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Tell me about yourself

You walk into the interview room, shake hands with your interviewer and sit down with your best interviewing smile on. Guess what their first question is? "Tell me about yourself."

Do you "wing it" and actually tell all manner of things about yourself? Will you spend the next 5 minutes rambling on about what an easy-going, loyal, dedicated, hard working employee you’ve been? If this is the case, you stand a good chance of having bored your interviewer to death thus creating a negative first impression.

Because it’s such a common interview question, it’s strange that more candidates don’t spend the time to prepare for exactly how to answer it. Perhaps because the question seems so disarming and informal, we drop our guard and shift into ramble mode. Resist all temptation to do so.

Your interviewer is not looking for a 10-minute dissertation here. Instead, offer a razor sharp sentence or two that sets the stage for further discussion and sets you apart from your competitors.

Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Give them "your synopsis about you" answer, specifically your Unique Selling Proposition. Known as a personal branding or a value-added statement, the USP is a succinct, one-sentence description of who you are, your biggest strength and the major benefit that a company will derive from this strength. Here is an example of a Unique Selling Proposition: "I’m a seasoned Retail Manager strong in developing training programs and loss prevention techniques that have resulted in revenue savings of over £2.3Million for (employer’s name) during the past 11 years."

What a difference you’ve made with this statement. Your interviewer is now sitting forward in her chair giving you her full attention. At this point, you might add the following sentence: "I’d like to discuss how I might be able to do something like that for you." The ball is now back in her court and you have the beginnings of a real discussion and not an interrogation process.

Be Specific

The key is that you must lead with your strongest benefit to the employer. Be specific and don’t wander about with some laundry list of skills or talents. Be sure to put a monetary value on your work if at all possible and be ready with details when you’re called upon. Give an estimated value to the ££ you’ve either helped to make or save for your employer.

Be Prepared

When you walk into an interview, remember to always expect the "tell me about yourself" question. Prepare ahead of time by developing your own personal branding statement that clearly tells who you are, your major strength and the clear benefit that your employer received. The advantages of this approach are that you’ll quickly gain their attention and interest them in knowing more. You’ll separate yourself from your competitors. You’ll also have a higher chance of being positively remembered and hired.

  
If you are preparing for an interview as a Compliance Officer then you will already know what job requirements that particular company are looking for. You will normally be degree educated with some previous business experience.

In the role of Compliance Officer you will be expected to advise companies on how to follow set procedures and industry standards. You will need to be an excellent communicator in order to go to different companies and discuss what standards and processes a company should be following and give them advice on how to go about this.

Related: Interview Questions

Before attending your interview ensure that you have done your research, not just on the company itself and the role but also found out basic details as to where the interview is being held, you do not want to be caught out on the day, do a dummy run.

When preparing for the interview, go through the job description or advert with your CV and mark out your experiences versus what the company are specifically looking for so that any questions that you are asked you will have thought about job specific.
For a Compliance Officer role, the interviewer(s) will be looking for someone who can communicate well in writing and orally as you will need to write up reports and meet clients and provide advice and guidance for them in sometimes not very understood circumstances.

You could be asked questions such as:
Talk me through a time that you have visited a client, how did you make the appointment and what was the visit about and how did it go?How do you monitor progress and set actions plans in place?How do you keep up to date with company standards and processes?What do you do before visiting any new client?An interviewer will be looking to assess how well you will behave in front of clients and how authoritive you will come across as well as being able to build relationships and work together.

If you do your research thoroughly into the company and the job role then the rest comes down to you and your personality for this role. 

Good Luck.

  
If you are going for an interview as a Bar Manager then you will have had some previous Bar and Management experience or a least as an Assistant manager or Supervisor role looking for the next step up.

You will need to be a confident person to be a Bar Manager and be organised, prepared to work long unsociable hours and deal with some difficult situations and people at times.

Related: Bar Manager Cover Letter

If you have got your interview date through then you must prepare well. Have you been to the Bar in the past, what do you know about it? Do a visit before your interview and assess who works there now, who you could be working with, who is currently running the bar, what do the serve, drinks or food as well, what is the service like. Whilst you are doing your visit analyse how you would change things if that was the bar you were managing, what ideas do you have for that bar and how could you implement them?

Once you are fully prepared on where the interview is and what they are all about you then need to prepare yourself in terms of questions and how your previous experiences match up to the role they have advertised.

Some questions during your interview could be along the lines of:
When have you been in a situation of management or supervisory?Why do you enjoy working in a Bar?How would you deal with staff that do not turn up for a shift on a Saturday night?How would your previous Manager describe you?Have you had any experience of dealing with food being served in bar?There are numerous questions that you could be asked but above all an interviewer will be looking to see what type of personality you have and your confidence levels as you will need to be confident and outgoing to be a successful Bar Manager.

Best Wishes.

  
As a Sales Ledger you may have had some previous accounting experience but you will normally also have a strong administration background. In the role of Sales Ledger for a company you will deal with all the invoices coming into and out of the business and ensuring that these invoices are paid on time.  You will need to be very organised and an excellent communicator, you will be required to liaise with clients on a regular basis and build a relationship with these clients.

Related: Purchase Ledger Job Description

If you have got an interview for a Sales Ledger role then first and foremost you need to be certain you know where the interview is going to be held, can you park if you are driving etc, all the simple questions that you do not want to be dealing with on the day of the interview allowing you to get stressed and flustered.

Once you are confident about the location etc then you need to research the company as much as you can, find out as much company history as you possibly can, do you know anyone who works there  or anyone who has had any dealings with them?

Your interviewer will pay attention to your previous work history and how this can transfer into the role that they are looking for so you need to be sure that you have gone through your CV and their job description and outline any areas of weakness before it is highlighted in the interview. Think how you can address these issues before hand in case a question comes up that you would struggle with.

Some questions that you may be asked could be as follows:
How often do you chase outstanding invoices? How long do you leave it before calling a client?How do you keep an accurate log of invoices?What accounting packages have you experience in? Have you any other experience of an Accounts department and if so what?What made you go into Accounts?There are various other questions you could be asked but if you go through the  advert and job description thoroughly with your CV then you should be able to answer the questions well.

Good Luck.

  
As a Careers Adviser you will be expected to provide advice and support to job seekers. You will need to have some prior knowledge of the job market interviewing and recruitment and be able to discuss job details with clients and help them improve their CV’s etc.

Before attending an interview you will need to be certain of your previous experiences matched with the job requirements. Have you done something similar that you can draw upon during your interview, how do you communicate with people of all levels? You may be faced with making some difficult situation for people depending on the company or body that you work for so you need to be able to think on your feet and follow company procedures.

As a Careers adviser, your interviewer will be looking to see if you can provide support and help to people looking for careers advise. Depending on the company or body that you are hoping to be employed by will depend on what type of people you will advising and what their situations are.

During your interview, you could be asked questions such as:
When in the past have you helped someone to get a new job?What advice would you give to someone who could not do the job that they want to apply for?Do you know how to do a CV and help someone lay it out?What are your strong subjects to advise on?What do you feel makes a good interview?Related: Interview Questions and Answers

You will need excellent communication skills as you will spend the majority of your time talking and discussing opportunities with people. You will need a great deal of patience and empathy towards people and genuinely feel like you could help them. You will need excellent time management skills and be organised as you will be seeing numerous people each day and each meeting will be different depending on the person and situation.

Good luck.

  
As a Field Sales Executive you will have had some previous Sales experience, maybe in a similar industry or product line or maybe even a role on the road and a different industry. Whatever your experience you will need to be good at selling.  Your communication skills will need to be second to none and you will need to be very motivated and confident.

Before attending your interview you need to know what area you will be expected to work, how far is it, how achievable are the results? You need to analyse what the company is all about, can you find out what other sales people they have or what the company team size is etc?

Related: Sales Assistant Cover Letter

As a sales person in the field you will need to be prepared to travel some miles each day and depending on the size of your area you may have to stay away one or two nights a week. With previous experience you will know that a sales environment is not always easy and that you need to be prepared for rejection and be self motivated to keep bouncing back up.

When you have assessed where your interview is going to be held and basic details such as parking etc then you need to analyse your skills and against the job requirements and prepare practice answers as to how your experience matches up to what they are looking for.

During your interview, you could be asked questions such as:
What products have you most enjoyed selling and why?How do you feel about working to targets and how have you worked to targets in the past?Can you sell (XXX) to me? They will be looking for an example of your selling technique so research their products/services.How do you keep motivated?As a sales role there are many job specific questions that you are likely to be asked but you need to go to the interview fully prepared and if you have done your research that will help a great deal.

Best of Luck.

  
As an Income officer you will be responsible for ensuring that monies, primarily rents owed are paid on time and any arrears under control. You will be required to visit tenants at their homes and collect rents on a weekly or monthly basis and deal with any concerns or issues that arise out of your visit.

You will be travelling about a lot and spending time making calls to ensure that the tenants are going to be in when you call and chasing people up as required.
Before attending an interview you will need to get your application form, your CV and job description together with any other information you have been given and go through it with a fine tooth comb. You need to make sure that any questions you are asked during your interview if you can do something that you can say yes and if there is something that you are slightly weaker on that you can highlight this first and turn it into a positive before being asked any questions during an interview.

Once you are comfortable that you can do the role and that you know exactly where the interview is going to be held and how you are going to get there then you need to focus on what questions you could ask them close to the end when it comes to asking questions.

Income Officer Interview Questions

Some of the questions you may be asked are as follows:
What do you understand about local government and how the housing market is?Tell me about a time when you have had a meeting with someone who was verbally abusive to you and how you handled this?Have you had any training of how to handle yourself?If you turn up at someone’s house and they have a dog which seems quite nasty, what would you do?Where would you keep the rental monies that you collect during your visiting times?You need to think that not everyone will be pleased to see someone coming to collect their rent and therefore you need to be prepared at all times. Your interviewer will be looking to see if you have the confidence and right manner and attitude to do this role.

Good luck.

  
If you have got an interview for an Estate Agent role then you will already be aware that you will need a good mixture of administration skills and sales skills. You will be required to show customers properties and also see customer’s houses so you will need to be very good at building up relationships.

If you have been offered an interview, now is the time to go through the job requirements with your CV and ensure that you can say confidently you can do what they are looking for and any weakness areas think of a positive to get round the fact that you have less knowledge in this area.

Ensure that you check where the estate agent office premises you will be required to work from is and also if you can get to know the local area, have a look for their FOR SALE or SOLD signs showing where they have a presence in the market place. If you are successful in your interview you will be required to take customers to houses or meet them there to show them around so it’s important that you get to know the area well.

As the most part of your role is a selling type role and you will more than likely have targets to work to then your interviewer will be looking to see how confident you are and how you interact with other people.

Estate Agent Interview Questions

During your interview you could be asked such questions as:
What do you think that young professionals look for in a house and what would you recommend to them? (They may give you a couple of examples to choose from).What is your sales technique?How well do you know the area? Do you know where XXX is?Name 5 roads in XXX area?What are the 3 best qualities about your work?There are numerous questions that you will be asked but your interviewer will definitely be looking to make sure that you are confident, well mannered and polite when dealing with customers.

Good luck.

  
If you have been invited to an interview for the role of HR Generalist then you will have some previous HR experience but not want to go down the route of a specialist area within HR. Your interviewer will be focusing on your communication skills and how you deal with people and implement processes and procedures.

Before attending any interview, it is imperative to establish what you are going to wear which makes you look smart and dressed for business and also where exactly the interview is and is that where the role will be based or is it at a different location. Once you have researched these facts and know how you will travel to the interview and jobsite and where you are going to park etc, all the little details that are important to know well in advance so you do not worry about them and can concentrate fully on the interview.

Your interviewer will be looking to ensure that your HR knowledge is varied and will want to see what you have done in the past. Ensure that you have gone through the job description with your CV and match your skills with what they want you to do. It is important to highlight what you are less sure about being able to do so that you can carefully answer this when it comes up in the interview.

HR Generalist Interview Questions

Some of the questions you could be asked are:
What made you choose HR as a career?Any thoughts on doing CIPD qualification?How do you communicate with people?Tell me about a time that you have had to deliver some bad news to someone be it redundancy, personal bad news, not able to give a pay rise etc, describe how you handled this and what happened?What types of procedures have you helped to implement in the past?Have you had any payroll experience?The HR role is a very varied one and the list of questions are endless. If you have researched the company and industry or sector combined with the role then you may be able to think about some industry related questions that you could be asked.

Good Luck.

  
As a Marketing Assistant you will help companies to promote their business and services through advertising the use of social media. You will be responsible for writing press releases and advert and communicating with the media.

If you have found a job and been invited to an interview then first of all you need to research the company and what exactly they do, where they are based, who they work with etc so that you can use your skills to help market that company in the best way possible.  You will need to be able to keep on top of new trends and new ways and be ahead of the game.

Once you are comfortable that you have the right background and can do the job well and your skills match adequately then you can analyse the job description and make a note of any questions that you would like to ask during your interview. It is important to ask questions so if you are unable to come up with something during the interview having a rehearsed question will help.

Marketing Assistant Interview Questions

During your interview you could be asked questions such as:
How often do you use Face book, Twitter etc?What do you use them for primarily?Do you think a Face book page works for a business?Where did you learn to write press releases? (Be prepared they may ask for some writing test or for you to take something you have written before)What is your understanding of how effective social media is?Where do you normally advertise? Where do you think we should be advertising? Your interviewer will want to know that your writing skills and your communication skills are second to none. This role requires talking and communicating with people daily and you will need to keep on top of this to be successful.

Good luck.