Interview Preperation

Preparing for the interview

• Diarise the location and time of the interview, the interviewer's full name and designation.
• Research the company and their website.
• Prepare the questions you want to ask.
• Refresh your memory about your previous employment and your work history.
• Think carefully about your achievements and how to describe them.
• Practice your interviewing skills with a friend, relative, or co-worker a day or two before the interview to sharpen your communication skills.
   

Typical Questions Asked in an Interview

• What kind of job are you looking for?
• What are your strengths and weaknesses?
• What do you know about the company?
• What are your qualifications?
• Why are you leaving your present employer?
• What would your current company have to offer you to stay?
• Describe your most recent job performance evaluation.
• Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?
• Describe your ideal position.
• Describe a situation where you where under pressure and how you responded to it.
• What do you think your referees would say about you?
• What motivates you?
• What do you do in your spare time?
• What really irritates you?
• Describe a situation where you felt really happy?
• Describe a situation at work where you had to really apply your integrity?
• What is your ideal working environment? 

Typical Questions you Could Prepare to Ask

• A detailed description of the position.
• Why the position is available.
• What is the culture of the company?
• Anticipated induction and training programmes.
• Company growth plans. 

Research the Company

Before going to an interview, you need to know as much as possible about the company. You’ll need to know:

• Where the company’s offices are.
• What their products or services are.
• The growth rate of the company.
• What the potential is for future growth.
• How secure is the company?
• Does the company have a good business model?
• The Culture - Environments vary from company to company. Know what kind of environment you are looking for. A start-up will have a very different feel from a large, established, corporate company. There are generally longer hours in a start-up and a lot more pressure as well as a 'fly by the seat of the pants' feel to it. While in a larger corporation there are more procedures and red tape but the ‘feel’ is more secure.
• Never phone the company directly. Call your consultant with any questions that you might have.

Where to look for company information

The Company's Website: You will feel more confident going into the interview if you have thoroughly researched their companies website, how their company works, and the management. Most companies have an 'about us' section where they list management personnel as well as press releases. This is a good way to get the company's history.

Questions to ask yourself are: How are they funded? Privately held? Venture capital? - If a company is privately held, find out how profitable they are. If stock options are important to you, ask about intentions of going public
How many rounds of funding have they received if they are VC funded?
How are they monetizing? - Most companies have advertising through their site, what you'll want to find out is the other ways they are making money and how much they are making.

Is the business model a good one? - This is one of the harder questions to ask. The best way is to look at what the company does and how they do it. If you can, look at a company's business plan even if you need to sign a confidentiality agreement. What differentiates this company from its competition? Remember to use your networking contacts (without violating a confidentiality agreement) as well to find out information about the company's model. They may give you questions to ask that you hadn't thought of.

Annual Reports: The Annual Report is a good way to see the financial status overall of a company. These reports give the company's plans and background as well as more detailed information on their financial health.
Financial Review - This is a review done by the CFO based on the financial data. Look at the 5 to 10-year summary.
Financial Statement - These are the figures which reflect how the company did the previous year. You can use this information to compare to the information in the Financial Review section.

Balance Sheet - The balance sheet tells you where the company stands. Items you want to look at are the liquid value, the debt due, and the current and total liabilities and assets.

Income Statement - Lets you know how much the company earned. Important things to look at are the Dividends and Net Earnings Per Share.

Public Records - There are many ways to research the public records of a company. Go to the public or University library. They will be able to help you look for documents and trade journals.