Interview questions

Knowing the job

How to show you understand the work itself and could do it well, whatever your field and however much experience you have.

From the interviewer's side

What the interviewer is looking for

  • For most jobs, whether you can do the work carries the most weight. These questions test the "can do": the knowledge, skills and judgement the job needs from your first week.
  • Whether you understand the real job, not just the title: the everyday tasks, the pressures, the standards and the people you would work with.
  • How you think. Many employers ask you to talk through a task, solve a problem or complete a short exercise, because watching someone work is a far better guide than hearing them describe themselves.
  • Honesty about the limits of what you know. Bluffing is one of the quickest ways to lose an interviewer's trust, while saying what you would check, and how, earns marks.
  • Whether your knowledge is current, and whether you keep learning as the job changes.

For candidates

How to prepare

  • Treat the job description as a list of what you will be tested on. For each main duty, prepare a real example of a time you did it, or something close to it.
  • Find out what the job looks like day to day: talk to people who do it, read sector news and look at guidance from the trade or professional body for your field.
  • Be ready to explain anything on your CV in detail, including the tools, methods, rules and standards you have listed.
  • Practise talking through a typical task out loud, step by step, including how you would check your work and what you would do if something went wrong.
  • If you are new to the field, show that you have done your homework and have a plan to learn, and bring transferable examples from other work, study or volunteering.

What do you understand this role involves?

What the interviewer is really asking

The interviewer wants to know whether you understand the job you are applying for, not just its title. People who know what the work really involves, including the hard or repetitive parts, are more likely to do it well and to stay. Your answer also shows whether you read the job description closely and looked beyond it.

What a strong answer shows

  • The main duties in your own words, with the most important first.
  • Awareness of the realities: the pressures, the standards and the less glamorous tasks.
  • An understanding of who the role serves and who you would work with.
  • A link to your own experience of similar work.

What loses marks

  • Reading the job description back word for word.
  • A picture of the job that is clearly wrong or out of date.
  • Only the appealing parts, with nothing about the pressures.

How to answer

  1. Group the duties in the job description and person specification into three or four main areas.
  2. Find out what the job is like in practice: speak to someone who does it, or read about the role in trade, professional or careers sources.
  3. Summarise the role in your own words, starting with its main purpose.
  4. Mention one or two realities of the job and show that you are ready for them.
  5. Where you can, link each area to something similar you have done, and be honest about anything that would be new.

An example answer

As I understand it, the role is about keeping the consultants' clinics running so that patients are seen on time and nothing gets lost. Day to day, that means typing clinic letters from dictation within your turnaround times, managing the consultants' diaries, booking follow-up appointments and handling calls from patients and GP surgeries. Accuracy and confidentiality matter most, because a wrong date or a letter to the wrong address affects someone's care. I also understand it can be pressured: patients who call are often anxious, and the letter queue builds quickly after a busy clinic. In my current job as a legal secretary I type from dictation every day and manage three diaries, so the core skills are familiar. The medical terminology is new to me, which is why I started an evening course in it last month.

What experience do you have that is directly relevant to this job?

What the interviewer is really asking

This is the heart of the "can do" question. The interviewer wants evidence, not claims, that you have already done the most important parts of this job, or something close enough that the skills carry over. They are listening for specific examples they can match to the person specification and score.

What a strong answer shows

  • Experience matched to the most important duties, not everything you have ever done.
  • Specific examples of what you did and what happened as a result.
  • Honest bridges where your experience is close but not identical, with a clear reason the skills transfer.
  • Your own part in the work, described as "I" rather than "we".

What loses marks

  • A tour of your whole career with no link to the job.
  • Claiming experience you do not have, or stretching a small part of a role into something bigger.
  • Examples so general that the panel cannot score them.

How to answer

  1. Pick the two or three duties that matter most in the job description.
  2. For each one, choose your strongest real example: what you did, how you did it and the result.
  3. Where you have not done exactly that task, say so, then give the closest example and explain what carries over.
  4. Draw on paid work, volunteering, study or caring: all of them count if they show the skill.
  5. Finish with how that experience would help you in this role.

An example answer

From the advert, the two parts of this job that matter most are planning rotas for around forty carers and reviewing care plans with families. I have done both. For the last year I have covered for our coordinator on Fridays, building the weekend rota for twenty-five carers across two areas, and I reduced missed visits by grouping calls by postcode instead of by client list. I also lead care plan reviews for my own clients: I sit down with the person and their family, go through what has changed and update the plan with the office. What I have not done yet is run the full weekly rota on my own at this size. The method is the same, though, and I know from covering that the hard part is last-minute sickness, which I have handled many times.

Talk us through how you would approach a typical task in this job.

What the interviewer is really asking

Hearing someone work through a real task is one of the best ways to judge whether they can do the job. The interviewer is looking at your method: whether you prepare before acting, follow the right standards, check your work and know what to do when something goes wrong. They are also listening for honesty, because a candidate who says what they would check is far more trustworthy than one who bluffs.

What a strong answer shows

  • A clear, logical order, from preparation to finish.
  • The standards, rules or checks that matter in this job, such as safety, accuracy or quality.
  • Thinking out loud, including any assumptions you are making.
  • What you would do if something went wrong, and when you would ask for help.

What loses marks

  • Jumping straight to the end without the steps in between.
  • Jargon that hides a lack of real understanding.
  • Freezing, rather than asking a question to clarify the task.
  • Bluffing about a method or rule you are not sure of.

How to answer

  1. If the task is not clear, ask a question first: what the goal is, what tools you would have or how much time.
  2. Say how you would prepare: what you would check, gather or read before starting.
  3. Walk through the main steps in order, naming the standards or checks at each stage.
  4. Explain how you would check the result and what you would do if something went wrong.
  5. Where you can, mention a time you have done this or something like it.

An example answer

Say it is a delivery arriving at goods-in. Before it arrives, I would check the booking and the purchase order, so I know what we are expecting and where it needs to go. When the lorry is on the bay, I would make sure the vehicle is safe to unload and the seals are intact, then count the pallets against the delivery note before signing, and write any damage on the paperwork there and then, because a claim is much harder to make later. Next I would check a sample of cases against the order, book the stock onto the system and put anything short or damaged into quarantine. If the numbers did not match, I would tell the supplier and my supervisor the same day. That is how we run goods-in at my current site, and it is why our supplier claims are usually settled quickly.

What would you focus on in your first three months?

What the interviewer is really asking

The interviewer wants to see that you understand what the job needs most and how you would approach a new team. A strong answer balances learning with doing: listening before changing things, while still making a useful start. It also shows whether your expectations of yourself and of the role are realistic.

What a strong answer shows

  • A sensible order: learn first, then contribute, then improve.
  • An understanding of the priorities for this particular role.
  • Respect for the existing team and the way things are done now.
  • Realistic goals rather than promises to transform everything.

What loses marks

  • Plans to change everything before you understand it.
  • No plan at all, or "I would just see how it goes".
  • Goals that ignore what the panel has said the role needs.

How to answer

  1. Use what you know from the advert and the interview to name the role's main priorities.
  2. Describe how you would learn in the first few weeks: training, meeting the team, understanding the systems and the people you serve.
  3. Say what you would aim to deliver by the end of the three months, and keep it realistic.
  4. Mention how you would check with your manager that you are on track.

An example answer

In the first month I would focus on listening. I would sit with each adviser on the phones, meet the repairs team we pass jobs to and look at the call data to see where things get stuck. I would not change anything major until I understood why things are done the way they are. In the second month I would hold one-to-ones with everyone, agree development goals and pick one problem we could fix together. From what you said today, repeat calls about missed repair appointments are the biggest issue, so that might be the one. By the end of the third month I would want the team to have a simple plan for reducing those calls, with me reviewing progress with you every fortnight. That is roughly how I settled in when I took over my current team last year.

How do you keep your skills and knowledge up to date?

What the interviewer is really asking

Every field changes, whether through new rules, tools, methods or customer expectations. The interviewer wants to know whether you keep learning without being told to, and whether your knowledge is current enough to rely on. In regulated jobs, it also checks that you understand your professional duty to stay competent.

What a strong answer shows

  • Specific, recent examples of learning, not just a general promise.
  • A mix of formal training and everyday habits, such as reading, trade events or learning from colleagues.
  • A recent change in your field that you know about and have acted on.
  • Learning that clearly links to this job.

What loses marks

  • "I learn on the job", with no example.
  • Relying only on training your employer arranged, with nothing you chose yourself.
  • Out-of-date knowledge of rules or methods that are central to the role.
  • Listing courses you cannot say anything about.

How to answer

  1. Think of two or three ways you keep up: courses, qualifications, trade or professional bodies, reading or colleagues.
  2. Pick a recent change in your field and say how you learned about it and what you did.
  3. Mention anything you are learning at the moment.
  4. Link it to how it would help you in this job.

An example answer

The biggest one for me is the wiring regulations. When the latest amendment came out, I took the update course at my local college in my own time and passed the exam, because I did not want to be caught out on an inspection. Day to day, I follow a couple of trade forums where electricians share problems they have come across, and I read the technical updates my registration body sends out. I also learn a lot from the apprentice I am mentoring, because explaining things makes me check that I really understand them. At the moment I am working towards a qualification in installing electric vehicle chargers, because more of my customers are asking for them, and I noticed your maintenance contracts now include charger installation.

What do you see as the biggest challenges in this field right now?

What the interviewer is really asking

This question tests whether you understand the world the job sits in, not just the tasks. Interviewers want to see that you follow what is happening in the sector, can think about how it affects this organisation and have a view on how someone in your role could help. It quickly separates candidates who have done real research from those who have only read the advert.

What a strong answer shows

  • One or two real, current challenges, explained simply.
  • How those challenges affect this organisation and the people it serves.
  • A sensible idea about how someone in your role could help.
  • A balanced view that is honest about problems without running the sector down.

What loses marks

  • No answer, or a guess that shows you have not looked.
  • A long list with no depth on any of it.
  • Dwelling on gloom, or criticising the organisation you are applying to.
  • Using buzzwords you cannot explain.

How to answer

  1. In the week before, read sector news, updates from the trade or professional body and the organisation's own news and reports.
  2. Choose one or two challenges you understand well enough to discuss if the panel asks a follow-up.
  3. Explain each one simply, and how it affects organisations like this one.
  4. Say what you could do in this role to help, drawing on your own experience.

An example answer

For practices like yours, I think the biggest challenge is that small business clients are under real pressure. Their costs have gone up, many are worried about cash flow and they are being asked to keep more of their records digitally, which some find daunting. So they need more advice during the year, not just a set of accounts at the end of it, but they are also watching every pound they spend. The second challenge is people: good accounts staff are hard to find and keep. In my current role I set up simple online bookkeeping for twelve of our smaller clients and showed them how to photograph their receipts, and our year-end queries dropped noticeably. Helping clients keep good records all year, and explaining things plainly, is one of the best ways a practice can hold on to them.