job interviews
job interviews tips and techniques, sample interview questions and answers, sample interviews letters and templates



Job interviews are easier for interviewers and the interviewees if you plan and prepare questions and answers, and use proper interviewing techniques.

On this page are job-hunting and job interviews tips, samples of tough interviews questions, and answers, for interviewers and interviewees. There are also many ideas for group selection assessment recruitment methods, the most effective way to recruit people for most jobs.

If you are finding it difficult to get interviews for local jobs, here's a very direct job-hunting method which can be very effective.

Job interviews are critical to the quality of an organization's people. Good job interviews processes and methods increase the quality of people in an organization. Poor job interviews methods result in poor selection, which undermines organizational capabilities, wastes management time, and increases staff turnover.

Below are samples of interviews questions asked at interviews. Many interviewers and interviewees are keenly interested in 'tough' interview questions and certainly interviewees need to prepare answers for 'tough' questions. However, from the interviewer's perspective asking 'tough' questions is not usually helpful. Interviews should not place undue pressure on interviewees, because people tend to withdraw and become defensive under pressure. We learn more about people when they relax.

It's better therefore to focus on 'good' interview questions rather than 'tough' ones. Good interview questions encourage interviewees to think about themselves and to give the interviewer clear and revealing information as to the interviewee's needs, capabilities, experience, personality, and suitability for the job. The best interview questions are therefore the questions which most help interviewees to reveal their skills, knowledge, attitudes, and feelings to the interviewer.

The UK (consistent with Europe) Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006, effective from 1st October 2006, make it unlawful to discriminate against anyone on the grounds of age.

This has several implications for job interviews, documents used, and the training of people who conduct job interviews. For example, while not unlawful, the inclusion of age and date-of-birth sections on job application forms is not recommended (as for all other documentation used in assessing people).

For further guidance about the effects of Age Equality and Discrimination in job interviews, (and in other aspects of managing people), see the Age Diversity information. This is important for interviewers and interviewees.

Much of this guidance also applies to students seeking internships and work experience placements. Effective interview techniques, and the processes surrounding interviews, apply to all situations involving candidate selection, whatever the position and situation.

If interviews make you nervous (as they do to most people), take comfort from the interview story about the wrong Guy, which is also a great lesson for interviewers in the need for good preparation and communication, and why high pressure in interviews doesn't get to the truth, it merely forces people to tell you what you want to hear.

Interviewers and interviewees can maybe take some inspiration for how to handle the interview, and personal and organisational values, from the love and spirituality page, which addresses the increasingly important area of bringing compassion and humanity to work.