(Mellow music)
Hello and welcome to Kick Start.
I’m Alice from Christians Against Poverty,
and in this session we’re going
to talk about interviews.
Let’s be honest, very few people enjoy interviews,
but for the employer they’re the best way
to decide if you’re the right person for a job.
Interviews are often face-to-face,
but are increasingly being conducted over the telephone
or by video call.
This session will help you
to feel better prepared
to answer the questions an employer might ask
you at an interview.
Let’s start by hearing from some employers about why
they like interviews so much.
The reason I like interviewing people is
because I look at these people as the future
of my business.
If we offer an interview to someone
we’re obviously showing
that we’re keen and willing to meet this person.
So they’ve gone through the first process
of us liking their CV,
so the next stage is coming to see us.
That is a huge, huge positive
because they want things to work out,
they’ve actually spotted somebody
who they think potentially can fill a gap in
their organisation and who will fit.
So it’s a huge confidence boost,
take it positively.
You may be very, very nervous,
but so is the person interviewing you often,
they’re desperate to find somebody to work
and they just want to find the right person.
I guess no matter how confident
you are, there’s always going to be a bit of nerves,
but I think if you’ve got an interview
you’re nearly there.
Be friendly when you walk through the door,
the first impressions really count.
So I would recommend strongly
that they dress smartly,
that they smile at the interview,
that they’ve done their research
and they’ve found out a little bit about the company.
And there’s nothing more refreshing
than someone who sits in front of you
and actually tells you what you do
because they’ve done the research on the website.
I don’t expect them to know everything about our business
but I think it’s just common courtesy
to have a look at us online
or find out a little bit about the company,
even pop in and have a coffee, find out, look at the staff,
look at what we do.
People are looking for that little bit extra
that somebody’s got, and it could just be
that little bit of research
that someone’s done on the organisation
and the enthusiasm that comes through
that makes the difference in getting the job.
Being invited for an interview is a great achievement,
but the feeling of excitement can quickly be overcome
as nerves may begin to set in.
This is perfectly natural
and you can feel nervous for many reasons.
You might feel under pressure,
especially if you really want the job
but you’re worried that you won’t get it.
It could be a situation that you’ve never experienced before
and so you don’t quite know what to expect.
Talking to new people might not be your strength,
and you’re worried that you won’t know what to say.
Or perhaps you’re unsure if the job
is the right one for you.
In all of these cases, the best thing
that you can do to overcome these feelings
and to boost your confidence is
to use the four Ps:
Prepare, Practise, Plan and Present.
First, you need to prepare.
Before your interview day arrives, do some research
to make sure that you understand the role
you’re applying for.
Think about your skills and positive qualities so
that they’re fresh in your memory.
If you’ve created a skills matrix,
review this and make sure
that you understand who the employer is
and what it is that they’re looking for.
You wouldn’t sit an exam without doing any revision,
and it’s the same in the interview.
You’ll feel more confident if you’re well prepared.
Remember, the interview is for you
to find out about the employer,
just as much as it is for them
to find out about you.
We recommend preparing three questions
that you could ask during the interview.
This helps to show the employer
that you’re genuinely interested.
Second, practise.
Ask a friend to help you by doing a mock interview with you,
either face-to-face, on the phone or by video call.
You wouldn’t expect to be able
to play an instrument without practising first,
and in the same way, the more that you practise,
the more your confidence will build.
It’s best to find somebody that will take this seriously
and be able to give you honest feedback.
If you can’t think of anybody,
ask your facilitator if they could help
or if they know somebody else who could.
Next, you need to plan.
Have you got everything ready for the day?
Do you know where the interview is?
How long will it take you to get there?
What are you going to wear?
Thinking practically about these things ahead
of time will give you less to worry about on the day.
If the interview is over the telephone
or if it’s on a video call,
where are you going to do the interview?
It’s best to choose somewhere that you feel comfortable
and where you won’t be easily distracted by children
or the TV.
It’s a good idea to make sure
that you have a good phone signal
or internet connection too.
Lastly, present.
Go for it, you’ve done all the hard work,
you’ve prepared what you want to say,
you’ve practised how to say it
and you’ve planned how to get there.
Now, you can be confident and be yourself.
Remember to smile and to make that great first impression.
(Mellow music)
So today is your big day.
You’ve discovered your strengths,
you’ve written a great CV and you applied for that job,
and you have been given an interview.
First of all, you need to know that’s absolutely fantastic,
well done.
Whatever happens today, you have done amazing.
In this step, we’re going to help
you with a whole interview process.
First of all, I’m gonna walk you through
that first stage.
So I knew I needed to make an effort with my appearance.
I’ve made sure I’m clean and smart,
hey, I even wore a tie.
I needed to arrive early and on time
so I checked the route yesterday
to make sure I knew how to get here.
And now I’m ready.
I’m here 15 minutes before that interview time.
So a deep breath, here we go,
let’s go and get ourselves a job.
When you go into reception, first impressions are really,
really important.
You need to know the name of the person you’re seeing,
the job you’re applying for,
and of course the time of your appointment.
I’m going to show you how you might do that
and how you can make a fantastic first impression. Let’s go.
Hello, good morning.
My name is John Kirkby,
I’m here for my interview at 12:30 with Mrs Brooke
for the maintenance supervisor.
Yes, Mr Kirkby, if you’d like to take a seat over there,
Mrs Brooke will be down to see you in 15 minutes.
So there you are, I’m in.
I’m at the right place at the right time
and I’m ready to go.
Hey, I’m still a little bit nervous,
but I know it’s going to be okay
because I have prepared.
I made sure that I read through my CV again yesterday
to make sure all of those examples
of my achievements were fresh in my mind.
I’ve also recapped on the research I did on this company
to show them that I really am interested in working here.
Now, there are some aspects
of your interview right from the very start
that you need to understand.
One is you need to have really good eye contact.
Look your interviewer in the eye when you speak to them.
This will help you to look and feel friendly and confident.
You need to ensure
that your body language makes a great impression.
Shake your interviewers hand when you meet them.
When you sit down, make sure that you sit upright,
you sit straight, don’t cross your arms.
It’s really important that you are enthusiastic
and genuinely ready to start work,
and they need to see that.
So I’m just gonna show you how
you might start your interview.
Hi Mr Kirkby, I’m Mrs Brooke.
Hi there, really, really nice to meet you,
I’m so looking forward to the interview.
Great, would you like to come with me?
Yeah.
Going down here.
Great, so how long have you worked here?
About eight years now.
Wow, enjoyed it?
It’s absolutely fantastic, love working here.
Yeah, it was interesting,
when I looked on the website, it was great
to see the social responsibility
that the company do
and the work that you guys do volunteering outside work.
It’s great, isn’t it?
Yeah, really good.
So we’re all ready to go, I’m in.
I’ve made a great first impression,
now to answer some questions.
The exercises that you’re going to do next are going
to get you ready for answering the questions
that you will face in your interview.
Well done, you’re already well on your way
to getting that job that you’ve always wanted.
Enjoy the interview stage.
The interview is a very important place
to make a good first impression.
And you can see how using the four Ps
to prepare, practise, plan, and present really helped John
to do that confidently.
I’m now going to put you in the shoes
of the employer and show you three video interviews
of people applying for the same job.
Who would you choose?
As you watch, write down anything
that you note in the three interviews, good or bad,
ready to discuss with your group.
Hello, Gareth, are you there?
Hello, Gareth, are you there?
Yeah, sorry, sorry, I’m late.
I’ve just come to get set.
Right, that’s great.
Sorry, sorry I’m late.
Okay, no problem.
I just want to start with a few questions, Gareth.
Can I ask firstly why you’d like to work for this company?
I just need a job, innit?
Job Centre have told me to come get a job
so that’s why.
Right, okay.
And this is very much a team-based role,
can I ask you if you’ve worked in a team before in any
of your previous roles or volunteering work?
Yeah, I’ve worked in teams before, yeah I’ve done that.
Right, okay.
And have you ever had
to deal with any angry customers in any of the roles
or places you’ve worked?
Yeah, I’ve done that, yeah,
just throw them out, don’t you?
Right, thank you, Gareth.
So in this role, in this team,
sometimes we can be very busy.
So I’d really like to know how you cope with pressure,
can you give me an example of when
you’ve been under pressure before?
No, not really.
I don’t think I’ve ever had pressure before,
but I’ve worked some busy places.
Right, thank you.
And finally, what do you think you would like
to be doing in five years’ time?
I’ve not really thought that far ahead,
just be in work and earning money, yeah.
Right, okay, that’s interesting.
Thank you for coming today, Gareth,
we’ll let you know in a couple of days’ time.
All right, see ya.
Goodbye.
Hi Caty, thank you so much
for coming to this interview today.
I just want to start with a really easy question
and just say to you why would you like
to work for this company?
Yeah, great question,
can I just check, can you see and hear me okay?
Yeah.
Is that alright, am I loud enough, yeah?
Yeah.
Okay, yeah, great.
I’m sorry, I’ve even forgotten the question.
What was the question?
That’s fine, so why would you like
to come and work for this company?
Well, you see people say
that I’m quite good with people, I’m quite chatty,
bit of a chatterbox me.
And so they always say I’d be really good in sales,
really good with customers,
so I just thought it’d be really good fun.
I saw it, I thought that is the job for me.
Although you know what,
my old job didn’t really appreciate
that I could talk so much.
I also, not gonna lie,
saw that you’ve got an office in Louisiana
and I’ve always wanted to work in the States
and I thought, ooh! This could be a bit
of an opportunity.
But, you know, not jumping ahead of myself,
but just thought it’d be really interesting.
Well that is very interesting.
So obviously you’ve worked in offices before,
I’m just wondering if
you can tell me about when
you’ve worked in a team before.
Yeah, so recently in my last position
I was working on an event with some people
and there was Karen in the team, and Neil,
it was David, it was David, it was David in the events team,
I always get those two mixed up,
they’re very, very similar,
don’t tell them I said that though.
And we were working on this project
and we realised that we’d forgotten the cutlery
and it was this big dinner event thing we were doing.
Oh for goodness sake, so I sent Neil out
to the shop to go buy this cutlery stuff,
went over budget, but I thought it was a really good option,
like last minute.
Although our manager did say
we really shouldn’t have done that.
But I thought we actually worked really well
and we solved the problem.
I just don’t think they’re very forward-thinking,
I think they could’ve appreciated
our initiative a bit more.
But I think we worked well as a team,
I think we did.
Lovely, thank you.
And we’ll just have one quick final question,
have you ever had to deal with an angry customer at all?
Yes, however, I personally believe
that the customer’s always right.
So I think it’s really important
that you really listen to the customer,
that you value what they’re saying,
that you really take time.
I don’t do the talking, I let them do the speaking.
I just listen
and I just really hear what the problem is
that they’re going through.
So yeah, I have, but through my amazing listening skills
I feel like it’s quite easy to work with,
’cause when you listen, they feel valued.
Thank you, Caty, that’s very helpful
and we’ll get back to you in a couple
of days with the result of the interview, thank you.
Great, thank you.
Hi Eilidh, thank you so much for coming
to this interview today.
I just want to ask you a few questions.
So the first thing would be,
why would you like to work for this company?
Yeah, I’m excited at the thought
of working for a company
that has grown and developed over the last 50 years.
And also particularly excited about the fact
that it’s international,
the roles are really varied
and I particularly love the idea
that it’s very customer service focused.
That’s fantastic. So the role is also very team-based,
so can you give me an example of when
you’ve worked well within a team?
Yeah, so I’m on a quiz team in my spare time
and I really enjoy it.
We’ve got quite a mix in that team,
so some really quiet individuals,
some slightly more outgoing individuals,
and I think the part
I really love about it is drawing out some
of the voices of the quieter people
to make sure that we hear what everyone’s got to say.
Yeah, that’s lovely, that’s lovely.
So have you ever had to deal with anyone that’s angry,
so an angry customer in any setting previously?
Yeah, unfortunately I have.
My previous role in a cafe,
we have had some disgruntled clients or customers,
because of just the food.
And I think something that I really focused on when
I was dealing with an angry customer was just
staying calm myself, keeping a calm tone of voice,
and just listening to them
to I guess understand why they were frustrated,
why they were angry.
And then thinking, ‘Is this something I can deal with
or is this something I’m going to need to pass
to my manager to deal with?’
That’s really interesting,
and so I guess in that scenario
you could be very busy,
this role is a very busy role
so I’d really like to know how
you cope with pressure.
Yeah, I’ve learnt over the last few years
some really good time management techniques
for when I am under pressure.
I really benefit from making lists
to prioritise what I’m doing.
And also if I just don’t have the capacity myself,
seeking some support from others.
An example I’ve got of that is when
we were in the cafe and we’re particularly busy at weekends.
And just needed to make sure
that everyone was doing the right thing,
so someone was behind the tills,
someone was cleaning tables, someone was taking orders.
And we just had
to work really closely as a team in that time.
Great, that’s really interesting, Eilidh.
Thank you so much for your time today,
we’ll call you in a couple of days
to let you know if you’ve been successful, thank you.
(Mellow music)
Let’s be honest, very few people ‘enjoy’ interviews and often the achievement of being invited for an interview is overshadowed when the nerves set in!
Like taking an exam, being prepared and understanding the information needed can help us feel more relaxed and confident. In this session, you’ll understand how to prepare and present yourself in the best way possible, so that when you’re next invited to an interview, the excitement outweighs the nerves.
This session aims to empower you to be confident in an interview setting, including face-to-face, telephone and video interviews.
By the end of this session, you should have a better understanding of what to do, and what not to do, during an interview, and how to present yourself in the best way possible. You should feel more able to plan coping strategies and better prepared to handle face-to-face, telephone, or video interviews, including understanding key questions that you’re likely to be asked.
Yes! We offer additional facilitator resources, such as guidance on activities and discussions, to allow you to run this as a group session for your church or community. Fill out the form and you’ll receive an email confirmation with instructions on how to access your free resources.