Interview - ahh!

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Got my first interview tomorrow, with a apprenticeship company. If I get accepted by them I will have a interview with Cisco who I will be working for.

Any tips/advise? Got the suit sorted, the email I received said smart so might as well just go fully suited.

Do you imagine there are any questions they are guaranteed to ask (standard interview questions)
Any thing else I should/shouldn't do/say?
 
you should have a list of questions ready, and research as much as you can about the company, and the area you will be working in withing the company. then you will be able to give detailed and relevent answers to any questions asked. but the most important thing, in my experience, is my first point, have a list of questions ready. nothing is worse than at the end when they ask 'is there anything else you would like to know?' and you sit there with a blank expression and say 'nope, think its all been covered'
 
Always a suit to interviews.

Interview for CEO of multi-national company; suit up.
Interview for cleaning the toilets in an old peoples home; suit up.
 
Get some answers to the usual; "what can you offer the company?", "what are your strengths and weaknesses?", "where do you see yourself in x years?" etc.

Don't waffle, don't give one word answers, don't make stuff up, look interested, generally be a pleasant person and not an idiot.
 
SUIT UP.

Try to be honest and full with your answers, pre-prepare ideas about why you want to be there, why their company suits you and what you're looking to get out of this apprenticeship which comes specifically from them. But as Mat says dont waffle on for 10 minutes. Keep it simple but complete :)

Otherwise smile, look at the interviewers rather than the floor/table/ceiling and engage with them. A lot of interviewers will just try to make a pleasant conversation out of it, so just be yourself and try to enjoy it.
 
It's a few years old now but no less relevant for that - Huddy's Interview Guide.

There's no such thing as a guaranteed question at interview but it can certainly help to spend a little bit of time thinking about some common topics, I'd suggest not rehearsing it too much as you don't want it to sound too glib but having a rough idea doesn't hurt.
 
Three words that are the basis of any interview:

Smart, Personable, Concise.

If you know your stuff and are all three of the above in an interview then you're set.

Good luck!
 
If you know your stuff...

Oh really important point on this, if you dont know something that they're talking about, ASK. Don't try to BS your way through, as they'll almost 100% see through it or you'll look like an idiot.

They'll be far more interested in how you deal with a new concept than just listening to you braindump, so see something you dont know as an opportunity to take advantage of this. :)
 
Do a lot of research on the company, try and aim to know more than the interviewer about the history and goals of the company if it's a huge corporation.

If you have the names of the interviewers then research them, find their linkedin profiles (setup a new dummy anon linkedin profile for linkedin stalking). You'd be surprised how much you can both put yourself at ease and be on the front foot by simply knowing who's going to be interviewing you.

Take notes, it doesn't matter if you can't read them. Taking notes is universally accepted as something that's a good quality, even if you're not a note taker. It just shows organisation and the an awareness of what is being said to you, especially when you're asking the questions. It also gives you a distraction, and a shield (holding a pen, having paper in front of you, these things help you in confidence, it's a better 'stance' to be in than arms by your side being fired questions).

Overall the best thing you can do is surprise them, go out of your way to estimate what they're going to be asking and what they'll be interested in and find something that they can relate to and will be impressed by. I remember one of my interviews, in the first of two interviews one of the HR directors asked me if I think it would be possible to create a solution on one of their systems to a problem they've been having. When I came back for my second interview I had outlined several different options for them to achieve a solution to the problem they were facing. I wasn't asked to do it, but their faces lit up when I started talking about it. In another interview I took a portfolio of some of the big projects I'd worked on in the past and made 3 copies of it for my interviewers.

Try and make an impact by being a little innovative and you won't be forgotten, and when it comes to discussing the best candidate you'll be in the front of their mind.
 
Always a suit to interviews.

Interview for CEO of multi-national company; suit up.
Interview for cleaning the toilets in an old peoples home; suit up.

That's actually bad advice. You'll make yourself look overqualified and they wont want to employ you. :cool:
 
And dread the curren trend in stupid questions interviewers like to ask nowadays like

"If you were an animal, which one would you be and why?"
 
And dread the curren trend in stupid questions interviewers like to ask nowadays like

"If you were an animal, which one would you be and why?"

Thats not really a stupid question. It's just a disguised way of saying "Tell me more about yourself."
 
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