My Experience With Graduate Schemes/Interviews

Being in my third year of university means one thing - it's interview time. Whether you're going to be moving onto further education through the form of a postgraduate course or going into full time employment, you're going to have to attend an interview. 

For many people this can be a frightening and nerve wracking time. I know a lot of people that have never had an interview before in their lives, having never worked before. And although I believe the majority of universities provide services that can help you prepare for interviews, being in third year tends to mean having no time to yourself. 

So I thought I'd give my two pence worth on interviews in the hopes of perhaps helping another person feel at ease. Even if I only help one person, I've accomplished something! I have only had two interviews for graduate schemes so far. This is more because I didn't apply to many rather than not being successful with my application - so don't think they're impossible to get on! 

My first interview was with the NHS for their Health Informatics graduate scheme. It was the second stage in applying to the scheme, the first being the initial application which included a numeracy, logic and personality type test. The interview took place at Old Trafford football club in Manchester which is HUGE and made the interview seem a lot more daunting than I initially thought it was. We were in groups within a time slot, although we all had individual interviews. So don't feel intimidated if you turn up to a venue and you hadn't anticipated this sort of situation. You're in groups so you can meet the people you potentially end up working with, to see how you network and socialise with others. It's not a test but there are graduates from previous years watching the way you work the room. I was pretty quiet as I am a naturally shy person but I talked to several people including the previous graduates and feel I handled this part quite well. 

The interview itself was very formal and standardised across all candidates. There were two people performing the interview, one to ask questions and one to note down your answers. There were only a handful of questions but you were required to explain in detail and in full in order to portray a complete story/situation displaying a skill. The interview went quite quickly in both how it felt and time in general - only lasting half an hour/forty minutes. 

My second interview was the complete opposite to the NHS one. It was with Rapid Solicitors and was in the head office, which is quite small, and wasn't intimidating in the slightest. The interviewer was lovely and the interview ran very much like a general chat. I actually ended up being in there for an hour but at the time, it seemed to be going really quickly and definitely didn't feel that long. The interviewer had a copy of my CV in front of him but asked me questions about myself and my life and got to know me rather than my skills - although sneakily got my skills out of me in a way! 

I would say that I've learnt a lot from both of these interviews. The most important thing to remember is that, no matter how well or bad it goes, every interview is an experience to learn from. If it goes bad, ask yourself why and think about how you can change things and perform better next time. If it goes well, remember what you did well and do it again! It's a simple thing but people tend not to remember it and make the same mistakes time and time again. 

Another quite important thing to do is RESEARCH. I cannot emphasise enough how much a little bit of research can help you. Not only will you know about the job role you're applying for, you'll know about the company and you can apply this knowledge and tailor your answers accordingly. Having the ability to demonstrate skills that are applicable within the company goes a long, long way. 

I hope that this helps you in some way, shape or form. I've always spent a few hours googling for interview advice and to see if anyone has written about their experience in interviews I will be attending. In the case of the NHS one, I actually found out roughly what to expect and this little bit of preparation mentally prepared me for the social networking portion of it. I'm so shy unless I am mentally prepared for situations like this and I think that had I not known about it beforehand, I would have been so much worse. 

Do you have any experiences you'd like to share? Or any tips? I'd love to hear from you :)