Placement/Internship applications guide: Interview preparation

I’ve been asked by one of my juniors to write a guide for interview preparation, and I am happy to oblige! It’s amazing that there actually exist people that are interested in what I write.

First of all you need to know that Interview preparation is all about research. You need to know about to company, you should know what to expect in the interview, the process, etc.

So if you’d split the research you need to do, you’d end up with 3 big components:

So… you’re applying for a Placement? (Pt. 1)

You probably have enough resources that tell you about the format of you cover letter and CV or about how you should complete application forms. So I’m not going to get into that.

I will tell you about the things I consider the most important in getting to the next stage of an application, the first stage interview may it be a telephone or face-to-face interview.

1. Time
   You have to invest a lot of time into your applications, otherwise they will not end well. But be reassured, once you finished your first application it only gets easier. You end up getting used to the questions companies ask and you can reuse some answers you have written.Personally I spent a whole month writing up my applications. In total I sent 15 applications and I’ve gotten 10 replies by now 40 days after sending off my very first application. Of which I got 4 rejections and 6 invitations to an interview.
2. Accuracy
   Make sure to filter information properly. When you apply for a certain role you want to write your cover letter in a way that shows you are informed. This could mean a similar writing style, using the companies keywords and the like.This is even more important when you are asked questions in the application process. Eg.: Give an example of where you’ve applied initiative. You don’t want to ‘waffle’ you need to get straight to the point only giving extra information if it is necessary in order to understand your point. It is advantageous to read into the STAR and the IDEA approaches of answering questions.
3. Online Assessment
   Honestly I personally think this is the applicants greatest enemy. A standardised test to asses if you’re skilled enough for the company. They range from just one test for an application to 4 different ones. There is the Verbal, Numerical, Inductive reasoning and E-tray test. Each of them could be required individually or in combination. I honestly recommend practising these before attempting them for your application. One of the reliable places to get practice tests from is SHL. They actually provide a lot of companies with the tests so practising the ones on their page helps a lot.

I believe these were the three most important things I had to consider while going through the first step of the application process.

Helpful Links:
TargetJobs generally is really helpful if you’re looking for a placement they give you tips and information about the employer
The University of Kent has a really good careers page with loads of helpful information
The University of Bradford same as Kent with extensive information, the difference is that this information is a bit more ‘modern’
Of course there are much more pages just Google Good CV or cover letter and you’ll find a lot of good sources.

Finally I wanted to introduce you to LaTex. Latex is a document markup language and document preparation system which is mainly used in Computer Science and Maths. To use latex you’ll need a Tex distribution like texworks – my favourite by the way – and a some time to research and practice. In the end it is worth it to use Latex since it’ll give your CV & Cover letter a professional flair.