A job interview is not a test of how clever you are under pressure. It is a conversation with a purpose: the employer wants to know whether you can do the job, and you want to know whether the job is worth doing. The candidates who do best are rarely the ones who improvise brilliantly on the day. They are the ones who prepared — who researched the employer, thought through their answers in advance, and walked in knowing what they wanted to say. This guide covers that preparation: researching the employer, answering common questions in plain English, handling different interview formats, what to bring, and what to do afterwards. What to wear is a separate question, covered in our companion guide on how to dress for a job interview.
Start with the employer, not yourself
Most interview preparation starts in the wrong place: the candidate rehearsing answers about themselves. Start with the employer instead. Before the interview, find out what the organisation does, who its customers are, what it has been working on recently, and what the role actually involves. The company’s own website is the first stop — read the about page, the careers page, and any recent news or press releases. Then look further: recent news coverage, the company’s social media, and reviews from current or former employees, read with a sceptical eye. You are looking for the language the company uses about itself, the problems it is trying to solve, and the values it claims to hold. That language is what your answers should speak to.
Read the job description again, slowly, and underline the skills it asks for. A job description is not a wish list — it is a list of the problems the employer needs solved. If it mentions teamwork three times and technical skills once, that tells you what the interviewer will care about most. For each requirement, think of one real example from your own experience that shows you have it.
It also helps to understand the industry. If you are applying for a media job, for example, knowing how the business works — how a newsroom runs, what an anchor actually does all day — will make your answers sharper than any generic preparation. Our guide to how much news anchors make is a useful starting point for one media career, and the same approach applies to any field: learn the job before you try to win it.
Know the role — and your own story
Once you understand the employer, turn to yourself. The first question in most interviews is some version of “Tell me about yourself,” and it is the question candidates most often waste. It is not an invitation to recite your CV from the beginning. It is a request for a short story: who you are, what you have done that matters for this role, and why you are here. A good answer takes about a minute and follows a simple shape — present, past, future. What you do now, the experience that prepared you for this role, and why this job is the next step. Practise it out loud until it sounds natural rather than memorised. An answer that sounds rehearsed is worse than one that is slightly rough but genuine.
Next, prepare your evidence. Interviewers remember stories, not adjectives. Saying “I am a team player” means nothing. Describing a time you worked with three colleagues to solve a problem, what you personally did, and what happened as a result means a great deal. Pick six to eight stories from your work, study, or volunteering that cover the skills the job description asks for: leading something, solving a problem, handling a disagreement, learning something quickly, dealing with a difficult deadline. If you are a recent graduate, your stories can come from university, part-time work, or societies — what matters is that they are real and specific. Students choosing between career paths may find our guide to how to choose a college major useful for thinking about which direction fits them.
Answering common questions
Most interviews draw from a small set of questions, and you can prepare for nearly all of them. The best-known framework for answering them comes from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), which recommends the STAR method for behavioural questions — the “tell me about a time when…” questions that ask about real situations from your past. STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, and Result. Describe the situation briefly, explain what your responsibility was, spend most of your time on what you actually did, and finish with the result — what changed because of your actions. SHRM’s own guidance for students puts it plainly: use STAR to give organised, specific, and thoughtful responses to behavioural questions. A strong STAR answer usually runs about one to two minutes. Spend most of it on the Action — that is the part the interviewer cares about — and keep the Situation short.
Here is how the common questions work.
“Tell me about yourself.” Keep it to about a minute, follow the present-past-future shape, and end on why this role. Do not start with your childhood or your hobbies.
“Why do you want this job?” Show that you understand the role and the organisation. A good answer connects something specific about the employer to something specific about you — a project they run, a value they hold, a skill you want to use. A bad answer is generic praise that could apply to any company.
“What are your strengths?” Pick two or three that match the job description, and prove each one with a brief example. “I am organised” is a claim. “I organised a rota for twenty volunteers and nobody missed a shift” is evidence.
“What is your greatest weakness?” Pick something real but not central to the job, and explain what you are doing about it. “I used to struggle with public speaking, so I joined a debating society and now present to groups regularly” works. “I am a perfectionist” does not — every interviewer has heard it a hundred times.
“Why should we hire you?” This is your closing argument. Summarise the two or three things that make you the right fit, tied directly to the problems the job description describes. Keep it short and confident.
“Where do you see yourself in five years?” Employers are checking whether you have thought about your future and whether this job fits into it. A sensible answer describes the skills you want to build and the direction you want to grow in.
“Tell me about a time you failed.” Interviewers ask this because they want to see how you handle setbacks. Pick a real failure, explain what went wrong, and spend most of the answer on what you learned and what you did differently afterwards. The failure matters less than the recovery.
Different interview formats
Not every interview looks the same, and each format needs slightly different preparation. The career site Indeed lists six common formats that hiring managers use: individual, group, panel, telephone, video, and technical interviews. The individual interview — one candidate, one interviewer — is the most common, and it is the format most of this guide assumes. But you should be ready for the others.
In a panel interview, two or more hiring managers interview you at once, asking questions in turn. Address your answer to the person who asked, but make eye contact with the whole panel as you speak. In a group interview, you are interviewed alongside other candidates; listen carefully, do not interrupt, and build on what others say rather than talking over them. Telephone interviews are often an early screening step — keep your CV in front of you, and remember the interviewer can only judge you by your voice, so speak clearly and with warmth. Video interviews need the same preparation plus a technical check: test your camera, microphone, and connection beforehand, choose a quiet room with decent light, and look at the camera, not at your own image, when you answer.
Some roles add a technical or practical stage — a test, a task, or a presentation. If the employer tells you in advance, prepare for it properly. If they do not, ask what the interview will involve. There is nothing wrong with asking; it shows you take the process seriously.
What to bring
Prepare a small bag the night before so the morning is calm. Bring several printed copies of your CV, even if you already sent it digitally — interviewers lose things, and handing over a clean copy looks prepared. Bring a pen and a notepad, and use them: writing down a question the interviewer asks shows you are listening. Bring a list of your own questions for the interviewer, written down so you do not forget them under pressure. If the role involves a portfolio, samples of your work, or references, bring those too. And bring identification if the employer asked for it. Switch your phone off — not just to silent — before you walk in.
Questions to ask the interviewer
At the end of most interviews, you will be asked if you have any questions. Always have some ready — saying “no, I think you covered everything” is the weakest possible ending. Good questions show you have been listening and that you are thinking seriously about the job. You might ask what a typical day looks like, how success in the role is measured, what the biggest challenge facing the team is, or what opportunities for training and progression exist. You can also ask about the team you would work with and who you would report to. Avoid asking about salary and benefits in a first interview unless the employer raises it, and avoid asking anything you could have found on the company’s website in thirty seconds.
After the interview: the follow-up
The interview does not end when you leave the building. Send a short thank-you email to your interviewer, ideally the same day or the next day. Keep it brief: thank them for their time, mention one specific thing from the conversation that interested you, and restate — in one sentence — why you are a good fit for the role. Do not chase them repeatedly. If they gave you a timeline for a decision, respect it; if they did not, it is reasonable to follow up once after about a week.
Common questions
What if I do not know the answer to a question? Say so, honestly, and think out loud. Interviewers would rather hear “I have not faced that exact situation, but here is how I would approach it” than a made-up answer. Bluffing is easy to spot and hard to recover from.
Can I ask about salary? You can, but the first interview is usually the wrong time unless the employer raises it. Focus on showing you can do the job. Salary discussions normally come later.
What if I am nervous? Most candidates are, and interviewers expect it. Preparation is the best cure: the more you have rehearsed your stories and answers, the less you need to invent on the spot. Slow down, breathe, and remember that the interviewer wants you to do well — they need someone for this job, and they are hoping it is you.
The bottom line
Interview preparation is not about memorising perfect answers. It is about doing the work before the day: understanding the employer and the role, choosing real stories that prove you can do the job, and structuring your answers so the interviewer can follow them. Learn the STAR method — Situation, Task, Action, Result — and use it for every “tell me about a time” question. Know the format you are walking into, bring what you need, ask good questions of your own, and send a short thank-you afterwards. You cannot control whether you get the job. You can control whether you walk in prepared.
Sources verified 14 Nov 2026: SHRM — How to Answer Common Interview Questions — STAR framework recommended for behavioural interview questions, with Situation, Task, Action, and Result (listed as Response in SHRM’s guidance), and common question categories confirmed; Built In — How to Use the STAR Method — STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action and Result, best used for questions asking for concrete examples of skills, with a senior SHRM adviser quoted on the method; Indeed UK — Common Types of Interview Formats and Styles — six common formats: individual, group, panel, telephone, video, and technical interviews, with panel interviews described as multiple hiring managers asking questions in turn; Indeed UK — 15 Tips on How to Interview Successfully — behavioural interview preparation, video and phone interview tips, and the list of common interview questions confirmed. No real employer’s hiring claim is stated, and no named interview format is used without a source.