Your interview is fast approaching and snapping at your heels. You’re up against time and the longer you put it off the more unappealing the task feels.
Interview Preparation Overwhelm
This may not be the first, last or only interview you’re tackling. With information coming at you from every angle, you’re mental energy is flagging and the context switching burnout is next level 🤯
However, you must shoehorn in some essential interview prep, and if you have a tendency to jump feet first without much thought (and even less time), I’m guessing you might get caught up in these 2 time-wasting traps👇
Avoid time wasting interview prep traps
❌ Trap 1: Hopping straight on to the company website for the low down
I know it’s usually the first port of call, but hold your horses my keen (but about to be poorly-informed) friend.
You hear ‘check out the company website’ from well meaning people, encouraging us to hit up websites to get prepped for interview. But this is, by a long stretch, the best way to get to know a role and organisation quickly. Also, and I’m pretty sure you probably skimmed over it before you applied for the job.
But now you’ve bagged the interview, surely it’s time to read all the website sections properly.. or is it..? 🤔
🚨 The problem with company website research
The website is the shiny, public facing version of the organisation, the carefully curated, commercially safe publicity machine. So filling your already overflowing mind with this stuff is pretty wasteful if you really want to get under the bonnet an poke about in the real engine of the business. A slightly different route to exploring the company can take you less time but reveal a truer picture. Critical if you want to align yourself tightly to the role in your interview.
Focus on the reality, not the fluffy profile of the business
I’m not sayin you should avoid the polished up webby version of the company. It’s just there are quicker ways to bring yourself up to speed with it (enter Chat GPT and in 2 seconds flat, you’ve got yourself a punchy, easy to understand overview). I’m saying don’t waste time reading the website, bulking you out with more of the fluff knowledge, instead pull back the curtain to reveal a more realistic and genuine insight into the role and organisation.
One of the quickest way to do this dig into the ‘real ask’. What do they really want from you, what are the organisations challenges, you can gather some of this juicy intel quickly by zoning in on the ‘problem keywords’ they use in the job ad or description.
✅ Find the ‘Problem” Keywords’ (5 Minutes task)
- Action: Read the job description and identify 4-5 negative, ambiguous, or fixing-oriented words. Common examples: streamline, improve, optimise, restructure, manage complexity
- The Real Ask: These words are the company’s pain points. The real ask is to fix whatever is currently broken
- Consider what you know, have experience of, or can offer to help solve those problems and use your time to come up with stories and examples you can share.
Having these topics top of mind when you are in your interview can really help really position you as highly relevant and enable you to create job offer attention.. tick..tick…tick.
❌ Trap 2: Practicing answers to the interview questions you prepfer to answer
Using up your energy practicing answers to the interview questions you think you’ll be asked (which are often the ones you prefer to answer) is just a crafty way to procrastinate and put off the tricky stuff. Of course, if you do have the luxury of time, practice them all, but when time is running out choose to prepare for what I call the ‘Fingers Crossed’ questions. Those questions where you keep your finger crossed they won’t ask you.
Think.. ‘Tell me a time you made a mistake at work’? or ‘What can you tell me about yourself that I don’t already know from your CV? These are the absolute beauties that can trip you up in a heart beat. The ones which have you tumble weeding yourself back into Awakwardsville.
So, I know you don’t really want to, but focus on the harder stuff to reap the reward of a better interview performance, and if you have time left, brush up on the easier questions. Here’s a tip to spot the areas you might be avoiding 👇
✅ The Role-CV Mismatch Scan (5 Minute task)
Your Fingers Crossed questions will always be found at the intersection of what the job demands and what your CV lacks.
- 🖨️ Print the Job Description (JD) and your CV side-by-side
- ⭕️ Draw a circle around every skill, technology, or required experience listed in the JD that is:
- Missing from your CV
- Mentioned on your CV, but you only have basic knowledge (e.g., you’ve used a tool once, but aren’t proficient)
- Tied to a specific time gap (e.g., your CV shows a 6 month break, or a short tenure somewhere)
- 👉Every circled item is a potential Fingers-Crossed Question
Or if you prefer, try this AI prompt:
Act as a hypercritical Hiring Manager and a Subject Matter Expert for this role. Your only goal is to find weaknesses in the candidate’s background that directly relate to the job’s core requirements. Analyse the two documents below and identify 5-7 ‘Fingers Crossed’ interview questions. A ‘Fingers Crossed’ question is one that targets a specific gap, ambiguity, short tenure, missing skill, or soft-skill requirement where the CV falls short of the JD. CV:
[PASTE FULL TEXT OF CV HERE]. JOB DESCRIPTION (JD):
[PASTE FULL TEXT OF JOB DESCRIPTION HERE]
Work clever, not harder on your interview preparation
By focusing these high leverage steps, you can show up to your interview already familiar with some of the hidden agenda, offering you a fabulous opportunity to position yourself as part of the solution to their most urgent, unstated problems.
Good luck with that interview preparation 🍀
And if you want a little more savvy interview insight, my latest free mini video guide reveals the 3 deal breaker interview mistakes which can ruin your chances of a job offer get it right now
👋 I’m Zoe, Master Career Coach, Interview Specialist and Ex-Recruitment Agency Owner. I coach to create success in the job search space, and I teach you how to interview really well, so you can get offers for the jobs you really want. I share knowledge and guidance through coaching and digital courses, and lots of freebie tips & hacks, all designed to give you real-world, transformative support so you know how to get the job you deserve
