If you are being interviewed for lots of roles and not being offered many roles, it’s time to improve your interview skills. This blog post provides guidance on how you can get help with your interview skills, whether you choose to improve your skills yourself, attend an interview training course, receive advice from an HR or recruitment professional, or book one-to-one interview coaching.
Learn how to improve your own interview skills
If you would like to improve your own interview skills without seeking one-to-one help, the best place to start is by reading my blog post on how to improve your interview skills. This guides you through a series of steps including understanding what recruiters are looking for, understanding what makes a great interview answer, identifying your development areas, learning to improve your weaker areas and practicing your interview skills to increase your skills and confidence. You may also wish to read other blog posts in the interview skills section for further help with your interview skills, including guidance and tips.
One of the downsides of internet research is the sheer volume of information it provides. Whilst some people find interview tips helpful, it’s quite an inefficient way to learn as it involves reading a huge amount of information, then trying to apply your knowledge and make improvements yourself without any feedback. It’s possible to spend a long while focussing on something which isn’t really an issue, whilst missing your main development areas entirely.
Internet research, books, videos and group training courses provide a general overview, leaving you to weigh up the information, decide which parts are relevant to you and then make the improvements. As they cater to a broad audience, they are unable to answer questions such as “why do I struggle in interviews?” as the specific reasons vary from person to person, so this requires specific one-to-one advice.
Identify your development areas
The most efficient way of improving your interview skills is to focus on improving the areas where your performance falls short of expectations. This provides far better results than simply searching for interview tips, which may or may not help you to improve.
Interview Feedback
In order to identify your development areas, you need detailed interview feedback. Many companies are reluctant to provide this as we live in a litigious society, so it can be difficult to identify your improvement areas without a mock interview.
Advice from an HR / Recruitment Professional
If you have a friend or family member with an HR or recruitment background, ask them if they are willing to help you to improve your interview skills. Their feedback and advice can be invaluable as they will have interviewed many candidates, and can advise you on how your interview skills compare to other candidates.
Mock Interview / Practice Interview
A mock interview (or practice interview) simulates a genuine interview and is undertaken with an interview coach, HR or recruitment professional. I offer mock interviews which involve writing interview questions for a role of your choice, interviewing you for the role and providing verbal and written feedback so you can focus on improving your development areas. You can find out further information and pricing on the interview coaching section of my website.
Using an Interview Coaching Service
Interview coaching is one of the most efficient ways to improve your interview skills, as every session is tailored to help you to improve your personal development areas. Interview coaching sessions involve practising interview questions, and one-to-one training to help you to improve and refine your interview skills.
Interview Coaching sessions enables you to benefit from my expertise in helping people to improve their interview skills, as well as my HR background recruiting for roles across the UK, Europe, Asia and Middle East. It also avoids the risk of spending hours researching how to improve your interview skills, only to miss your main development areas, or for there to be something else which detracts from your performance. They are also a great way to boost your confidence in interviews.
Would you like to improve your interview skills and confidence? You can find further information on the interview coaching page of my website. I offer a discounted interview skills package, or single sessions. Please contact me, and I’ll be pleased to discuss how I can plan a session to help you.
