Interview practice resources
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?
Watch our video: The Guardian - How to use 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 eCareersGrad for all interviews
Use Graduates First for video interviews
Use HireVue to practise answering questions
HireVue interviews are created on request by our advisers. This means that the questions can be tailored to your sector, company and/or role of interest. You may find an interview especially useful if you are preparing to complete a real video interview in the near future.
To use Hirevue:
It may take three working days to set up the video interview. If you have an interview sooner than this, please use Graduates First.
If you would like feedback on your HireVue interview, please mention this in your request and one of our advisers will get in touch to arrange a follow-up appointment.
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
I prepared STAR responses for all the company's competencies that way I knew I could be confident when answering any question.