The Interview Handbook

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A little forward-planning is essential if you’re going to arrive fresh, with a clear mind and ready to impress interviewers. Follow my simple tips on how to plan ahead for a stress-free journey.

You’ve got an interview. You feel prepared, confident and even a little lucky. Then before your very eyes it all turns to dust: your alarm fails to go off, and you wake up 15 minutes before your train is due to leave. You arrive at the station out of breath, sweating; totally stressed out! only to discover the train’s been cancelled.

Is this your worst nightmare? Think it’ll never happen to you? If events are ever going to conspire against you, they’re guaranteed to pick the day of your interview. Being late is the number one sin; let me tell you here and now, you can never recover from this, remember first impressions count, even if it’s due to circumstances beyond your control, there are no excuses.

A little preparation and forward planning will go along way in helping you to have a stress-free journey to your interview:

Here are a few simple tips to follow, remember the simple things are things that people forget to do!

1. A few days before your interview, work out how to get there.

2. Plan your route and find out how long the journey will take. If you’re taking public transport, you might want to buy tickets so you won’t have to queue on the day.

3. Aim to arrive about 15 minutes early, and leave extra time in case things go wrong. Waiting may not ease your nerves, but watching the minutes tick past as you’re stuck in traffic is far worse. And if you’re early, employers will notice that you’re well prepared and have met the ‘deadline’ of your interview with time to spare.

4. Check the news and traffic reports to find out if there are traffic jams, accidents or major delays on the trains.

5. If you want to smell as fresh as you look on arrival, don’t smoke in your car.

6. If it comes to the worst and there’s just no way you’re going to be on time, do some damage limitation.

7. Call the organisation and explain what’s happened. Traffic jams delay everyone, so they should be sympathetic. It may be possible to postpone the interview by an hour or so, or to reschedule for another day if things are really bad. Never rely on this.

So remember the planning is in the detail!