How do I prepare for a job interview?

How to prepare for a job interview, step by step

1. Research the company and role. Read their site, recent news and the full job description. Know what they do, who their customers are, and the two or three problems this role is clearly meant to solve.
2. Map your examples to their requirements. List the key skills in the posting and attach a real story to each. The interview is largely a test of whether you've done this kind of work before.
3. Build STAR stories. Shape each example into situation, task, action and result, ending with a concrete outcome. This stops you rambling and keeps behavioural answers evidence-based.
4. Prepare for the obvious questions. Have a crisp answer ready for "tell me about yourself," your strengths, a real weakness with what you did about it, and why you want this particular job.
5. Prepare questions to ask them. Bring three or four genuine questions about the team, the challenges and success in the role. Having none signals indifference; good ones show you're assessing fit too.
6. Sort the logistics and rehearse aloud. Confirm time, format and joining link or address, test your tech for a video call, and practise answers out loud, not just in your head.

Why preparation beats raw confidence

Interviews feel like a test of personality, but most are really a structured attempt to predict how you'll perform, and structure is where preparation pays off. Decades of research on hiring, summarised in Schmidt and Hunter's landmark analysis of selection methods, show that structured interviews, where every candidate faces the same job-related questions, predict later job performance considerably better than loose, improvised chats. In practice that means interviewers increasingly ask behavioural questions, "tell me about a time you…", because past behaviour is one of the better guides to future behaviour.

That's exactly why mapping concrete stories to the job's requirements matters more than trying to sound impressive. When you've already thought through examples of solving a problem, handling conflict or hitting a deadline, you can answer specifically and calmly instead of groping for something on the spot. Preparation also steadies nerves: much interview anxiety comes from fear of the unknown, and researching the company, anticipating the common questions and rehearsing aloud shrinks that unknown down to something manageable, leaving you free to actually listen and respond.

Common mistakes

• Not researching the company, so you can't say why you want this job specifically rather than any job.
• Giving vague, general answers instead of concrete stories with a real result at the end.
• Memorising scripts word for word, which sounds robotic and falls apart the moment the question shifts.
• Having no questions to ask, which reads as a lack of genuine interest in the role.