Interview skills

Interview mistakes and CV howlers - new video

What are the classic mistakes made by interviewees and job applicants?

The Telegraph's Louisa Peacock has asked business leaders and recruiters about the worst responses they have seen.

Some of their experiences are toe-curling. Can you imagine sitting in an interview texting while being asked questions? Or calling your interviewer Chris all the way through only for him to tell you at the end that his name was Mike? Or smelling of booze having had a swift one to settle your nerves beforehand?

Interview questions: are you over-qualified for this job?

Britain is going through a deep financial depression. Jobs are hard to find, and more and more experienced workers are finding themselves having to apply to jobs that are below their previous level of salary and qualifications.

So how do you answer that tricky question that all who find themselves in this position are asked: why are you applying for this job when you are clearly over-qualified?

Career Confidential has written an article letting you know exactly how.

It comes down to explaining clearly why the company fits you and why you are a fit for the company.

Sit a virtual job interview - right here

Job interviews can be scary, but preparing for them can help overcome some of the fears. LearnDirect has created an online job interview tool which helps you with this. Two interviewers ask you questions and you get to pick the answer from a list. Just click on the link below, and good luck!

Is this the bungee jump of the job hunting world?

You've heard of extreme sports: now for extreme interviewing. You may even have read about this over the past couple of months, the Daily Mail breaking the shocking news of this new way of interviewing people on 11th March and since then discussion of these interviewing methods have been doing the rounds of the cyber world.

This is, in some ways, appropriate. The pioneers of these methods were the darlings of Silicon Valley – Apple, Google, Hewlett-Packard, and their ilk – who devised the tactic as a way of seeing if candidates could think on their feet and be creative under pressure. Apparently, there are no right or wrong answers but, then, I guess it's all about the impression you make.

Watch your language

A lot is said about the importance of positive body language in interviews. Never have I been made so starkly aware of how we express ourselves without speaking than during the second module of my training to be a London Ambassador for the Olympic Games. Since the core of our job is to welcome visitors to London (and to keep Londoners moving), this focused heavily on customer service training, provided by John Lewis, the UK’s leading department store.