The document provides tips for candidate interview preparation: - Spend time planning and researching the company to demonstrate genuine interest and stand out from other candidates. - Make a good first impression with professional attire and arrive on time. - View the interview as a sales meeting - highlight your relevant experience and how you meet the role requirements. - Follow up after the interview with a thank you email and feedback to your consultant.

1. Candidate interview
preparation
Some key points to consider

2. The amount of planning and preparation you
do prior to an interview can vastly increase
your chances of success.
Recruitment is highly competitive - you may
well be up against candidates with more
relevant experience than you, however if you
are better prepared and demonstrate a
genuine interest in the organisation and the
role you will stand out from other candidates.

3. First impressions count
• What you wear to the interview will have an impact.
• Play it safe and wear conservative colours, black or dark
blue suits will not offend anyone.
• Wear a white shirt, black socks and polished black shoes.
• Avoid wearing fun/cartoon ties and colourful suits!
• Do not wear lots of jewellery, wedding rings are fine but
bracelets, chains and multiple rings may not appeal to
everyone.

4. Time keeping
• Make sure you arrive 10-15 minutes before the meeting,
don’t be too early or arrive at the last second.
• Plan the route and give yourself plenty of time.
• If you know you are running late ensure you make a call to
us or the client to inform them.

5. Sell don’t tell
• An interview is a sales meeting and as such, it is sell not
tell.
• The interviewer only has limited time to identify your
relevance for the role; they want you to be the right
candidate (vacant roles cost companies money and cause
managers headaches!).
• Your job is to help them get the best out of the meeting by
highlighting your appropriateness for the role.

6. Know your own CV
• Many interviewers start by asking you to run through your
CV. You shouldn’t have to refer to it constantly.
• Plan what you will say beforehand, think about each role
you have had, what your responsibilities were and most
importantly what you achieved in the role.
• Make sure you have logical reasons for moving positions
and try to avoid being derogatory to a previous employer.

7. Research the business in detail
• Read through their website, annual report and any trade
brochures you can locate.
• If possible talk to customers of the business to see what
their perception is.
• If relevant, visit a supermarket and see how their products
are performing in the category they operate in.
• Conduct a SWOT analysis of their products and prepare
some comments on your observations to use during the
meeting. This will show that you are prepared to go the
extra mile.

8. Match your experience to their
requirements
• Ensure that you have as much information about the role itself as
possible (your consultant should help you with this).
• Wherever possible ask for a role and person specification. Analyse the
person specification and identify your strengths and weaknesses
against this.
• Prepare evidence of how you meet the specification and make sure
you discuss this during the meeting.
• Don’t assume the interviewer will gather this evidence him/herself, the
majority of interviews are conducted by people who are not trained in
interviewing – help them to gain the evidence they need to know you
are the right candidate for the role. Talk about specific examples, not
generics: i.e. let me tell you about the time I developed £5 million of
new business with XXXX by introducing a new….

9. • For example, just a few PowerPoint slides to show to the
interviewer on your laptop whilst leaving hard copies.
• The impression this creates is of someone prepared to go
the extra mile, with good PowerPoint skills, who is
determined to impress and really wants to secure the role.
• It can really help you stand out from other applicants.
Contents could include the following…
Prepare a brief presentation aided
by some of your own research

10. Prepare a brief presentation aided
by some of your own research
 Achievements
People believe what they see far more than what they hear. Consider
putting together a brag file that shows the interviewer what you have
achieved. This could include company league tables, testimonials or
thank you letters from customers or specific examples of work you
have done.
 Your biggest strengths and attributes
Relate yourself to the role and requirements in the job specification.
 Observations and findings on the company and market
Provide some of your own insight and recommendations.

11. Prepare for objections
• Be prepared with answers to overcome any potential
objections.
• For example, if the ideal is to have experience of selling a
specific product and you are from an allied market,
research the product area before the meeting so that you
can talk knowledgably about it, talk about how you have
successfully moved into new product areas in the past (if
relevant) and stress the benefits of recruiting people with a
fresh perspective!

12. Make the interview 2-way and
prepare questions to ask
• Remember that you have to come away from the meeting
happy that the company and the role are right for you.
• Be prepared, have your questions listed and typed up, not
hand written on paper.
• Ask questions on the strategic direction of the business,
their expectations of you in the role and how you can grow
and develop in their business.
• Don’t ask how many holidays you get!

13. Close the meeting
• It is imperative, especially when pursuing a sales
opportunity to end the meeting with a close.
• For example: what is the next stage from here? What
reservations about me if any do you have? How do I
compare to other candidates you have met?
• In some situations you will be unable to close the meeting,
standard responses include: we have other candidates to
see or we are not in a position to make a decision yet.
• To this you could answer: I would imagine you would have
been disappointed if I had not tried to close you as this is a
sales role, when will you be in a position to make a
decision?

14. Follow up
• After the meeting send an e-mail to everyone you have
met, thanking them for their time and re-confirm your level
of interest in the role.
Feedback to your consultant
• Call us immediately after the meeting so that we can take your feedback.
This is really important whether the meeting has gone well or not as we will
then need to communicate with the client and get their feedback which will
be useful for you moving forward.