Putting your best foot forward in job interviews, part 4

The job interview is arguably the most crucial part of the recruitment process. It’s an exchange where both employer and employee are judged and can ultimately be the deciding factor on whether or not a job offer is made. But it can also be highly nerve-wracking and it’s completely normal to be nervous about it.?

Thankfully, since NonStop was set up in 2000, we’ve helped many, many people navigate the process and have therefore put together a series of job interview tips to help you present your best self and hopefully get one step closer to being offered your next role.

Tip 4. Be prepared to talk about your CV

It goes without saying that the interviewers will review your CV but you’d be surprised how many times we’ve heard of candidates having forgotten things on their CV so our first piece of advice here would be to thoroughly review your CV and make sure you’re familiar with every point on it.

When an interviewer asks you to talk them through your CV, what they’re really asking is for you to bring it to life and fill it out with more specific information and examples that back up why your experience and knowledge would be a good fit for the role you are applying for.

Think about what follow up questions the interviewers could potentially ask about your CV and prepare answers. For example, they might ask about your job changes in the past and the reasons for them. Maybe you have empty periods on your CV because you were travelling or studying or on parental leave.

They might ask about certain projects you’ve delivered, and the success you had. They might ask about certain tools, program, or working methodologies you’ve used to deliver those projects.

If you have responsibilities, skills and/or strengths listed on your CV, think about concrete examples you can give that can highlight when these things were an asset to your previous employer/s.

A final thought on the CV. While it might seem obvious to many, we would advise you to make sure you know the dates of your employment history as listed on your CV. For us as recruiters it can be a red flag if people can’t remember their own employment dates without looking at their CV, and we know from experience that such seemingly small things can be the make or break between getting the job or not.

Keep an eye out for further posts on this subject or, if you can’t wait, you can see the whole series over?on our website.