The document provides comprehensive guidance on how to prepare for job interviews, emphasizing the importance of preparation, self-presentation, and understanding the interview process. Candidates are encouraged to research the company, practice summarizing their career, and maintain a positive frame of mind during the interview, while also adhering to key rules for effective communication. Additionally, it details common interview questions and the significance of engaging with the interviewer to ensure a two-way dialogue.

1. How to prepare for an Interview

2. 1) Introduction
Without a doubt, interviewers are very demanding during meetings and expect candidates to “sell”
themselves well. Unfortunately, candidates don’t always do so. Here are some examples of client feedback
we have received after interviews that haven’t gone well:
“We’re disappointed, the candidate didn’t seem motivated. We’re concerned he won’t be happy with us
and will leave after a while. He didn’t seem interested in us and knew nothing about our company”. There
are many reasons why an interviewer may doubt the candidate’s suitability for a role.
However, candidates can considerably i ncrease their chances of success via good interview preparation –
this document is here to help you do exactly that.
2) The Interview Rules
a) Rule number 1 = Preparation
When you are prepared, you feel more in control and more sure of yourself. You only need to
concentrate on giving the best of yourself during the interview.
However, good preparation isn’t only about being able to present yourself well, it is also about
getting information on the role and about the company; what are their products or services, what’s
the right address and how much time will I need to get there?
You should also know about the dress code – is it formal or informal? Remember you can always
dress down but you can’t dress up, and first impressions in this instance do count very much
indeed.
Talk to your Recruitment Consultant – they are here to help and assist you.
b) Rule number 2 = you want the job
Your preparation should confirm you want the job. If this isn’t the case, then you should ask us more
questions and decide if you really want to be interviewed for the position. You can’t convince the
interviewer you’re the person for the job if you aren’t convinced yourself. Good actors are pretty
rare and even more so during interviews.
c) Rule number 3 = your frame of mind
Remember that if you have been invited for an interview, the person you are meeting is interested in
you and is hoping you match their requirement. The interviewer will look for confirmation you’re the
right person for the job and will already have certain key points in mind. As a candidate you need to
think about what the important criteria is for the job and prepare your self so as to “shine” in those
critical areas when they arise during the interview.
Realising this prior to the interview changes everything because the interviewer becomes your ally
and has the same objective; that it works out. The questions asked during an interview allow the
candidate to demonstrate why they should be hired. This means you can set out with a positive and
confident frame of mind.
d) Rule number 4 = your ability to adapt to others
The interview will probably follow a format decided by the interviewer and not necessarily the
format you expect. Thanks to your preparation and confidence, however, you will be able to
adapt accordingly.

3. e) Rule number 5 = listen
Your interviewer expects answers that correspond to the question they asked. Your answer can have
two parts to it:
 First of all, a direct answer to the question asked
 Secondly, an explanation as to why that is your opinion / answer (i.e. more details)
Many candidates answer the other way around, i.e. they present their arguments as to why they get
to a certain conclusion and then give the conclusion or answer. This can take too much time and you
can also lose your interviewers interest.
The more time you take to answer, the less time the interviewer has to ask you further questions and
find out about your personality, competence and experience.
On the other hand, giving monosyllable or curt answers is not the solution and does not at all
make for a positive atmosphere, or give the feeling of having had a “good interview”. The secret is a
good balance.
3) Presenting yourself
Talking about oneself can be very difficult. When we ask candidates to present themselves briefly in five
minutes they say:
 What do you want to know?
 What shall I start with?
 Can you give me my CV?
 As you have read in my CV…
It’s a very difficult exercise if you aren’t prepared and we highly recommend you try to summarize your
career history in 5 minutes.
When practicing summarizing your career, you may find it isn’t easy; you forget important points or events
and the temptation of going into too much detail is high, so what should you do in order to feel
comfortable presenting yourself briefly?
a) Understand why the interviewer is asking for a summary:
 They want to ensure their understanding of your CV is correct
 They want to hear you present in a clear and precise manner (you know yourself better
than anybody, they can’t ask you anything about yourself that you don’t know)
 They are giving you the opportunity to talk about things that aren’t necessarily in your CV
 They want to get to know you
b) Make a list of the important points
 A summary of the milestones in your CV, for example education, previous roles and key
achievements in each one as well as a positive (and true) fact which links the passage from one
company or project to another.
 Make a list of the things the interviewer must know about you – you may not get another
opportunity during the interview to say them.
 The reasons you wish to move on (why you’re looking for a new role and why you are
particularly interested in the one you are being interviewed for).

4. When presenting your experience and milestones, it is very important (wherever possible) to give examples
and quantify, for example size of the teams you have worked in, project budgets you have been
responsible for, amount of servers / databases administered, etc. These elements can be extremely important
with regards to credibility and matching your skills and experience with the interviewers requirements and
expectations.
4) Interview process example
As mentioned under point 2 above, the interview format will vary depending on the interviewer. However,
here is an example of a typical interview:
a) Introduction
 Welcome
 Participants introduce themselves
 The interviewer inform the applicant about the length of the interview and the sequence of the
events
b) Biography
The candidate:
 Presents their CV (employment history, studies, etc)
 Explains what they are expecting from a new role
 Describes their professional objectives for the future
 Explains what they expect to find in a good working environment
c) Motivation
The candidate:
 Explains why they want to work for the company / on the project
 Describes why the role is of interest and why the applied for it
 Lists activities in their current role that they like / dislike
 Explains why they are leaving / have left their current / previous role
 Describes why they are THE person for the job
d) Professional skills
The candidate:
 Describes their current tasks and responsibilities
 Describes a current “typical working day”
 Lists the specific knowledge they have that correspond to the available role
e) Personal & social skills
The candidate is asked about:
 Stress management skills
o Describe a stressful situation and how you managed to resolve it
o At what point to you say: « Stop – that’s enough »?
 Ability to impose themselves
o When do you find it difficult to impose yourself and what do you do?
o Two project managers both have important tasks for you and want them done at
the same time, but you can only manage one. What do you do?

5.  Responsibility taking and independence skills
o When does your independence / autonomy reach its limits?
 Taking decisions and putting them into action
o Describe a situation where you had to take a decision and how you put it into action.
 Innovation and creativity skills
o Describe a work situation where a certain task(s) was problematic. What solution did
you find to resolve the issue?
 Adapting to change
o How do you react to changes in your environment?
 Being objectives and results orientated
o What were your biggest failure and your greatest success?
 Ability to advise and coach
o In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge for an advisor or a coach?
 Leadership & Management skills
o How do you take decisions?
 Networking (with people) skills
o How do you build and maintain your networks?
 Working in and adapting to different cultures
o Talk to us about your experience of different cultures?
 Conflict management skills
 Describe a conflict situation you have been in at work.
How did you handle it?
 Being client / partnership orientated
o What does « being client orientated » mean to you?
 Ability to work in a team
o Give an example of your working in a team.
o You need information from another department but despite asking repeatedly,
you haven’t received it. What do you do in order not to let the project slip?
o How do you handle conflicts within a team or between teams?
 Negotiation skills
o Describe a situation where you had to persuade / convince a person. How did you
do it?
 Personality
o Chose three adjectives that describe you and three that don’t – explain why.
 Strengths and weaknesses
o If I talked to your manager and asked them to name three of your strengths, what
would they say? If I asked them for areas in which you could improve, what would
they say?

6.  Analytical / conceptual skills / Process & Project management skills
o Have you already been responsible for a project and what were your
responsibilities?
o Projects can be very stressful. What take priority for you, quality or finishing the
project on time?
o Have you already worked on more than one project at a time? How did you mange
this and how did you feel about it?
o What do you do if a deadline is very clear but the requirement isn’t?
f) Presentation of the available role
Beware of the classic – but potentially deadly - question: « What do you know about our
company? ». Find out about the company prior to the interview; go on their website and ask your
Recruitment Consultant for information.
The interviewer should:
 Explain the company’s organisation chart & where the role fits in
 Present the available role in detail; tasks, teams, challenges, the team’s needs, career
advancement possibilities, training, etc.
g) Open questions
The candidate can ask questions, for example:
 Additional questions with regards to the role and the company
 Why the current (or previous) person in the role is leaving (or has left)
 What the company expects from the candidates
 The company’s management style, philosophy and values
 Contractual details (unless this is managed by your Recruitment Consultant); when,
salary, social security, trial period, holidays, working hours, business travel, etc.
 Additional training
 Career advancement possibilities
It is extremely important you have time to ask questions. An interview should be a dialogue, an
exchange and not an interrogation.
h) Exchange of information and wrap-up
 Current status in the recruitment process / Next steps
 The candidate provides details of contact people for references
i) And finally…
Thank the interviewer and let them know your interest in the role: “Thanks very much for this
interview. The project / role sounds fantastic and I would be delighted to join the team /
department / company”.

7. 5) Questions, questions, questions!
 How was your performance measured in your current and previous roles?
 How could you improve yourself?
 Why do you want this job / to work for this company?
 Why are you interested in our products / services?
 What qualities do you think will be required for this job?
 What can you contribute?
 Why should we hire you for this job?
 What can you do for us that someone else can’t?
 What do you expect from this company?
 Describe a mistake you have made and what you learned from it?
 Describe a difficult problem you’ve had to deal with
 What are your strengths and weaknesses?
 What is important to you?
 What do you hope to have accomplished in 1 / 3 / 5 / 10 years?
 What are your goals in life?
 What working environment allows you to improve?
 What should you improve in your way of working?
 What is the best result you have seen following advice you gave?
 What is your leadership style?
 How do you handle criticism?
 Which of your personal attributes are helpful to you when working in a team?
 With which kind of people do you find it difficult to work?
 What do you expect from new colleagues / new manager?
 Describe the best and worst manager you have had
 If your enemy described your personality, what would they say?
 If your friends described your personality, what would they say?
 In your opinion, what makes or breaks a project? In this respect, which are your strong and weak
points?
6) If in doubt…
Speak to your Recruitment Consultant. They are there to help you, to advise you, to reassure you and help
you get that job – so don’t hesitate!

8. Here you can find some useful links that could be helpful for your jobsearch:
Networking:
 www.bscc.co.uk (British-Swiss Chamber of Commerce)
 www.amcham.ch (Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce)
 www.internations.org
 remo.fm/tag/venture-cocktail
 http://www.drinksandlinks.com
Jobboards:
 www.randstad.ch
 www.jobs.ch
 www.jobup.ch
 www.monster.ch
 www.alpha.ch
 www.jobwinner.ch
 www.jobscout24.ch
 www.jobs.nzz.ch
 www.jobserve.co.uk
Expat websites:
 http://www.englishforum.ch/jobs/
 http://www.thelocal.ch
Social Media platforms:
 www.linkedin.com
 www.xing.com
 ch.viadeo.com/de
How to make the most out of your social media profile:
 http://tinyurl.com/d7bsup5