How to prepare for your interview

TL;DR

1. Understand what capabilities, skills and behaviours the company is looking for

2. Find your evidence by thinking about which experiences from your career demonstrate those capabilities, skills and behaviours

3. Understand your stories so you can discuss it confidently

4. Adapt your evidence by asking yourself what this particular question is testing, and which part of your experience best demonstrates it

5. Handle unexpected questions by using the same process: identify what they're testing, choose your strongest evidence, and adapt your story

Your objective is NOT to prepare an answer for every possible interview question. That is impossible.

Your objective is to prepare the evidence, not the answers.

Here's the logic:

1. The company has a problem

2. They create a role to solve that problem

3. The job description describes what that person needs to be able to do (skills and behaviours)

4. The interviewer(s) asks questions to find evidence you can do those things

5. Your job is to provide that evidence

Step 1: Understand what the company needs

Start with the company, role and job description. You are not thinking about interview questions yet.

Ask yourself: What does this company need this person to do?

This will include technical ability, but also maybe:

Decision making - someone who can...

make decisions with incomplete information,

compare different options,

understand the risks, priorities, and trade offs,

make pragmatic and strategic decisions (rather than following trends)

consider risk, security, cost, performance, and long term impact

communication - someone who can...

explain complex technical ideas clearly

communicate with technical and non technical people

communicate with internal and external stakeholders

communicate with different levels of seniority

articulate why a decision has been made and defend decisions

listen and adapt their communication

Leadership and influence - someone who can...

provide technical and strategic direction

act as an authority without necessarily relying on hierarchy

bring people together

collaborate

mentor others

challenge ideas constructively

lead through uncertainty or difficult situations

Step 2: Build your evidence bank

Ask yourself: where in my career have I already demonstrated these things?

Create a table that includes what they need in one column and your evidence in another. It can look something like this:

What they need	My evidence
Influence	Project x
Stakeholder management	Situation Y
Conflict	Project x
Failure / learning	Project Z
Working with uncertainty	Project Z
Leadership	Project x
Incident management	Situation Y

One story, many questions

One experience might demonstrate decision making, influence, stakeholder management, communication and leadership

You don't need 50 stories. You need a manageable number of strong, high value experiences that contain a lot of evidence.

The next step is to make sure you understand those experiences well enough to use them in different ways.

Step 3: Build a data sheet for each important story

Instead of trying to write a perfect STAR example for every single possible question, build a structured information set about each experience.

For each story, answer these questions:

1. What happened? (two or three sentences)

2. Why did it matter? (business impact)

3. What was MY responsibility (not the team's)

4. What skills or behaviours does this experience demonstrate?

5. What decision did I make?

6. What alternatives did I consider?

7. Why did I choose that approach?

8. Who disagreed?

9. How did I communicate?

10. What was difficult?

11. What happened?

12. What was the measurable impact?

13. What did I learn?

14. What would I do differently now?

You're not memorising a perfect answer. You are making sure you understand your own experience well enough to talk about it from different angles.

Step 4: Learn to adapt the story to the question

Think about your story.

Maybe you have an experience where a major problem happened at work.

You had to take control, make a difficult decision, communicate with several stakeholders, and eventually resolve the situation.

That one experience can answer:

Tell me about a time you dealt with a difficult situation

Tell me about a time you worked under pressure

Tell me about a difficult decision you had to make

Tell me about a time you had to influence other people

Tell me about a time something didn't go according to plan

Tell me about a time you had to manage competing priorities

Tell me about a time you had to manage multiple stakeholders

Tell me about a time you had to communicate difficult information

The experience hasn't changed. The evidence you emphasise changes.

Ask yourself: what is this question really testing?

When you're asked a question, you need to do two things really quickly:

1. understand what they're asking on the surface

2. identify what evidence they're actually looking for

For example, "Tell me about a difficult decision you made"

On the surface, they're asking for a difficult decision.

But they're probably also interested in whether you can:

make decisions with incomplete information,

identify and compare different options,

understand the risks, priorities, and trade offs,

consider and communicate with different stakeholders

explain your reasoning

take responsibility for the outcome

learn from the decision

so your answer shouldn't just be, "There was a difficult situation and I decided to do xyz".

You want to use the story to demonstrate how you think (this is especially important for senior roles).

What if they ask me something I haven't prepared?

If you've prepared your experiences, you should be able to handle questions you haven't seen before. When you hear an unexpected question, pause and ask yourself:

1. What are they actually trying to test?

   
   

   For example, "tell me about a time you changed your mind about something important?"

   
   

   You might not have prepared that exact question, but think about what they could be assessing?

   
   

   openness to new information

   willingness to listen

   willingness to reconsider your assumptions

   decision making

   ability to recognise when your original approach was wrong

   learning from experience

   
   

2. Which experience gives me the strongest evidence?

   
   

   You might already have a story that includes a technical decision, project or disagreement where you changed your approach.

   
   

   That story can work even though you never specifically prepared it for the question.

   
   

3. Which part of the story matters most for this question?

   You don't need to tell the interviewer everything that happened. Select the parts of the story that demonstrate what they're trying to assess and emphasise those parts,

   
   

   "initially, I thought X. However, after listening to Y and looking at Z, I realised my original assumption was wrong. I changed my approach because..."

But what if I genuinely can't think of an example?

Sometimes you just won't have the perfect example. Don't panic.

If you need a few seconds to think, you can say something like,

"That's a good question. Let me think of the most relevant example"

This is also where I like to have a glass of water ready to sip while I think. Taking a sip gives you a natural pause, and also a cue to the interviewer that you're taking a moment.

Then try to think more broadly. Can you use:

a less senior example?

an example from an earlier role?

a technical project rather than a formal leadership situation?

a small decision within a project that didn't feel like a big deal but demonstrates the behaviour?

a situation where you observed something and changed your approach?

a situation where you contributed rather than led?

an experience outside your current role?

And if you genuinely can't find an example, you can say something like,

"I haven't dealt with that exact situation, but I've dealt with something similar when..."

This helps you demonstrate the broader competency or transferable skill.

or

"I haven't dealt with that exact situation, but the way I would approach it would be...."

This allows you to be honest about your experience while still demonstrating your judgement and approach.

The best interview preparation doesn't prepare you for every question. It prepares you to answer questions you haven't seen before.

Want support putting this into practice?

Knowing that you shouldn't memorise answers is one thing. Learning how to identify your strongest evidence, build flexible stories and confidently adapt them when an interviewer takes the conversation in an unexpected direction is another.

If you find yourself second guessing your experience, struggling to explain what you've actually achieved, or worrying that you'll freeze when you're asked something you haven't prepared, coaching can help.

My Interview Success Programme combines structured preparation, practice and personalised feedback to help you understand your own experience clearly, communicate your value, handle unexpected questions and feel more confident and in control during interviews.

Find out more about my Interview Success Programme.

Not ready to commit to a full programme yet?

My mini-coaching session is a great way to experience coaching. We'll take a real interview challenge you're dealing with, explore what's getting in the way and work out a practical next step you can use straight away.

Book your mini coaching session

About me

Hi, I'm Beverley, Confidence and Communication Coach

​I've always been a little shy. As a kid, speaking up felt scary and even when I tried to speak up, it felt like I was trying too hard and I'd end up misunderstood. That feeling of being overlooked or not heard followed me into my career. Over time, through HR and coaching, I learned how to communicate clearly, stand my ground, and make my voice count. Now, I help others do the same.