Are you preparing for an interview? Attending a mock interview can help boost your chances of acing the actual job interview.
There is this saying: “Practice makes perfect”, a job interview is no exception. Once you are able to mimic an actual job interview setting, you stand a chance of learning everything you may need to help you ace the real interview.
Want to learn more about mock interview? We got you covered. In this guide I will show you what a mock interview is, its benefits, and how to prepare for it.
What is a Mock Interview?
Mock interview refers to a training practice which mimics an actual job interview in order to prepare the candidate for the real interview. It is mostly held with a professional career counselor.
A mock interview helps you learn how to answer tough job interview questions, improve your confidence, improve your communication skills, increases your knowledge of interview strategies, and also reduce stress before an actual job interview.
Benefits of a Mock Interview
Below are some of the proven benefits you stand to gain when you participate in a mock interview.
- Helps the candidate to understand what is expected in a real job interview: the mock interview is a simulation of an actual job interview. The things that are expected to come up in an actual interview also comes up in a mock interview
- Helps the candidate improve in confidence: the more you practice any act, the better your performances. Same applies to an interview too – when you attend mock interviews, your level of confidence will be high before going for the real interview.
- Provide the candidate with valuable feedback: getting feedbacks at the end of the mock interview is one of the greatest benefits you will gain. Your overall performances will be analyzed by the interviewer, and he or she will provide you with feedbacks that can help you in acing the real interview.
- Helps the candidate gain insights on interview questions: mock interview can help you learn more about the possible questions that you are likely to face in a real job interview. Even after you are done with the mock interview, you can do more research in each question to broaden your knowledge.
- Helps the candidate in obtaining perfect answers: one good thing about a mock interview is that you are not only restricted to one answer. You can give different answers to a particular question to help you gauge the best answer to the questions.
How to Prepare for a Mock Interview
The following steps will help you prepare well for a mock interview in order to get the most from it.
#1: Choose the right candidate
To get the best out of your mock interview, you need to choose the right candidate that can serve as a perfect mock interviewer. It’s easy to ask a friend, or a family member, but that should be your last resort.
You can check your professional network to see if you can get a professional who has experience in the field and could be of good help to you as your mock interviewer. But if you already have a career coach, having him or her to conduct the mock interview is the best option to go with.
#2: Research the company
Researching the company is one of the most effective tips that can help you in acing an interview. Even though you are going for a mock interview, resorting to the company’s website, social media accounts, Google News search, first can help you provide valuable answers to the questions you will be asked.
Take notes of the company’s vision, mission statement, culture, and work environment because some of the questions you will be asked will revolve around them.
#3: Prepare your answers to common interview questions
Before going for your mock interview, you should prepare answers to common interview questions first. Although you are not supposed to memorize any answers, having something ready to say will make the interviewer to be interested in the interview.
Besides, you have the opportunity to practice different answers to the questions in order to get the perfect answers.
#4: Dress appropriately
Your appearance is also an important part of the interview since your attire can positively influence the interviewer.
What do you intend wearing to an actual interviewer? Is it professional or casual attire? Whatever you plan wearing to an actual job interview you should wear to the mock interview. By doing this you will get a feedback from the interviewer; if positive, then it is the perfect attire for the actual interview, but if negative, you should consider wearing another outfit for the real interview.
#5: Choose a professional settings
An interview is meant to be conducted in a place where you can stay focused and concentrate on the activities. Just like in an actual in-person job interview where you and the interviewer will be confined in a quiet office with a table separating you both, you should try as much s you can to mimic the environment. It can be a quiet room or even an office if you have the opportunity to do the interview in an office.
For a phone interview, a quiet place and a fully charged phone is the best setting to go with.
For a video interview like Zoom interview, Skype interview, a quite room without a distracting background is the best settings both you and the interviewer should keep. And also ensure that all the technical gadgets are working appropriately (sounds, webcam, microphone, etc.).
#6: Be early
Just like you should do to a real interview, you show aim at arriving early to the venue of the interview. You can aim at arriving the venue within 15 – 30 minutes
.
#7: Bring you resume and other application documents
It is always best you bring your resume along with you when you are going for an interview. The same thing applies to a mock interview; bring your resume along with you with other application documents like a reference letter, or letter of recommendation.
At the end of the interview,, the interviewer should be able to give you feedback on the documents for possible modifications before going for the real interview.
#8: Take Record
Even though you will be taking notes, which you might not be able to do all the time, recording the interview will allow you to review yourself.
When you go through the recordings, you will be able to see your hand gestures, postures, behaviors, and other things you need to work on. Once have worked on them, you can conduct another mock interview or go ace your actual interview.
Now it’s Your Turn
That’s it on my guide on how to prepare for mock interview
I’d love to hear from you
Hope you found the guide helpful?
Have you attended a mock interview before? How did it go?
Which steps do you plan taking right away to prepare for your mock interview?
Feel free to share your thoughts with us via the comment box.