Episode 88 – Listen to This If… you’re preparing for a job interview

Got an interview coming up? Don’t worry, Jen and Michael are here to help! In this five-minute episode, they’ll give advice to make sure you’re prepared for a perfect interview. From putting your mind at ease to carefully studying the job posting, Jen and Michael will provide you with practical tips that will boost your confidence and help you land the perfect job. Listen now and get ready for your interview!

Links

Transcript

Jen (00:00:11)
Hello, and welcome to Listen to This If, a new podcast from the Let’s Talk SciComm team, which is the University of Melbourne Science Communication Teaching Team.
We are here to give you a quick Friday fix, a Friday pep talk to help you with something that is going on for you at the moment.
And today it is Listen to This If you have a job interview today or coming up soon.
Michael, what is your advice?

Michael (00:00:36)
Okay, Jen. So I really wanted my advice to be ‘care less’ about the job interview. But I realise it’s actually important to show you care about the job.
So my advice is to shift your focus from getting the job to actually having a great conversation when you’re in there in the interview room.
Remind yourself that this interview is one of many opportunities that you’re going to have. It’s not the last interview that you’re going to have.
And if you do that, it really allows you to be yourself rather than focus on giving the perfect answer. You know, you want to come across as being relaxed, being confident. But also likeable, which can be difficult in an interview setting, which can be scary.
Just remember the people sitting across from you, they were babies once. They were babbling babies with spaghetti bolognese on their face.
And you know, that’s something that I like to tap into to bring a smile to my face and make me feel a bit more relaxed.

Jen (00:01:29)
That is golden advice, Michael. I really like it.
Because at the end of the day, the people interviewing you will remember the interview in a positive light if they connected with you.
And if they felt like you had, you know, really a nice vibe between you, a good conversation, you were chatty. ‘Cause at the end of the day, if they’ve offered you an interview, it means they think you could do the job fine.
They’re interviewing you to see if they like you and if they think you’ll fit into their work culture. So I think that is really excellent advice.

My advice is quite different, but probably a good sort of counterpoint to yours because I totally agree with everything you’ve said.
Try not to worry so much and see this as one of many opportunities to perfect your skills in an interview situation ’cause interviews are tough.
But my advice was going to be a bit more specific and that was to go back to the advertisement for the job, to read the job description, the position description, and just to have really clear what it is that they’re looking for.
And if there are particular words that they’ve used repeatedly in their description of the role, make sure you use that language, mirror it back to them so they know that you’ve done your homework and you’ve thought really carefully about the specifics of what they’re looking for.
And as well as reading the job description, of course I’m going to recommend you read up on their organisation so that you have some relevant knowledge and show that you care.
But I would also read your application again because I think it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that they will have just read it and they’ll have right on the tip of their tongue everything that you told them.
They may not have read it in any detail. They may not have read it for weeks. These are busy people who’ve come to an interview. They may not have any memory of what you said in your application.
So you might need to state all of that again and just go through the same information but speaking to it rather than having written it and really like you know, lay out very clearly for them why you’re a great person for the job, why you have the experience, the skills.
Yeah, just don’t rely on them having remembered or read carefully what you put in your application.
Does that ring true to you, Michael?

Michael (00:03:33)
Yeah, that definitely rings true. You need to be able to you know, draw on your experiences and express those in the interview and answer the questions, you know, in a way that shows that you’ve got some experience in these areas.
And imagining that you know, these people are busy. So you know, you need to respect their time as well. I think it’s important maybe to not give long-winded answers. You know, oftentimes they’ll have a list of questions that they want to get through.
But also just imagining that these are the people that you’re going to be working with. It’s an opportunity for you to learn from them as well.
And they usually ask you, “Do you have any questions for us at the end?” It’s a good chance to maybe ask them something like, “What’s your favorite part of this job?” And to you know, learn a little bit from them.
So you know, presumably you’re listening to this because you do have an interview coming up. So we’d love you to let us know how you got on in that interview and hopefully the information in this episode has been useful for you.

Jen (00:04:32)
Yeah. And of course, we also just want to say good luck, all the best, and you know, go in there feeling proud of everything you’ve achieved to date.
And maybe you’re the perfect person for the job, maybe you’re not the perfect person for the job.
But either way, it’s a great opportunity to practice your public speaking skills and to learn more about the jobs that are out there that you may or may not want to get.
So good luck from us.

Michael (00:04:53)
Good luck.