How to nail your subsequent job interview: Recruitment guru JAMES REED offers his prime ideas

A job interview can be genuinely life-changing.

How you perform in that 30 to 90 minutes will determine what you do for a living – and potentially shape the rest of your existence.

We spend a third of our adult life at work (half of the remaining two-thirds is spent asleep), so if you do something that you don’t enjoy, a large part of your existence is negatively affected.

Your job can also determine your income, where you live, your social life, standing in your community and even your life partner. Nearly one in five of us meet our spouses at work.

All this means that people who do well in job interviews tend to do well in life. At Reed, we deal with almost 100,000 job applications a day via reed.co.uk, and have helped millions through the interview process.

So many people have told me they left an interview feeling they were under-prepared. But, scary as it can be to meet your destiny, you are at least told about the meeting in advance and given every chance to get ready for it. Here are some of my top tips:

Hone your CV

Typically, employers won’t spend more than seven seconds looking at an individual CV. These days, they may even be sifted using AI. So you have a very limited opportunity to win over your target audience.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution for the perfect CV, but it should always be clearly formatted and short enough for a recruiter to scan quickly. Most importantly, it should be tailored to the role you want.

The first thing should be a personal statement – an essential way to stand out from the crowd. Aim to prove why you’re suitable in one short and succinct paragraph.

Then include all of your relevant work experience, listed with the most recent first.

Next should come sections on your education and any relevant hobbies and interests.

Remember: a CV is all about your past achievements.

Your interviewer will be looking forward, into a future they can probably barely make out at this point.

Try a speculative job application

Vacancies have been declining for a record 27 consecutive months and I fear that will continue for some time. I was talking to a guy in young middle age last week who had applied for 90 jobs. He heard back from one employer – a rejection.

One piece of advice I gave him was to go back to the future: decide who you want to work with and then send them a CV or letter through the post, regardless of whether they are advertising any suitable jobs.

Employers now get so many approaches online and by email but have very little on their desks in terms of letters or paperwork. This is a good way to get their attention and show initiative.

If you don’t hear back, write again, and say you’re surprised to have had no response. Show chutzpah – that’s attractive.

Play Poohsticks

Like in a game of Poohsticks, where players throw sticks upstream off a bridge and the winner is the first to the other side, finding a successful career means identifying the fast-flowing water. Which parts of the economy are moving in an exciting and dynamic way and hold most potential?

Which are the fast-growth industries that will prove resistant to trends like AI?

Make sure you drop your stick in the best place – where personal progress is propelled by structural change. Right now, those areas include education, green energy, healthcare and medicine.

Previous growth areas such as tech aren’t doing so well.

If you choose the right industry, that fast-flowing water will move you forward.

Show enthusiasm

It may sound obvious, but it’s vital to come across as enthusiastic from the off.

For employers, enthusiasm is infectious and you need to demonstrate it. Show interest in the business or organisation. That means making sure you’re aware of recent initiatives, big hires or growth plans.

Trawl the news for the latest on your potential employer. If I’m interviewing at Reed, I’m impressed if they know that we have recently opened two energy academies to train the next generation of green engineers, and that we see this as a key growth area.

If someone has taken the trouble to find out that I’ve just launched a podcast, interviewing business leaders about what makes them tick, they’re going to score points.

..and commitment

Demonstrating your commitment to showing up, being there, and being part of a team is crucial.

If your first question is to ask how many days a week you can work from home, don’t expect them to be impressed. Most employers now expect staff to show a dedication to the office for a fair part of the week.

Particularly if you’re a younger worker, or someone making a career change, eagerness to be around and learn from colleagues is important.

So instead of asking how much time you’ll spend at home, ask how much time you’ll be in the office – and whether you can spend more than the minimum required.

One young man I was working with recently got a job which required a minimum of two days a week in the office.

He asked for my advice, and I suggested he went in every day, which he did. He was soon promoted and got a pay rise.

Strengths and weaknesses

Be ready to be asked about these. There are only so many variations of the basic interview questions, and this is a classic.

Don’t say something flippant when asked to identify your weaknesses. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and sometimes the weakness is the flip-side of a strength.

You should always talk about how you seek to mitigate the weakness that you admit to. In my case, I am occasionally impulsive, so I surround myself with people who have different qualities, including some who are more cautious.

Parting shot

At the end of almost every interview, the interviewer will invite you to ask questions.

This isn’t about gathering information about the company or your role. This is a moment to demonstrate you are knowledgeable about the firm. 

Exhibit some personal charm and close your case as the best candidate. Never say you have no questions.

Avoid questions where you could have found the answer on the company website. Try to link to topics that came up earlier, or ask what success would look like, and how it is judged.

• Why You? 101 Interview Questions You’ll Never Fear Again by James Reed is published by Penguin