The Best Tips For A Successful Face-To-Face Job Interview

Congratulations! You have cleared the first hurdle and made it to a personal interview. This means that your potential employer has already taken a liking to your CV, so you can go into your personal interview relatively confident.

But what is the best way to prepare and make sure you stand out from the crowd? Your CV will only get you so far – you need to impress people with your interview skills, personal communication skills, and personality.

I come from a science PR background and am currently a Comms Consultant in the STEM team at TopLine Comms, a B2B PR agency. I’ve experienced both sides of the application process – so I thought I’d share what employers are looking for in your face-to-face interview.

What is a face-to-face interview?

Face-to-face interviews, sometimes abbreviated as “F2F interview”, “face-to-face interview” or simply “face-to-face”, are usually the final stage in the interview process.

They often follow a successful telephone interview. A face-to-face interview allows you to talk to the hiring manager, the CEO, the managing director, or the person who might be your supervisor. In a face-to-face interview, you will often be interviewed by more than one person; in a graduate interview, it is often the team leader and the recruiter.

Although sometimes there is a presentation involved, a face-to-face interview usually means going through your CV, discussing your skills and experience, and finding out more about your interest in the job.

If you’ve reached the face-to-face interview stage, it means you’re well on your way to success. Here are 6 top tips for a successful interview at the face-to-face interview stage.

6 top tips for job interviews

1.Use your communication skills face to face

The face-to-face interview is the moment when the employer decides if you are the right person for the job and will fit into their company. But it is also a chance for you to decide if you want to work for the company.

A personal interview is a perfect opportunity for you to demonstrate your communication skills. The employer pays attention to what you say, but also how well you answer the questions and how you communicate your answer.

One of my top tips for interviews is to speak clearly and try not to dwell on things that are not relevant. You should convey enthusiasm, sound optimistic, and be enthusiastic about the job on offer. If you want to know how to succeed in an interview, it starts with how well you communicate yourself and demonstrate your relevant skills and experience.

2.Do your research

This sounds obvious, but it’s surprising how many people neglect to do this when preparing for a face-to-face interview. Make sure you have read through the company’s website and have a bit of information about the company at hand that you can feed into the interview – this could be case studies that you particularly liked or a particular blog that appealed to you.

This not only shows that you are proactive, but also that you are genuinely interested in the company’s work (and not just applying for some graduate job). It’s also a good idea to research the employer, so don’t be afraid to look them up on LinkedIn.

When preparing for a face-to-face interview, make sure you have also read the job description several times and try to mention the requirements in your answers as much as possible. One of the best interview tips I can give is to prepare well – make sure you have also prepared your answers to common interview questions.

3.Use real-life examples in your answers to interview questions.

You can almost be sure that you will be asked some situational competence questions in an interview, such as “Tell me about how you had to deal with a stressful situation”.

These questions are your chance to shine and prove that you are suitable for the job, based on the experience and skills you have acquired in previous jobs as a graduate or through your education.

Prepare some examples of these types of questions and have some experiences ready to talk about. For example, if you worked part-time in a restaurant during your studies, you could talk about how you had to deal with stressful rush hours in the restaurant and what you did to ensure full customer satisfaction.

As a rule, never say “I don’t know” or “I’ll pass”. One of the best interview tips is to make sure you are prepared for all types of interview questions and know how to face an interview.

4.Ask the employer questions

At the end of a graduate interview, an employer will always ask, “Do you have any questions for me?” Your answer should always be “yes” and you should always ask at least three questions. Some good questions to have in your back pocket are:

‘What are the next steps?’
What do you like most and least about your job?
What is your company culture like?
Basically avoid questions like ‘Can I wear what I want to work?’, ‘What does your company do?’ and ‘How long will it take to get promoted?”. The most important tips for a successful interview, especially in a face-to-face interview, is to show that you are committed and interested; asking the employer interview questions is a great way to demonstrate this.

Read the full guide to answering the question “Do you have any questions for me?” here.

5.Wear a smart outfit for the interview.

Unless your interviewer tells you it’s okay to dress casually for an interview, always make sure you’re dressed smartly. It is the first time your interviewer will see you and you want to make the right impression.

If you look sloppy or give the impression that you haven’t made an effort, you will immediately give the wrong impression. It doesn’t have to be expensive, just an outfit that looks clean, smart and neat. You just need an outfit that you can wear to any graduate interview.

This is one of my top tips for job interviews – never underestimate the power of first impressions!

6.Be yourself in a face-to-face interview.

My final top tip for interviews is that you’ve made it this far because the company values you and your experience, so it’s really important to be yourself.

It might also be the only time you get to meet the company’s staff in person before you start the job. So you want them to buy into the authentic version of you and not a fake one that is only interview related.

Then, if you don’t get anywhere, you know it won’t be the right job for you anyway – and there are plenty of other graduate jobs out there. Going into a face-to-face interview with this knowledge should reassure you that you don’t have to try to be someone you’re not; this is one of the most important interview tips.

Checklist for preparing for a personal interview

Once you’ve reached the face-to-face interview stage, you need to make sure you’ve done all your preparation for the interview. Read our interview preparation checklist and tips for a successful interview below:

Make sure you know what type of interview it is – There are many different types of face-to-face interviews and although it will usually be a conversation about your CV, you might need to prepare for a presentation, task, or panel discussion. Make sure you know how to master the different types of interviews.
Prepare your interview answers – Make sure you have gone through all the types of questions that might be asked, including thinking about what questions you might ask employers in an interview
Brush up on your CV – It may seem obvious, but you need to know exactly what’s on your CV to be able to talk about your skills and experience. Make sure that everything you have written in your CV you are able to talk about in detail in the interview.
Dress for success – Choose your outfit for the interview in advance so that you are not stressed on the day of the interview. Depending on the type of interview, there are slightly different ways to dress – so do your research here too
Plan your journey – The last thing you want to do on the day of the face-to-face interview is be upset about being late, so plan well in advance how you are going to get to the interview and be mindful of rush hour traffic!