Careers and Employability Service
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Interview practice resources

Adviser and student looking at a laptop

Interviews are your chance to stand out, to show your potential employers the unique skills and qualities you can offer to the role.

Effective preparation can be the key to unlocking opportunities and making a lasting impression. 

Below you will find a collection of resources that you can choose from to help improve your interview confidence and get you ready for that all important interview. 

 

Get to know the STAR technique

Use is the STAR Technique to structure your answers. STAR stands for:

  • Situation - Describe the situation: when and where did it happen? Who were you with?
  • Task - Explain your task: what were you working on? What were your responsibilities? 
  • Action - Describe your actions: what did you do? 
  • Result, Reflect or Relate - Explain the outcome: what happened at the end? Was it positive or negative? What did you learn from this experience? How can you relate your examples to what you would be doing in the job? How relevant is your example with the role and organisation? 

Lucie explains each element of the STAR technique

Read a student's experience of using the STAR technique

STAR Technique - A Simple Method for Acing Scenario-based Interview Questions

 

Use Shortlist.Me to practice answering questions

Shortlist.Me is an online platform offering a variety of practice interviews to enhance your interview skills. It will help you to:

  • focus your interview preparation for a specific career field
  • understand different types of interviews including strengths and competency interviews 
  • evaluate your interview performance with feedback on your answers
  • practise interview technique before seeking additional support from your Careers team
 
 

Use eCareersGrad for all interviews

eCareersGrad have created resources that will help you develop your interview skills whether it's a in-person or online interview.

Three modules available for you to dip into as you need

  • Interview Success
  • Master the Commercial and Consulting Case - to support students tacking case study activities within recruitment processes
  • Target the Right UK Employer - for international students

Register using your UoN email

Alumni: email us to access

Register for free access

Promotional image for eCarersGrad showing a woman at interview with the words 'interview success' beneath

 

Read our blog: Six good reasons to use eCareersGrad

 

Use Graduates First for video interviews

Graduates First provides access to a bank of generic practice video interviews.

The system uses AI to monitor your facial expressions and provides feedback via an automatically generated report. 

This is a good place to start if you are preparing for future applications and would like to familiarise yourself with the video interviewing process.

Students - register for free access using your UoN email address

Alumni - email our team for free access

Practise a Video Interview Today
 
 

Learn about CAMP and SPIES for healthcare interviews 

CAMP 

If you are applying for a role in the healthcare sector, use the CAMP technique to structure your answer for motivational questions.

  • Clinical: Type of setting – does it have areas of expertise, specialism or clinical excellence that are appealing?
  • Academic: Are there particular areas of research, education or teaching that you are most interested in?
  • Management: How support, progression, professional development and supervision are organised as part of the role
  • Personal: Location, working pattern, hobbies and other interests

SPIES

If you are applying for a role in the healthcare sector and need to answer questions on ethics, professional dilemmas or difficult situations, use the SPIES technique.

  • Seek information: Explore the issue - what is the situation? What is happening
  • Patient, Public or Personal Safety: Is someone's safety at risk? How does this influence your actions?
  • Initiative: What can you do within your level of skills and competencies?
  • Escalate: How and when to involve others?
  • Support: what support might you need and what support might you be able to offer your patient or client?
 

Go to our other interview pages

 
Leah Exton
I prepared STAR responses for all the company's competencies that way I knew I could be confident when answering any question.

 

 

 

Careers and Employability Service

University of Nottingham
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telephone: +44 (0) 115 951 3680
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email: careers-team@nottingham.ac.uk