Interview preparation

Greg Wyatt • June 5, 2024

I see a lot of advice on how to perform well at interview.

Typically it relates to STAR (situation task action results), CARL (context action results learning) or another derivation of this storytelling framework.

However, this advice typically stands on its own and can set you adrift if you don’t have the right anchor:

Preparation.

Before we get into prep, it’s helpful to start from first principles. Bear with me, as I go into:

The what and why of interviews
The goals of interviewers
The real reason you interview
How you can prepare with these in mind

Next week is about the interview itself, and the following final part will be on what happens after the 1st interview.

The what and why of interviews

The goal of any interview process is to

understand how a candidate will perform in a role,
what they will be like to work with
how likely they are to stick around long enough for the employer to see a suitable return on investment
assess these points against other candidates being interviewed

Every employer has different priorities in assessing the points, different ways of conducting interviews and different strategies for how the process is run.

The problem is that, from the outside in, it’s hard to tell what to expect, when initial communications are broadly similar.

Transparency helps and is a great way to build trust, yet few employers do this.

If you were to know in advance that you are one of 25 people being screened by a panel on Teams, how would that affect your preparation compared to being one of 3?

Like a lot of things in recruitment, gaining insight into the what and why of any interview process should inform your strategy.

Typically employers won’t include agency interviews as part of their interview process, though I’m sure you might.

Indeed an employer might feel they only do a 2-stage process that is quite efficient, yet how would you feel if you encountered:

Application to agency advert
Registration with agency
Agency screening
Qualification call with TA Advisor at employer
Numerical and verbal reasoning test
1st interview with hiring manager
2nd interview stage comprising 4 separate calls with stakeholders around the world
Psychometrics
Quick chat with the CEO
Debrief with the hiring manager?

That’s off the top of my head. The worst I’ve heard was a 17-stage interview process!

One of my former clients (who shut up shop in the UK a few years back) regularly used to run 7 or 8 interview stages, yet they are a great company to work for.

I wouldn’t assume employers are necessarily ‘bad’ if this information isn’t available, or if their process is as bloated as this article.

The goals of interviewers

The goal of any interview process is to select the best suitable candidate.

However that isn’t necessarily the goal of any individual interview or interviewer.

Goals can be dictated by a number of elements, such as number of candidates or differing views of stakeholders.

These goals can be anything from:

Checking broad suitability before progressing to decision makers
Looking for reasons to discount candidates from a volume process
Wanting to look credible to higher-ups in who is presented
Assessing cultural fit or technical capability
Investigating concerns or doubts
Confirming a decision

Interviews can also move from ‘recruitment and selection’ to ‘recruitment and elimination’ the closer you get to the end of a process.

This is particularly the case if candidates are very close in overall capability - if you can’t find a clear reason to say yes, are there any reasons you can discount a candidate?

This is one reason why ‘industry knowledge’ can become a problem at final stage, when it wasn’t earlier.

Sometimes there may even be unsavoury behaviour, such as asking you to provide a business plan in a presentation, when they have no intent to hire - free consulting!

Or it might be they want another young white male Arsenal-loving face to fit with their culture.

However, if you are in an interview process, you should assume they have good intent, while the decisions made on you are out of your control.

All you can do is influence their view through your approach.

Given there is such a huge variety in interview philosophy, purpose, strategy, process and execution it can be tempting to second guess everything and overcomplicate your part in it.

However, I’d go the other way and simplify it to what you can control.

Interviews are your opportunity to show the employer why you are interested in them, how you will contribute, how you will solve their problems, and what you are like in a professional setting.

Unless you are clearly told what to expect, it doesn’t matter so much what tricks employers will have up their sleeves.

Because if you’ve put your best foot forward, in a way that is professionally authentic, that’s the best way to maximise your odds.

The real reason you interview

Interviews can and should be a two-way process that gives you transparent information and enables an objective decision about whether this vacancy is the right move.

Interviews aren’t always though are they?

You might think that getting the job is your goal.

The real reason to interview is to establish as early as possible every non-negotiable reason why you shouldn’t take the job.

This means you do what you can to be the candidate of choice, for the right reasons, and if there are no non-negotiable no’s at the end of the process, you can accept the offer put forward.

That might sound like a strange contortion of the goal of getting the job.

The nuance is this:

You want to be able to be the person who says no, if you have to, rather than have them say no for you.

And because many parts of the interview process are out of your control, such as their decisions, you have to play the game to maximise your odds of winning.

How you can prepare with these in mind

There are broadly six types of preparation you can do for an interview:

i) Ensure you portray yourself in a way that has meaning to the interviewer

ii) Keeping abreast of general industry and professional news related to your work

iii) The company, its people, its offering, its industry and its market

iv) Give the interview what it needs

v) How you can deliver on the role requirements

vi) Why you want the job, or at least to work at the company

The first two are ongoing preparations that serve every interview process.

The rest are mainly application-specific.

4.i) Ensure you portray yourself in a way that has meaning to the interviewer

One of the key pitfalls in recruitment, whether you are a job seeker or employer, is the valuable information you have trapped in your head that will help the other see you as a viable candidate.

Don’t forget we aren’t mind readers, so how can you give meaning to why you are a great candidate?

I’m going to cheat a little here and recommend you read through Principles of a Good CV.

Not because you should repeat your CV verbatim, but because it’s a distillation of your candidacy written for the reader. And a reminder of how you can help.

You should be an expert on yourself, who can draw on your achievements readily.

Get a friend to ask you questions on your CV, someone who isn’t an expert in your domain, and see how they react to your answers.

While you might hope interviewers have technical insight in your areas of specialism, you will inevitably come across people who in the process who aren’t.

For example an HR practitioner may be involved as a steward for their culture, and to ensure you are interviewed fairly - should you expect them to understand jargon? And how might that work against you?

If you are fortunate enough to get interviews regularly, you can treat these as practice and the real thing. Watch how interviewers respond to what you say, and reflect on it afterwards. How can you give better meaning?

Unfortunately, interviewing is a skill, so it’s likely one you will have to learn by going through the mill if it isn’t natural to your personality.

Fortunately, it’s the same journey for most, so over time your skill will develop past newer jobseekers.

The mistake many people assume is that this is a sales skill and needs to project confidence, but unless the role involves sales, the requirement is actually only to be your best professional self, and show what you are like to work with.

Given that’s what you are like at work on a good day, it’s an achievable goal.

This is prep you should do before any interview and is both an anchor to your candidacy and a reminder of why you can be great at what you do.

4.ii) Keeping abreast of general industry and professional news related to your work

For anyone interested in continuous professional development this should be a natural endeavour.

Yet it’s easy to fall into the trap of not doing so, when you are between jobs, or busy with other priorities.

Given what’s going on in the near-outside world of your profession impacts your profession, I’d recommend you take a bit of time every week to keep updated.

It may even help with interviewing, showing the currency of your expertise.

4.iii) The company, its people, its offering, its industry and its market

I wrote a series, recently, on negotiation in recruitment, comparing notes with the excellent ‘Never Split the Difference’ by Chris Voss.

One of the pillars of good negotiation is to gain as full an understanding of the situation as possible.

If you want to negotiate a successful interview, one where you’re seen as the right candidate, doing so is an advantage.

There are many resources available:

Their website
Their other vacancies
Their industry news
Media relations
Youtube
Endole / TechCrunch
Local resources like Cambridge Network and Business Weekly (you can guess what this is local for!)
LinkedIn to get a feel for their organisational structure
LinkedIn for information on the interviewers (why not connect and say hi)
LinkedIn for their content, which might give hidden insight to their attitudes
LinkedIn for past employees (what can they tell you?)
Glass door / indeed / trustpilot / google reviews - what does this say about customer and candidate experiences?

I’d recommend reading Never Split the Difference - while it’s geared towards commercial negotiations and hostage-taking, Voss’ view is that everything is a negotiation, and I found it insightful comparing my own experiences.

You can also read my articles on gregwyatt.substack.com/archive. The first one is called Rule of Three.

Every industry and company will have their own priorities in an interview - keep this in mind, particularly if you’re transitioning into a new domain.

Someone with only private sector experience might be quite surprised by the needs of a civil service recruitment process, but information is typically available to help you prepare.

4.iv) Give the interview what it needs

Every interview has its own priority, some of which will articulate specific needs.

If you want to stay in a legitimate interview process, give the employer what they ask for.

You may think presentations, on-site meetings, psychometrics, etc are worthless, but if they are non-negotiable for the employer, they are a requirement to fulfil.

You don’t have to play the game; if you choose to, play to win.

4.v) How you can deliver on the role requirements

I always come back to the notion that we have to help our stakeholders understand how we can help them.

It’s no different in an interview.

Analyse what you can of their role, and think about the achievements you have, the problems you’ve solved, and the outcomes you’ve reached - in reflection of their needs.

It’s worth qualifying this in the interview too - more on this next week - so you can tailor your answers.

While this is role-specific preparation it is also related to point i) above - the answers are within.

4.vi) Why you want the job, or at least to work at the company

I expect most people who’ve been out of work for a while simply want a way to make ends meet.

Yet I wouldn’t recommend using this as an answer at an interview.

Indeed, most employers have an inclination to candidates who have reason to want to work for them specifically.

Take time to understand your reasons that relate to the job or company. What about them appeals to you?

This is the answer to give.

If the only reason you’re applying is because it is a job, how can you truthfully frame your answer to make it about them?

“I really enjoy the role of a <job title> especially around <essential requirements>” with examples from their job description - might be crude, but it’s more effective than

“I need to buy dinner on Friday”, no matter how true that is.

It can be a deciding factor in a tight process.

Next week is about delivering the interview.

Tactical points to present your best self, how STAR/CARL are storytelling frameworks, why that’s more important than just answering the question, and how you can stand out from the crowd through strategic questions.

Thanks for reading.

Regards,

Greg

< Older Post

Newer Post >

Introduction to personal branding

By Greg Wyatt • March 30, 2026

What follows is Chapter 39 of A Career Breakdown Kit (2026) . It's 10 months old, so surely the algorithm has moved on right? Indeed, my own content performance has tanked if you compare 2026 to 2025. Around 12 million views of my content last year, while if I extrapolate my year to date performance, it looks like a little shy of 640,000 views. My LinkedIn feed is quieter, yet real life relevant conversations go from strength to strength, many of which stem from my content. Look, I don't love the term, but I am a fan of putting your message out there, across multiple means, so that your most relevant audience might become aware of you. And perhaps your relevant audience is an audience of one, a person who can put you nearer that job. Which is the only algorithm you need. This is a three part series, with part 2 on " Content strategy and philosophy " and part 3 on " A flair post ". Click on the links for the unedited versions on Substack. 39 - Introduction to personal branding Whatever you think of LinkedIn, you shouldn’t overlook its nature as a free marketing platform, where you can build a reputation through the words of your posts, comments and messages. Personal branding is a viable tactic as part of a multi-channel approach to your job search and it can bring opportunities to you. I'll start off by saying I'm not a fan of the term personal branding. It can lead to make-work which can even get in the way of what you should be doing. Writing and using content to create experiences that support a job search is a great idea and calling it personal branding - as a discrete activity - isn’t a bad thing. I expect there are many mediums through which you can build a personal brand. I'll focus on LinkedIn because of how entrenched it is in other job search activities. What a personal brand is For businesspeople the idea is that by building awareness of your personality, lifestyle and what you're promoting, you also build trust. So that when people are ready to buy, they'll buy your products. The brand might be personal. The goal is sales. When you see personal branding on LinkedIn it’s often a business that promotes their services through the account of the author. ‘Here’s my puppy, buy my stuff.’ Take note that the target audience for these advice posts is the businesspeople above. And these posts often seek to part them from their money. Your goals are similar. If there’s a commercial outcome you want, it’s likely a single job, not a throughput of leads. You’ll also see that controversial content gets huge engagement and can also repel readers. If you need a job, what’s the danger of writing overly spicy content? Could a reader make a decision against you based on your words? How much you need any job should inform the experience you want to create for your readers. How it sits in your wider job search Publishing content is about raising awareness and starting conversations with the right people. This can be your profile, written posts, newsletters, (bestselling) career breakdown kits, videos, you name it - anything you can become known for. In many ways the hierarchy of relationships your content appeals to is the same as with networking. Content can be publishing posts, commenting on the posts of others, sending direct messages. I’d argue even your applications and interviews are part of your personal brand. I think of LinkedIn posts like a plumber’s van driving around town. Most of the time you’ll disregard the van unless it cuts you up with noxious fumes. When you have a leaky pipe, you’ll surely take note of their number. It can support an application if a hiring manager decides to surreptitiously stalk your profile. And it can work against you if it suggests problem behaviour. A good balance for content is the poster in my daughters’ primary school from a few years back: THINK. Is it True? Is it Helpful? Is it Inspiring? Is it Necessary? Is it Kind? Achieve those five points and content will rarely work against your job search. Content should be consistent with your wider activity. Which means that everything people (potential employers) experience of you is a complementary and non-contradictory message. Content that contradicts your CV or cover letter may lead to red flags, whether that’s fair or not. Content should be intentional. HOW TO GO viral, and why you shouldn’t Anyone who writes content will enjoy the sweet, sweet flow of dopamine when you see reactions and comments trickle in. Such as that first flair post announcing you are available to help your next employer with examples of your achievements and what you are looking for. Do that and you’ll get loads of engagement. Why haven’t you done it yet? Tag me in and I’ll support you. Or you can do what most people do and say, ‘I’m sorry to announce I’ve lost my job, please help’ and that will get loads too. Because it is relevant and relatable to fellow job seekers, recruiters and sympathisers. Then you feel the soul-crushing defeat of a well-thought-out post, highlighting a problem in your industry, with tumbleweed to follow. Both types of content have a place. That tumbleweed post is relevant and relatable to a niche audience. I try to take a land and expand approach to content - job seeker advice, recruitment advice and stories, ponderings and satire, which I use to tackle topics from different directions. Over the past three years I’ve had between 3m to 11m views of my posts and I’ve gained a bit of business through them too. What I don’t do is try to go viral anymore. Because when I have gone viral with a few 1m impression posts, it’s taken weeks to extricate myself from them and there hasn’t been real benefit. I find my tumbleweed posts start better conversations from lurkers - those that never engage publicly. I promised you I’d show you how to go viral. Here you go. Relevance + relatability + readability + entitlement. Maybe add a selfie. If that seems too simple, search for this sentence on LinkedIn: “An employee asked me if he can WORK from HOME permanently.” You’ll need to use the double speech mark to search on the phrase, and rank by Posts. ‘Does it really work?’ asked Charles. I told him to try it as an experiment. He rarely got more than a few hundred impressions per post. 170,000 impressions, 2,000 reactions. Pretty viral for a first timer. It is the wrong path. What do these posts actually say? Who are they aimed at? And if they don’t appeal to people who can help you reach your objective, what’s the point?

Nothing but the truth. Innovation from Iteration, pt 4

By Greg Wyatt • March 26, 2026

I was tempted to use another Tom Cruise AI image for this article, but his hands ended up looking like feet, which wasn't a true representation of him. Probably not fair to use AI in this way either, stealing copyrighted material without permission. And so I use this AI 'stock image' instead, which is probably also highly unethical, but feels more suitable and sufficient . Anyway here's an article about why the same principles are crucial for good recruitment: ‘True and Fair’ is an accountancy concept that lies at the heart of reporting, and can be applied effectively in recruitment. Its meaning is that any financial statement made about a company should accurately and completely represent its financial position and performance. The role of auditing is to confirm that documentation meets this definition. Do so and everyone knows what they are dealing with. HMRC, shareholders, customers, suppliers, employees – useful, and in many cases necessary, to have access to a true and fair view of a company’s accounts. Can something be true and not fair? In 2001, Enron went bust, a huge scandal with real-life repercussions that led to new legislation in the US. Their accounts were true, in that they conformed with the required laws and standards. However they had an incredibly complex reporting structure which made it impossible to see the overwhelming debt they had. Poof! Bye-bye a $100bn company when this all came out in the wash. How about fair but not true? This can happen if a situation is described which gives a fair picture but lacks accuracy. An example here could be the UK politician who HMRC deemed behaved fairly but made errors in his tax reporting. Only a few million quid plus penalty. What types of recruitment documentation does this apply to? Three key ones that spring to mind (although there’s no reason it can’t be applied everywhere): The job description. The job advertisement. The CV. If these three documents were always a true and fair representation of either a job or a candidate, you’d interview and hire better candidates who stick around longer. With the caveat that these documents should also be ‘suitable and sufficient’, if you remember last week's edition. Documents are the first step in a recruitment process, relating to a decision to apply and the decision to interview. Is it not the case, that the second most common complaint in recruitment is “not what we expected”? Therefore, if we nipped this complaint in the bud, with true and fair documentation, wouldn’t life be better for everyone in the recruitment process? What does true and fair mean in recruitment documentation? I think it has to cover three points. 1/ factually correct 2/ shows context suitably 3/ describes sufficiently An immediate objection might be that job descriptions are always true and fair, but I’d argue this is actually rarely the case. If you recruit for a new role, do you audit your job description against the current context? If you have a generic job family description does it show the specific day-to-day duties of a role? Have things changed in the current role that makes it different to the last time you recruited? A common scenario in recruitment is that Greg resigns, and the hiring manager says “we’d love someone just like Greg”. Yet if Greg resigned, wouldn’t someone just like Greg be at risk of resigning for the same reasons in future? Would now-Greg have applied for the same role that then-Greg applied for? Which definition of Greg is the true and fair one you’d hire? It feels strange writing my name like this. There are lots of different situations in which a job description that was true and fair a few years ago is no longer so. The only way to ensure it is true and fair, is to audit documentation prior to going live. You may think a fully representative and accurate contextual analysis is too time-consuming for most vacancies, especially where it doesn’t actually matter if there is some inaccuracy. “Oh yeah, that’s not relevant anymore”. But if you have a key hire that can make a difference in your business, ‘true and fair’ should be the starting point, each and every time. If you have a systematic process that finds truth and fairness, you’ll see the benefit of applying the same across any vacancy – for the reason that the time invested at the outset is offset by interviewing fewer unsuitable candidates and wasting less time and resources overall. And what should be the more important reason of better recruitment outcomes. For any project I take on, this is the first step – getting the documentation in order. Get it right and everything flows from there. It’s a key reason behind my nearly 100% fill rate. It’s also one of the reasons my average tenure is over 4 years for key hires. These achievements don’t come down to chance. They come from my process. If you've forgotten why suitability and sufficiency is the other pillar, here's an example that isn't suitable: Nineteen experiential bullet points might be true and fair but will also encourage ideal candidates to run away screaming. See you next time. Regards, Greg p.s. While you are here, if you like the idea of improving how you recruit, lack capacity or need better candidates, and are curious how I can help, these are my services: - commercial, operational and technical leadership recruitment (available for no more than two vacancies) - manage part or all of your recruitment on an individually designed basis for one client. This can be a large as end-to-end delivery of a programme of vacancies, or as small as writing one job advert for a key hire- recruitment strategy setting - outplacement support