Preparing for an interview

We know interviews can be daunting, but we are not here to catch you out or make you feel uncomfortable. Quite the opposite. We just want to find out more about you and what makes you brilliant, so here are some tips that will help.

Congratulations on getting an interview. You will have agreed on a time and date for the interview with one of our colleagues. Sometimes we do interviews in person, but we mainly use Teams. Our guide to digital interviews will help you prepare for your online interview.

Knowing more about us will help you prepare thoroughly for your interview. Not only will it show us that want to work here, it means you can tailor your responses to demonstrate how your experience and skills fit with what we’re looking for. You can find plenty of information about us on this website, or our Facebook and LinkedIn pages.

Interviews are a two way street, so they are also also a chance for you to confirm you want to join us.

If your interview is in person, make sure you know where you are going and have plenty of time to get there. There is nothing worse than being late or getting lost, especially before an interview.

If your interview is online, download and set up Microsoft Teams before the interview, this way you have time to sort out any technical issues you might have. Go back to the first step if you need a hand with this.

In your interview we will ask you questions around our four values and brilliant people behaviours:

Our values and brilliant people behaviours

Caring

• We get where our customers  are in their lives
• We unleash the potential of others

Accountable

• We have an eye for detail
• We are intuitively collaborative
• We have a win-win mentality

Commercial

• We have creative spark
• We know how the world works and our place in it

Energised

• We are great influencers
• We are self-starters
• We are organisers and drivers

Take some time to think about your skills, experiences and qualities in advance and have some examples ready. We will ask you questions like:

• Tell us about a really tight deadline you worked hard to meet and how you did this
• When have you gone above and beyond to deliver brilliant outcomes for your customers?
• Tell us something that you are really proud of which you have achieved as part of a team

Structuring your answers in the interview

Using the CARL framework is a great way to structure your answers to interview questions. It will help you to give us a clear picture of the actions you took, the results they had and the lessons you’ve learned from them.

Context – briefly set the scene by describing the situation that you were in and what you were trying to achieve
Action – talk us through the steps you took
Result – explain what happened as a result of your actions
Learning – what have you learned? Have you done anything differently since then?