Turn a job interview into an offer

Reaching the interview stage of the job application process is an achievement in itself. And it usually feels that way too, until you start thinking about the actual interview. From the preparation required to the nerves that start building almost straight away, job interviews can be overwhelming. 

Follow this guide to streamline your preparation, manage your nerves, and position yourself as the best person for the role. 

Prepare for common interview questions

To deliver polished, professional answers, you’ll need to prepare. Early in your career, there are two types of interview questions you’re most likely to be asked: those that are general like tell us about yourself, and those that are behavioural, such as tell us about a time you de escalated an upset customer. In this guide, we provide frameworks to help you structure your answers to both.

How to answer "tell us about yourself"

This is a common interview question that’s usually asked early on to break the ice and test your communication skills. Prepare for it properly to start the interview strong and make a great first impression. 

The best way to structure your answer is to explain why you’re interested in the industry, role or type of work, provide a brief overview of your relevant experience, highlight a specific outcome you’ve achieved, and close by positioning the role you’re interviewing for as the natural next step for yourself and the organisation you’re interviewing with. There should be a common theme woven through your answer – and the theme should link back to the role you’re applying for.

Example response

Why you’re interested: I started in the logistics industry three years ago and immediately felt like it was the perfect fit for me – the fast pace, the problem solving, and the relationship building with customers and stakeholders.

Brief overview of relevant experience: I learnt the basics as an Import Sea Freight Coordinator with [company name] before joining the customer service team, where I applied my knowledge and understanding of import and export processes to resolve customer issues. 

Specific outcome: For the past two years I’ve been the Key Customer Service Agent for the company’s largest accounts where I’ve partnered with the sales team to generate between 10 and 20% more business from each of my accounts.

Link back to the role: I’m excited about this role and the opportunity it presents to use my problem solving and relationship building skills to truly own client relationships and produce mutually beneficial results for both your clients, and your company. 

How to answer "why do you want to work here?"

Interviewers are looking for candidates who are genuinely excited by the role they’re interviewing for, and you demonstrate this through a specific and well thought out response to this question. Answering with ‘I’m looking for a new challenge’ is too simplistic, the interviewer wants to know why this challenge specifically? 

Start by understanding more about the role and the organisation. Read through the role description, their about us page, annual reports, press releases or publications and familiarise yourself with their product or service offerings. Read enough that you’ve got a strong understanding of what they do, why they do it and where they’re going next.

Then reflect on what you’ve learnt – why do you want to work there? Maybe their values align with yours, they’ve been recognised for company culture, or they’re releasing innovative products that genuinely interest you. Make sure you connect the reason to your skills and achievements, and the specific role you’re applying for. 

Example response

I've been a customer of your brand for the last two years, since I first used your [product name]. What stood out to me wasn't just the product itself, but the experience around it and the way you consider your customers at every touch point – from thoughtful packaging design to email response times. I’ve been working in customer facing roles for the past two years, most recently at [company name], where I handled [x] enquiries a week across email and live chat and maintained a customer satisfaction score of [x]%. I genuinely enjoy the problem-solving side of customer service, turning a frustrated customer into a loyal one can be one of the most satisfying parts of the job. I know first hand the level of service you provide to your customers and I'd love the opportunity to contribute to that. 

Address potential concerns with your work history

Audit your resume for any abnormalities that may be questioned in the interview and prepare your answers in advance. Always highlight what you learnt from the experience and link it back to the role description. 

Explaining multiple short term roles

If you’ve worked a few short contract positions in a row, explain why and highlight what you learnt. For example, you may have taken those roles as a way to break into a new industry, and as a result you’ve become a quick learner who can adapt to new teams and environments with ease.

Explaining a career change between industries

If you're interviewing for a role in a completely different industry, address the change directly, explain what's driving it, and show the interviewers that your previous experience is an asset rather than a gap by highlighting your transferable skills. 

Explaining gaps in your work history 

If there are significant gaps in your work history, explain what you were doing instead, and the skills you were developing as a result. For example, if you spent six months travelling, you were probably navigating intercultural communication, problem solving and acting with resilience when things didn’t go to plan.

Prepare for behavioural interview questions

Identify your professional achievements

Start with reviewing your resume, cover letter and work history to identify your professional achievements.

Achievements could be:

• Introducing a new process that cut customer wait times by 15%.
• Working closely with an upset customer to resolve their complaint.
• Meeting all critical deadlines after developing a prioritisation approach.

Then, identify the key capabilities for the role from the position description. These might be time management and organisation, relationship building, or problem solving skills. In the behavioural questions, you’ll be asked to talk about a time you demonstrated these skills. For example, if a key capability is time management and organisation, you might be asked to tell the interviewers about a time you managed competing deadlines.

Once you have your list of achievements and key capabilities from the role description, pair them together. Consider which of your achievements best demonstrates the key capability.

From the examples above, the most logical pairings would be:

• Introducing a new process that cut customer wait times by 15% > problem solving.
• Working closely with an upset customer to resolve their complaint > relationship building.
• Meeting all critical deadlines after developing a prioritisation approach > time management and organisation.

Structure your answers using the STAR framework

Once you’ve identified your strongest achievements for each theme, structure them using the Situation-Task-Action-Result (STAR) framework:

• Situation: Keep this short and to the point, describe the circumstance or challenge you faced.
• Task: Explain the objectives you were responsible for achieving. 
• Action: This is where you should provide the most detail. What did you do in response? Make sure you focus on your individual actions, not those in your team. Don’t say ‘we’ if it was actually just you. 
• Result: What was the impact of your action – be tangible and specific. Did the customer send an email thanking you and placing further orders? Did your manager provide you with positive feedback? Did you reduce the time taken to complete a process? Share the concrete results.

Consider your achievements from a few different angles, for example, if your achievement demonstrates your time management and organisation skills, consider how you’d answer common behavioural questions for this competency, such as:

• Tell us about a time you managed multiple competing deadlines, how did you decide what to do first?
• Share an example of a time when you had to adjust your schedule or plans due to unexpected circumstances.

Practise your answers aloud

Practise speaking about your achievements using the STAR structure to sharpen your responses, build your confidence and sound more natural during the interview.

If you have friends or colleagues available to help you – practice with them. Share the role description and a few example questions for each competency and conduct a mock interview. Ask them for honest feedback: were your answers clear, did you make eye contact, did you fidget?

If you don’t have anyone to practice with, practise in front of a mirror, paying attention to your body language and facial expressions as you talk through your achievements. Alternatively, record yourself answering the questions on your phone or laptop. Even though no one else is going to see the recordings, being filmed adds more pressure than speaking into a mirror – which makes it a little closer to the real thing. 

Remember that the goal isn’t to memorise scripted answers – it’s to practise articulating your skills and experiences with fluency, clarity and confidence.

Prepare questions to ask the interviewers

You’ll usually have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the interview. Asking a relevant, considered question shows your interest in the role and the organisation, so it’s best to prepare a couple ahead of time.

You might like to ask about:

• Interesting insights from your company research.
• The type of projects you’d be working on.
• Specific questions about the tasks you’d be working on.

Remember that it’s not appropriate to ask about salary, benefits and entitlements at the interview stage. 

What to wear to the job interview

What you wear depends on your role, the company and the location. That said, if you’re interviewing for an office-based role, there are a few things worth considering.

Your outfit can be fitted, but it shouldn’t be tight. Fitted clothes don’t usually have any stretch; tight clothes tend to cling to the body and look unprofessional. Avoid anything low cut, and anything too short – knee length or longer is best.

Shoes should always be polished. They don’t need to be heels if you don’t usually wear them, or aren’t comfortable in them. 

If you’re interviewing at a conservative or traditional company, choose clothing that covers tattoos, and take out any unusual piercings. 

Try your complete outfit on in advance in front of a full-length mirror to make sure it looks right from every angle. Then steam, lint roll and hang your clothes so they’re ready for interview day.

How to prepare for an in-person interview

Plan how you’ll get to the interview ahead of time – not the night before. Where possible, aim to arrive in the vicinity 30 minutes before the interview starts. This buffer should keep you on time even with unexpected traffic or public transport delays. Arriving too early to an interview isn’t appreciated, so ahead of time, find a cafe nearby where you can spend some time reviewing your notes. Aim to walk into reception 10 minutes before your scheduled interview time. 

Your bag should contain the essentials: mints (no gum), printed copies of your resume and cover letter in case you need to refer to them or hand them out, and pens that work. Take a new notepad or notebook too - people notice the small things, and looking neat and professional makes a great first impression. 

How to prepare for an online interview

Online interviews come with their own set of considerations. Get the technical and environmental details right so you can focus entirely on the conversation, rather than scrambling to fix a connection issue or apologising for background noise.

Test your technology in advance

Check your camera, microphone and internet connection the day before the interview, using whichever platform the interview will be held on (Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet). Make sure the platform is downloaded, updated and that you're logged in.

Choose your interview location

Find a quiet, private space where you won't be interrupted. If you live with others, let them know when your interview is and ask them not to disturb you. Close any windows that face busy streets, put pets in another room, and silence your phone. If you're working from a shared house or have unreliable wifi at home, consider booking a private meeting room at a co-working space or library.

Get the lighting and framing right

Position yourself facing a window or light source, never with one behind you, which puts your face in shadow. Your camera should be at eye level, not looking up at you from a low angle. Stack books under your laptop if you need to. Frame yourself so your head and shoulders are visible, with a small amount of space above your head. Look into the camera, not at the screen, when you're speaking.

Check your background

Your background should be tidy and neutral. A plain wall, a bookshelf, or a styled corner of a room all work well. Avoid anything visible that's overly personal. If that’s not possible, try a virtual background. 

Keep your essentials within reach

Keep a printed copy of your resume, the role description, your prepared notes and a glass of water on the desk next to you. Have a pen and notepad ready in case you want to take notes during the interview. Close every other tab and application on your laptop, and turn off notifications so nothing pops up mid-conversation.

Log on early

Log in to the meeting five minutes before the scheduled start time. This gives you a buffer in case there's a last-minute tech issue, and signals that you're organised and respectful of their time.

How to manage job interview nerves

Job interviews can be nerve-wracking. This is normal, it’s because the outcome matters to you. You can feel nervous and have moments of self doubt, and still do well in an interview. Join our professional confidence program to learn the skills and strategies to manage nerves and move through thoughts of self doubt.