TotallyFinancial.com Finds Failure to Prepare #1 Reason for Bad Job Interview Experience

Jobseekers Still Putting the Dream of their Perfect Financial Job at Risk Through Inadequate Preparation for Interviews. Failure to adequately prepare is the #1 reason for a bad job interview experience, according to financial recruitment website totallyfinancial.com.

Despite a competitive finance job market and a wide range of research resources, candidates are still leaving their job interviews to chance with inadequate preparation. Downfalls range from poor company research to a lack of revision for competency-based questions.

Competency-based interviewing is becoming more common, and there are a range of resources on the internet outlining common questions and showing how to construct answers. “Candidates need to rehearse common competency-based scenarios.” said Bernard Howard, Managing Director of totallyfinancial.com. “The best approach is to have a variety of examples that can be applied to different situations, therefore avoiding using the same example twice.”

When it comes to company research, there is no excuse for not knowing the facts:

“We talk to a lot of jobseekers, and many candidates think they already know about the company they are interviewing with through their general market knowledge.” commented Mr Howard. “However, when they get to their interviews and they are asked specific questions, they come unstuck.”

Recruitment consultants, trade magazines and the internet are all useful research tools when preparing to interview for a finance or banking job.

“Many company specific interview questions can easily be answered by spending time looking through the company website.” continued Mr Howard. “A good starting point is always the ‘About Us’ page, but Annual Reports and Press Releases are also a good source of information.”

Browsing the company website is key for all candidates, but serious jobseekers can make themselves stand out further:

“An excellent candidate will go the extra mile and search the news for stories and speculation about the company” said Mr Howard. “And they will also Google the name of the person who is interviewing them so that they can show that they really have done their research - the ideal finance job is achievable in this market for the well researched candidates!”