Frameworks, scripts, and a checklist. Read it once. Use it every time.
If you only fix six things before your next interview, fix these. The rest of this document explains how.
Most candidates rehearse the questions. Few rehearse the answers. Even fewer rehearse the shape of the answers. Treat the interview like stand-up: prepared material, a clear structure, and rehearsal out loud. Otherwise you drift, and drift loses points.
They learn what the company does. They turn up. They hope a good conversation breaks out. It rarely does, and when it doesn't, they blame the panel.
Five frameworks. Four question types. One video checklist. One pre-interview checklist. The brief is simple: walk in with answers ready, walk out remembered.
Company research answers what do they do. This pack answers what do I say. The two are not the same job, and most candidates only do the first one. Do both.
When they ask “what do you know about us,” they're not testing trivia. They're testing intent. A blank answer reads as a blank interest. Aim for the look on the interviewer's face that says: they know more about us than I do.
The basics. If you don't have these in one sentence each, you haven't read enough of it.
Read the company page. Read the last three posts from the hiring manager. Notice the themes.
Who they want to be seen as. What they're saying out loud right now. What they've gone quiet about.
The praise tells you the positioning. The complaints tell you where the gaps are. Both are useful.
You can't talk about why they're interesting until you know what they're being compared to.
One sentence. If you can't write it for them, you can't sell yourself to them.
If you've named a campaign they've run, a client they've won, a stat from their last report, or a competitor they're outpacing. You're in wow territory. Anything less is generic. Generic blends in. Specifics get remembered.
Every box they'll tick is in the job description. Read it like an exam paper. For each requirement, prepare three things. Proof, action, result. Walk in with a list. Don't improvise the things you could have prepared.
The single best example you have for this requirement. The one you'd put under oath.
What you specifically did. Not what the team did. Say “I,” not “we.”
Numbers. Outcomes. Measurable impact. If you can quantify it, quantify it.
Where the JD names something you can't fully evidence, name the gap and name what you're already doing about it. A course you've started. A book you've finished. A person you've asked. Honesty with initiative reads as a stronger signal than evidence alone. Hidden gaps read as missing self-awareness.
Not a warm-up. An invitation to pitch. Build it in three layers and the rest of the interview gets easier. Because you've set the tone yourself.
A detail that builds rapport. Where you're from. What you're into outside work. Specific, not generic.
Matched to the job description. Two pieces of evidence. Numbers if you have them.
Not the values themselves. The behaviour they produce. Make it observable.
First half: play to their ego, with evidence. Second half: explain why the role fits you and what you've already started thinking about. Two halves. Not one.
Name two things that appeal. A niche they own, a campaign they ran, a review you read, a client they won. Then say because and give the evidence. “I love your culture” without proof is noise.
Why the role fits you. How you'll add value, with proof. One or two early ideas you've already had. Even half-formed. Half-formed beats absent.
Most people either dress a strength up as a weakness. “I'm a perfectionist”. Or shoot themselves in the foot. Neither scores. Use the Cake and Cherry: three steps that turn a trap into a positive signal.
Drop the word “weakness.” Replace with: where do I need to develop to do this job better.
Use the job description to choose a real, role-relevant gap. Not a manufactured one. They can tell.
Your proactive solution. Course, book, mentor, plan. Initiative beats invention every time.
You've shown self-awareness. You've shown you do something about it without being asked. That's the same trait a hiring manager is buying. The trap question becomes a positive signal about how you'll behave in the role.
Predict the likely questions from the JD. Prepare two or three versatile stories that can cover most of them. Tell each one in four parts. STAR.
Set the context. One or two sentences. No more.
What you specifically were responsible for delivering.
The actual steps. This is the money bit. Walk them through it.
The outcome. With numbers where you have them.
The team did things. The panel is hiring you. Your specific actions need to be visible. “We delivered” is unfalsifiable; “I did X, Y, and Z” is testable. They want the second one.
Most candidates over-cook the setup and skim the action. Reverse it. Set the scene in 20 seconds. Spend the rest on what you did and how you did it. The A is where they score you.
Build your two or three stories around the competencies the JD names most often. Leadership, problem-solving, conflict, pressure. Re-angle the same story for each. You're not lying; you're framing.
No questions at the end reads as low interest, even when it isn't. Prepare four. One from each type below. Ask the two best ones based on how the conversation went.
Origins. Niche. Market changes. Client base. Where they're heading next.
90-day expectations. Biggest challenges. Tools and systems you'd be using.
Their roles. What's changed for them. The biggest business challenge they see.
Transferability of your experience. Anything they'd like clarified about fit.
Video interviews lose the easy rapport an in-person room gives you for free. You make it back by getting five things right before the camera turns on. None of them are expensive. All of them are noticed.
Eye level. Centred. No tilted laptop angles. Raise it on books if you have to.
Face lit from the front. Not the back. A window or a ring light. Either works.
Match the role. Look like you already belong in it. Not above. Not below.
Neutral, not empty. One point of interest. A print, a shelf, a plant. Not distracting.
Colour, sunshine, greenery. A subtle psychological lift. The conversation runs warmer.
A music print, a piece of artwork, a plant. Something that gives a glimpse of who you are without pulling the eye away from what you're saying. The backdrop is supporting cast, not the lead.
These don't change what you say. They change how it lands. Neither costs you anything. Both move the room.
Sales, marketing, support. Talkative roles tempt you to say too much. Listen properly. Answer the question they asked. Notice yourself drifting and bring it back.
Professional doesn't mean painfully serious. Smiling lifts your confidence, warms your tone, and raises likeability. The thing that separates two otherwise equal candidates.
If all six are ticked, you've done the work. Walk in. The rest is delivery.
Prepare like a performance. Research that wows. Answers with structure. A cherry on top. That's how you stop wasting questions and start scoring points.