Interview preparation for external candidates

Some of the things you can do to prepare for an interview at a company you are not working at:

1. Do a bit of research about the company you are going to attend the interview at. Know a little bit about what the company does, what products or services they sell, who their clients are. Also try to find out what the company values are so that you can know if you will fit in or not. This also helps you to prepare some possible questions and answers as part of the interview preparation. You may also call or email the people who work at the company to find out some basic information that might not necessarily be available on the website or on the newsfeeds.

2. Make sure that you know where the interview is going to be, if it will be face to face or virtually. If the interview is going to be face to face you can look up the address on Google maps or by asking for directions from people around you. When I was still a student and traveling by public transport for example, I would travel to the interview venue before the day of the interview just to see how to get there and how long it will take me to get there. It is important to plan your travelling in advance and factor in possible delays in your travel time.

3. If the interview is going to be on a virtual platform, it will be good to get a confirmation of which platform it will be. There is Zoom, Teams, or WhatsApp video call. Once you know the platform, it will also help to make the time to download the relevant application and familiarize yourself with how it works. The other important thing to know upfront is whether the panel will require you to show your video or not, and make sure that the equipment you will be using does have the capability to show video. You should also consider to plan to be in a place where there will not be people moving up and down, disturbing you during the interview.

4. If you are a new graduate or have not been employed in a long time and does not have money for traveling or data for connecting, do not be shy to to ask if the company is able to assist in anyway. Some of the assistance can be that if you are based in the same town as the company, they could allow for you to attend the interview at their premises and connect virtually using their facilities. This is when the panel members are not situated in the same town. Otherwise if all the panel members are available, the company could allow a face to face interview for the local candidates who don't have access to facilities for virtual interviews. Some companies might be able to provide assistance with travel costs, even if it is in a form of a refund after the interview. If you know that, then you can borrow money with confidence that you would be able to refund the money when you receive the money from the company.

5. Further preparation involves practicing possible questions and answers for the interview. You could formulate your own scenarios based on the job advert and practice those in front of the mirror or in front of someone you trust. It always helps to write down these scenarios as and when they happen, so that you can keep a library of scenarios that you can tap into when you are preparing for interviews. Not forgetting to also keep a library of career achievements or leadership roles you have held in the community you live in.

Good luck with the job search and may your next interview yield positive results!