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Looking for a role in Sales and Customer Service? HR Manager, Laura Kelly, provides her advice for how to succeed in the interview process.
As an HR Manager, my role is to support the growth of Flanagans by recruiting top quality candidates who will contribute to the success of our business vision. Leading the recruitment, I am responsible for finding and attracting top talent whilst supporting each individual.
I’ve interviewed many candidates who have been successful in joining Flanagans. We understand how daunting the interview process can be. However, my top 5 tips below can help anyone prepare for an interview for one of our many roles within Flanagans.
Top 5 interview tips
1. Know why you want the role.
Be honest with yourself and with us about why you're looking to work here. Don't try to guess at what we want to hear, doing that usually comes across as insincere. Everyone has a different reason for why they want to join us and we genuinely want to know yours. By being open about this from day one, if you are successful, then we can help you in your career by giving you more of what you're looking for and less of what you're not.
2. Be ready to tell me how good you are.
This tip is about self-awareness. You are good at something in a way that no-one else is and you've only got one opportunity to tell me about it. Of course you don't want to come across as arrogant but an interview is your chance to sell yourself, so go ahead and tell me not only why you're great at the job you're being interviewed for, but whatever else it is that makes you brilliant.
3. Really listen to the questions being asked.
There are a couple of ways you could slip up here. The first is if you start giving an answer before I've finished asking the question. I know you might be really excited and want to show your energy but you might guess wrong and why risk it by jumping the gun? The second is you might not take the time to think about an appropriate answer. I don't mind if you take a moment to consider what you're going to say if it means you give the best answer you possibly can.
4. Proof read your c.v
This tip comes before the interview stage but your c.v is how you get through the door in the first place. Use spellcheck, get a friend to read it before you hit send and always make sure it's got your up to date contact details on it.
5. Arrive on time and ready.
Not only does this show us that you're serious about wanting to work here, but it also shows respect for our time. We might be interviewing a number of people on the same day and if you're late this can really disrupt things for us. If you're relying on public transport make sure you've checked the route and know how long it will take and in the worst case if you know you're going to be late ring in and let us know so we can rearrange things if needed.
