As the weeks continue their rapid march towards summer, the leading Oxford summer schools are now in full flow with their recruitment drives. Indeed, if you’ve applied for a summer role, you might have already been invited to an interview. So we thought that now would be a great time for us to share some advice on how to prepare for interviews!
Although different companies and roles have differing interview requirements, here’s a roundup of Oxford Summer Jobs’ 5 top tips for interview success!
#1. Make sure you know the job description
Take some time to familiarise yourself with the job description, particularly the Person Specification (or similar). Employers will be keen to know how you fulfil the criteria for each of their essential and desirable points, and will want to discuss that at interview – so it’s a good idea to gather some specific examples from your previous work experience or studies to illustrate how you could fit the bill.
It’s ok to think outside the box here. For example, if ‘teamwork’ is called for in the Person Specification, perhaps there is a time when you collaborated on a project as part of your studies or even a time when you worked well in a team during travelling or volunteering. As long as you have some examples up your sleeve, you can talk clearly, thoughtfully and passionately about them, and you can link them back to the qualities and attributes the interviewers are looking for, this will provide a strong and convincing case!
#2. Research the company
Although this is likely to be a temporary, summer role, doing a little bit of research into the company you’ve been invited to meet shows that you are keen, proactive and interested in what they do. A common opening question, just to settle in to the interview, could be along the lines of “Tell us what you know about us and what we do here” – so it makes sense both to know a few pieces of detail, and to be able to deliver that in an articulate manner.
A good way to impress the interviewing panel might be to pick a statistic or point that perhaps isn’t obvious from the home page – dive a little deeper into the company’s website and pick something out that indicates you’ve spent time reading through the material available. For summer schools, it might be a particular fact from a PDF brochure or factsheet that would really show you’ve done your reading!
We would encourage you to outline how your values align with the company’s values and how you will contribute to their summer success!
#3. Use meaningful examples (the STAR technique)
During interviews, when a question comes in from left-field and catches you slightly off-guard, there can be the temptation to give vague answers and just get through as best you can.
To mitigate the risk of this happening, a useful technique to ensure your answers are clear and specific is to think “STAR”.
Firstly, think about some of the common questions that could be asked of you – likely to be linked to the Person Specification in the job description (e.g. “Give us an example of a time when you have showed good organisational skills”) and prepare some examples using the STAR technique:
- Situation – the situation you had to deal with
- Task – the task you were given to do (or decided to do)
- Action – the action you took
- Result – what happened as a result of your action and what you learned from the experience
You could use examples from work, home, volunteering, travel or study. It’s a good idea to keep examples short and to the point and, if possible, try to get your points across in a conversational way so as not to appear too rehearsed. Finally, be prepared to answer follow-up questions about the examples you give.
#4. Have some questions prepared
Don’t forget that this is also your opportunity to find out about the organisation which you could be working for! It’s also great to show your potential employer that you’re curious about the role and that you have put some thought into wanting to find out more.
Think about the things that interest you about the role and try to elicit some questions from this. Show curiosity and positivity within your questions and you can’t go wrong!
We always find that a good question to provide you with some more information is, ‘What might my first day in the role look like?’ And to show that you’re willing to be positively challenged and to learn, you could ask, ‘What are the main challenges that I might face in the role, and how could I prepare for them?’ Finally, a good example to build rapport with the interviewers might be ‘What do you like most about working for this organisation?’.
#5. Ensure your personality shines through
Many companies would rather hire someone who is a great fit for their team and willing to learn, rather than someone who has all the relevant work experience but who clearly isn’t passionate about the role.
As nerve wracking as interviews can be, if you can give good eye contact, smile and be enthusiastic throughout your conversation, the interviewer will feel engaged and positive about what you could bring to their company.
If there’s anything that you don’t know the answer to, don’t guess, and try not to worry – just be honest and let them know that you don’t know the answer to that question right now, or that your experience to date hasn’t touched on that, but that you would be keen to find out the answer. Showing you are proactive, and a willing, quick learner are some of the key attributes many summer schools are looking for in their candidates!
Summary
With interview season well and truly upon us, we hope that you’ve found the above advice useful!
If you haven’t yet started the process of finding an Oxford summer job, and are looking to work in the city during the summer, we would be delighted to help you find the right role for you. You can get started by filling out the form on our homepage!
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