Job Interview Preparation is the one area where candidates spend the least amount of time. Candidates will often spend days or weeks perfecting their CV, contacting their referrals, using their network, however, when the job interview comes around, spend less than a few minutes preparing for it.

Candidates need to realize their CV is just the start and only permits them to enter the interview room. Once you've made it into the interview room, the real decisions are made.

Hiring manager and recruiters are well-versed to interviewing candidates and can easily tell the difference between those that have prepared and those that have not.

Preparation can be split into seven different sections as shown below. While some parts might be obvious, it's essential that you do your homework to assure yourself of a successful job interview.

• Creating the right first impression
• Building rapport with the interviewer
• Job Interview Body Language
• Learning about the company
• Answering job interview questions correctly
• Asking relevant questions to show that you're interested
• Standing out from the crowd after the interview has finished

Dressing for a job interview should be simple, but it always amazes me how many candidates turn up looking a mess. According to TheLadders.com, 37% of hiring managers, say they have decided against hiring an applicant because of the way they dressed. There is no excuse to not looking smart and professional for every interview that you attend.

“People BUY People NOT Products” is an old sales technique that can be very useful in the world of job interviewing. The idea is that you think of yourself as a person rather than a product. If your interviewer likes you as a person, you have more chance of being successful.

The easiest way for your interviewer to like you is to build rapport. Five-to-Ten minutes of chit-chat before your interview begins will make sure your interviewer likes you and makes for a much easier job interview.

Chit-Chat is very easy if your interviewer has a good personality, however often at this stage of the hiring process, a hiring manager does not care and will leave it to you to make an effort to get the conversation going.

It's vital that you do the research beforehand on topics to talk about and that you ask open-ended questions to encourage the interviewer into a conversation.

Typically research falls onto two fronts as shown below;

• Company Preparation – See if you can find out some current issues or problems with the company that you could use as an easy discussion tool. Use websites such as Bloomberg, Reuters or The Financial Times.
  
  
• Interviewer Preparation – Use professional social platforms such as LinkedIn to see if you can find out as much information as you can find about them. Maybe you have a mutual friend or have worked at the same company in the past, both of which are natural conversations to have.

What's the best way to make a complete mess of your interview? You get your body language. It's often said that less than 10% of what we say comes out of our mouth. The rest comes from factors such as how we speak, how we sit and what we look like. Slouch in your chair, and you look bored, cross your arms, and you will look defensive, while looking at the table shows that you lack confidence.

Body language is not something you need to spend hours mastering, but it's good to know the basic's and what to look out for, so you don't make a mess of your interview. Remember, positive body language comes from confidence which you can only do if you are prepared for your job interview and therefore able to show off your skills.

Below are some common points to help you get your body language right for your next interview.

During my 20 years as a Head Hunter, it still amazes me how many people don't bother to learn anything about the company that they're interviewing at. Accept it; you're going to be asked the question, "What do you know about this company." Hiring Managers and Recruiters always want to know what you know about their company, so you need to prepare a good answer to this question.

I work for a Global Recruiting Company, however when candidates apply for jobs to join my team, often the only thing they can tell me about my company is that its an "international recruitment company."

Honestly, this does not impress me and sets the tone for the rest of the interview. A bad answer here shows me that you could not be bothered to do any preparation and probably we're wasting our time.

It's not hard to construct a one-minute presentation about the company you're interviewing at and below should give you some pointers to help you. You need to find out the following information as a minimum:

Below are three job interview questions that you're guaranteed to be asked at your next job interview. If you don’t prepare any other answers to interview questions, make sure that you have a good answer to these three.

Tell Me About Yourself

After your interview has started and you've had a few minutes of chit-chat, you are likely to be asked the question "tell me about yourself." Why? This is a natural ice-breaker that interviewers use to find out a large amount of information in a short period. The perfect answer to this question should be a short two-to-three minute presentation of your career and key achievements.

My advice is to prepare a short presentation about yourself, the highlights of your career, your achievements and finish up with a sensible question, such as, "would you like me to go into further details about any specific part of my career."

Describe Your Experience

Before you're offered the position, the hiring manager will want to find out the status of your knowledge and how much help they're going to need to give you to get you up to speed. Ultimately, hiring managers are looking for people that will make them look good in front of their manager by taking a portion of their workload and doing a good job.

When a candidate makes a mess of their job interview, it's typically because they have fallen into two key areas. Firstly they've not answered the question being asked, and secondly, they have bent the truth and use words such as "we did" or "we achieved."

Hiring managers want to know what you personally were responsible for and what your personal achievements were. As a final point when answering interview questions, I would always recommend that you use examples to back up your accomplishments.

If you don't know the answer to a question, don't try and make something up. Hiring managers will see straight through this. However, they will also appreciate you trying to answer the question as long as you're honest. "I don't know the answer, but an educated guess would suggest that....", could be a great answer to a question where you don't know the answer.

Why Did You Leave Your Last Job? or Why Do You Want To Leave Your Job?

Every interviewer will want to know why you're leaving your role or why you have already left your job. The question gives hiring managers a very clear look at your values and what you're like as a person. Can they count on you to perform or are you just going to leave when a better opportunity comes along.

It's much easier to answer this question when you already have a job. As a result, it's highly recommended that you find a new job before you resign from your old job.