to get into a little more detail.

Below are my top 10 tips for interviewing:

  1. Let’s start with Research,

I would always ask, what do you know about the business. What I want to hear is you have done some research. Ill fill in the gaps if you don’t go into detail. So look at the website, is there an interesting founder story. Google the company name in google and hit news. Just read a few articles and understand yourself what the company is up to. Check out Glassdoor and Indeed reviews, then you can get an understanding what it’s like to work there.

  1. Clarify why you want the job, why would they hire you?

Prepare your USP’s (Unique selling points) – study the job description, have practical and real commercial examples ready for each point on the job spec. Then be prepared to tell the interviewers why you are a great fit for the role and why you want it. Show interest and sell yourself.

  1. Ask this question as early into the interview as possible: What challenges do you foresee me having should I be successful in this position?

Asking this question will give you some insight into the challenges the business is facing and why this role is open. It will then give you the opportunity to showcase how you can assist in being the solution.

  1. Prepare for those annoying but common interview questions

There are countless webpages that are dedicated to common interview questions, such as this one. Questions such as tell me about yourself? or tell me about a conflict you had with your last manager? Give yourself a few scenarios based examples and ensure they all have a successful conclusion.

  1. Leave a good first impression

Let’s start with dress code, things are changing and a suit is no longer the go to dress code for interviews. So do a little research, look at LinkedIn photos of employees and the interviewer, if they are wearing a suit in the photo, id personally wear a suit.  If you interview for those wonderful IT jobs with the likes of Amazon, Facebook or Google chances are they will tell you to dress casually or “comfortable”. If you are not told to dress in such a way, research.

This would be more important if its face to face, of course. If it’s a virtual interview, your dress code and how you look still plays an important part in giving the first impression.

Do the usuals, neat hair, good clothes etc etc. I don’t need to tell you that.

  1. Body Language and for f&@k sake smile.

Use accessible body language, make eye contact, stand or sit up straight DO NOT SLOUCH, take a deep breath and relax.

Show respect to everyone you come across, give a good handshake (or fist bump – how the world is changing!)

This all sounds obvious, but when you are under pressure and nervous the simple things are easily forgotten. So just keep these things in the back of your mind.

  1. Be you, Authentic, show them your natural side

Lets be honest, easier sad then done when interviewing. Its important to take your time with your answers (don’t pause for too long or they will think there is something wrong with you, or you cant think of your feet). Be truthful, always tie your answers back to your experience and skills, bring up your accomplishments (your not bragging, simply saying how brilliant you are, with examples).  If you need time to think, just say “give me a second to think of the best example” remember the interviewer wants you to do well. If they don’t, trust me you wouldn’t be sitting there interviewing.

  1. Take responsibility.

Don’t play they blame at all in an interview, if you did something wrong, tell them all about it, and most importantly…… tell them what you learnt from it, how you are now better at your job. Really important. Everyone has made mistakes, not everyone learns from them. IT jobs are no different.

  1. Ask questions and show interest

Have a few questions prepared, think back to my 3rd point. Ask questions that will give you the opportunity to continue to sell your skills and experience. Another good question is “What type of skills are missing that you are looking to fill with this role?” Or “What attributes does someone need to have in order to be really successful in this position?”

These type of questions at the end will allow you to sell yourself once last time before the interview ends and leave a lasting impression.

  1. Don’t speak negatively about anyone or business

Again, a simple reminder because we all know it really. Don’t speak badly about anyone. The interviewer is not there to listen to how much you dislike this, or he/she was that. No no, leave that to the pub with the mates and be pleasant about your previous employer. Let’s say the interviewer asks you, how did you get on with your previous boss? And you hate him/her, simply say, It was great working with him/her, but looking forward to learning more from someone like you.

Interviewing is a skill, in my experience the more you prepare the more confident you will be. Show passion and interest.

Elwood Roberts is an expert Recruitment Business catering to the Irish and US markets, please do get in touch if you are looking to hire or for your next challenge within the IT jobs market.

If you are confident and want to learn a little more about getting a good salary, click here.