Interview Preparation: What to Work Out Before You Walk In
Most interview preparation is spent memorising answers to questions that may not be asked. The useful version is narrower: know your own material, know theirs, and have questions ready.
For a related Monitask resource on chronemics in workplace communication, see the full article.
Two hours, well spent, covers it.
1. Know your own examples
Interviewers increasingly use structured, behavioural questions — "tell me about a time when." Preparing for each possible question is impossible. Preparing a stock of examples is not.
Build six to eight stories from your work covering: a problem you solved, a conflict you handled, something that failed, a decision under uncertainty, something you led, something you learned, and a time you changed your mind.
Each should have: the situation, what you specifically did, the outcome, and what you took from it.
Practise the "what did you do" part. People instinctively describe what the team did. Interviewers are scoring you, and an answer that never uses "I" scores poorly.
Prepare for the follow-ups, because a good interviewer will probe: what exactly was your role, what was the hardest part, what would you do differently, how did you measure the outcome. If your example collapses under two follow-up questions, it was too thin.
2. Know their material
What the company does, in one sentence, in your own words.
What the role involves, from the posting — and where the posting is vague, note that as a question.
Who you are meeting, and what they do. A quick look at each interviewer takes five minutes and lets you pitch appropriately: a hiring manager and a future peer want different things.
Recent company news. One relevant, specific reference lands well. Five reads as research theatre.
The market they operate in. Who competes with them, what is changing.
3. Know your numbers
Your researched salary range, with a basis. See how to answer the salary expectations question.
Your notice period.
Your availability for further stages.
Being unable to answer these makes you look unprepared for something you knew was coming.
4. Have questions ready
Prepare six to eight, expecting to ask three or four. Some will be answered during the conversation.
Good ones:
- What does success look like in this role at six months?
- Why is the role open?
- What is the biggest challenge facing the team right now?
- How are decisions made here?
- What is the team's working pattern — hours, remote, how you communicate?
- What would you change about how the team works today?
- What has the last person who joined found hardest?
- What are the next steps, and when?
Avoid asking things you could have found on the website — it signals you did not look. Avoid leading with benefits and time off in a first interview; those questions are legitimate but belong later.
Practical preparation
For video: test camera, microphone, and the platform in advance. Check your background and lighting. Have a phone number to fall back on if the connection fails. Look at the camera when you speak, not at your own image.
For in-person: know the route, the building, and where to check in. Arrive nearby early rather than at reception early.
Either way: have the job description, your notes, and your questions to hand. Have water. Know how long it is scheduled for.
The questions almost everyone gets
"Tell me about yourself." A two-minute answer: what you do now, a couple of relevant highlights, why this role. Not your life story, not a chronological walk from your first job.
"Why do you want this role?" Something specific to this company and this job. Generic enthusiasm is noticed.
"Why are you leaving?" Keep it short and forward-looking. Do not criticise your current employer, even where criticism is deserved — it reads as a preview of how you will talk about them.
"What's your greatest weakness?" Name a real one, and what you do about it. The fake-weakness answer is transparent and everyone has heard it.
"Where do you see yourself in five years?" They are checking that you are not obviously about to leave. A reasonable answer about developing in this direction is enough.
During
Ask for clarification if a question is unclear. Better than answering the wrong one.
Take a moment before answering. A few seconds of thought reads as considered, not slow.
Ask if you have answered the question. Especially on longer answers.
Take notes. It signals engagement and you will need them.
Be honest about what you have not done. "I haven't worked with that specifically, but I have done X, which is close in these respects" is a strong answer. Bluffing is discovered in the follow-up.
After
Send a short thank-you within a day. Three or four sentences: thanks, one specific thing from the conversation, restated interest. It is a small thing and a surprising number of candidates skip it.
Write down what was asked, while it is fresh. Useful for the next stage and the next process.
Ask about timing if you were not told. A short, polite email is entirely normal.
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