You haven’t been interviewed in six years, you have a video call on Thursday for a role you really want, and your last answer to “tell me about yourself” ran to four minutes. To prepare for a job interview well, you don’t need a script for every question. You need a handful of true stories from your work, a clear read of the job advert, and the practical details settled in advance.
This guide covers the plan for the days before, how structured interviews are built, how to use the STAR method on real examples, and what to do afterwards. The sources are the UK’s National Careers Service and the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
How to prepare for a job interview: a five-day plan
The National Careers Service tells candidates to read the job description carefully and understand what skills and experience the employer is looking for, and to do some research on the company’s website. Everything else in your preparation hangs off those two tasks.
| Day | Task | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 5 days before | Read the advert line by line and highlight every requirement; read the company’s website | 45 min |
| 4 days before | Match each requirement to a real example from your work (see the grid below) | 60 min |
| 3 days before | Write each example as a short STAR story; say it aloud once | 45 min |
| 2 days before | Write your questions for the interviewer; practise with a friend or record yourself | 45 min |
| 1 day before | Check time, place, route or video link; lay out clothes; sleep | 20 min |
The times are suggestions, not figures from a source. If the interview is sooner, compress the first four rows, but keep the order.
Why interviewers ask the questions they do
Most formal interviews are built around a few skills the employer wants to see, and the questions are chosen to draw out evidence for them. OPM’s guide Structured Interviews: A Practical Guide (US, 2008) says that in a structured interview all candidates are asked the same questions in the same order. It states that unstructured interviews show low reliability and low to moderate validity, and that structured interviews have shown a high degree of reliability, validity and legal defensibility. The guide is written for US federal agencies, but the format is common in many workplaces.
For a candidate, this has two practical consequences. First, questions probably aren’t random: each one is likely tied to a requirement in the advert. Second, the best preparation is evidence, not charm.
Behavioural questions
The same OPM guide explains that a behavioural interview asks about past behaviour, and that its premise is that the best predictor of future behaviour on the job is past behaviour under similar circumstances. A situational interview asks what you would do in a hypothetical case. Expect both. An OPM guide for writing questions suggests asking for the most, last, worst, least, or best experience that demonstrates a skill, so a question such as: tell me about the most difficult customer you have dealt with, is a typical shape.
Match your experience to the role
Build a grid before you write any answers. List the requirements from the advert in the left column, and put one real example against each. If a requirement has no example, that’s the gap to prepare for.
| Requirement in the advert | Your example | Result you can state |
|---|---|---|
| Manages competing deadlines | The quarter-end month when three projects overlapped | All three delivered; one a day early |
| Works with difficult stakeholders | The supplier who kept missing dates | New weekly check-in; delays stopped |
| Improves a process | The shared tracker that replaced email chains | Time saved or errors cut, in numbers if you have them |
The rows above are placeholders to show the format. Yours should be your own work, and the results should be ones you can defend if asked a follow-up.
Turn each example into a STAR story
The National Careers Service says the STAR method helps you answer interview questions fully, and OPM’s FAQ describes the same three parts: Situation or Task, Action and Result. Aim for roughly one minute of speech per story. The Action is the part to spend time on, because it’s the part about you.
Example (invented for illustration, to show the format):
- Situation or Task: Our monthly report was going out two days late and finance had stopped relying on it.
- Action: I mapped every step, found that three people were re-keying the same figures, and proposed a single shared template. I wrote the instructions and trained the team.
- Result: The report went out on the first working day for the next six months.
Keep “we” and “I” straight: say “we” for the team’s context and “I” for what you did. An interviewer is trying to learn what you personally contribute.
A good interview answer is a short piece of evidence with a beginning, a middle and a result. It isn’t a speech.
Prepare your own questions
The National Careers Service says you’ll usually have some time towards the end to ask your own questions, and that it’s important to write them down before the interview. Choose questions you actually want answered:
- What would a good first six months look like in this role?
- How is success measured, and how often is it reviewed?
- Who would I work with most closely, and how does the team usually communicate?
- What’s the next step in the process, and when should I expect to hear?
The last question has a practical use: the Service advises following up by email or phone unless you know when you’ll hear back, so knowing the date tells you whether you need to.
The practical details
These items are dull and they cause more avoidable panic than hard questions do. The National Careers Service advises giving yourself plenty of time to arrive, being ready to start 5 to 10 minutes before the scheduled time, and turning off your phone. For an online interview it says to check that your computer and internet connection are working, and to know how to contact the interviewer if you have technical problems.
Online interview checks
- Open the link the day before and make sure the software works.
- Place the camera at eye level, with a plain background and light on your face.
- Keep a phone number or email for the interviewer within reach.
- Have your STAR notes and the advert on paper, out of camera shot.
The camera and background tips are practical suggestions. The sources cover only the connection check and having a contact for the interviewer.
After the interview
The Service says you can follow up by email or phone unless you know when you’ll hear back. A short message thanking them, restating your interest and adding one useful point you didn’t get to say is enough. If you’re offered the role, it advises asking for the offer in writing and confirming the start date and any notice period before accepting. If you’re unsuccessful, you can ask the interviewer for feedback on how it went and where you could have done better.
Your pre-interview checklist
- The advert’s requirements are listed and matched to real examples.
- Each example is written as Situation or Task, Action and Result, with a result you can state.
- You’ve said at least two stories aloud, ideally to another person.
- Four questions for the interviewer are written down.
- Time, place or link, and a contact number are confirmed.
- Your connection and software are tested if the interview is online.
- You plan to be ready 5 to 10 minutes early with your phone off.
- A follow-up message is drafted in your head or on paper.
Common mistakes
The most common is rehearsing answers to famous questions and having no examples ready for the specific skills in the advert. A second is a story with no result: a claim that things improved invites the follow-up question of by how much. A third is spending the whole of preparation on the first ten minutes and having nothing for the last ten. Prepare questions as carefully as answers.
The takeaway
To prepare for a job interview, read the advert closely, match each requirement to a real example, tell each one in STAR form, write down your questions and settle the logistics early. After the interview, follow up unless they’ve told you when you’ll hear, and ask for the offer in writing before you accept.
