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Before you begin your prep

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To start, make a list of 8 things that are crucial to your story and profile. These items should be a mix of professional and personal spikes. Your aim should be to not walk out of your interview without covering at least 5 of these.

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Read your application

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Read your essays and CV once daily before the interview for a week. A good rule of thumb is to prepare for three levels of whys for every CV point.

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Record your answers

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Practice helps you structure your thoughts clearly and build confidence. However, while you should prepare thoroughly, avoid memorising your responses. Focus instead on remembering the key points. Record your answers. When you first review your recordings, put the video on mute and just focus on your body language. Then review your answer and tone.

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Time your answers

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Most responses should ideally last around 1.5-2 minutes. To achieve this, follow the PREP (Point-Reason-Example-Point), STAR (Situation-Task-Action-Result), SPEAK (State the topic, Present your opinion, Explain, Add examples, Key Takeaway) or MAL (Motivation-Action-Learning) frameworks. This ensures that you cover all important points without rambling. Recording, and listening and watching yourself also helps big time.

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Case Interviews

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Also, be prepared to be asked a case or guesstimate. It helps to go through some basic frameworks. Especially if you want to go into consulting or product. Your technical acumen might be tested one way or the other.

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Before your interview

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Two days before your interview, get out of the passive zone and move towards the active phase. What we mean by this is, stop reworking your answers and being inside your head. Whatever you have on paper is your answer now. At that point, it’s more important to get into the active and speaking zone than it is to have perfect answers.

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Initial impressions matter

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Your interviewer will always feed off of your energy. So walk in with confidence and greet them with warmth. The first 5 minutes of your interview can strongly influence how the panel perceives you. There’s research behind this. Try to put your best foot forward early on by being composed, clear, and engaging.

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Focus on speaking authentically

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It’s okay to ask for time before you start answering. When answering, speak naturally and conversationally. The goal is to sound confident and genuine, not rehearsed. Try to lead the conversation as opposed to just passively answering their questions.

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Don’t overthink their questions

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Don’t focus too much on gauging what you think the interviewers want to hear—obviously, you need to have some presence of mind but be honest and authentic rather than saying things just to win brownie points. If your interviewer is cross-questioning you—and they will cross-question you, don’t take it as a sign that you’re not doing well.

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You can always recover

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That said, even if the start doesn’t go perfectly, don’t panic. You can always recover. Many strong interviews have turned around mid-way once candidates relaxed and regained their flow.

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