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I recently had a discussion with a candidate that went for a interview at a well known insurance company. The initial contact was made through a friend of a friend who worked within the company. A week after the candidate had sent their CV in for review their mobile phone rang with an offer of an interview the following day. Excitedly the candidate said yes immediately, as soon as the phone conversation ended they jumped on the internet and started to research the company, when it was formed any recent news stories and financial reports. With so much info to sift through it was difficult to know what key points to remember just in case they where touched upon during the interview.

The next day the interview flew by, the candidate was confident that they had done enough to at least be seen again. They had also been informed should they be requested to return for a second interview the guy who would be conducting the interview was company man who’s life was dedicated to work. As such it would be a good idea to know as much about the company, in particular its CEO and its core principles. So the candidate went away and researched all these subjects further. Creating ways to remember the details should the need arise.

Soon enough as expected the phone once again range with some good news. The all important second interview. All that needed to be done now was to come back to each question with a positive answer and the job would be in the bag.

This is where candidates need to expect the unexpected. The second interview went fine. In fact it went so well the candidate was asked back for a third interview. They had been advised by other sources that as this was with HR the representative would only be asking the sort of question that would uncover what the candidate was like as a person. What made them tick. This is exactly how the interview went until the candidate mention they had done a lot of research on the company. At this point things started to go very bad. The candidate had spent the last week neglecting what the company actually did. They had been advised by other sources that these questions had been covered in the first two interviews and to now concentrate on question related to the person. Big mistake.

Luckily this article has a happy ending. The candidate went blank. Froze and couldn’t speak for a few seconds as their brain tried to search for the information that they had spent so long trying to remember. But nothing much come out. What little did come out was enough to secure the job offer. Although after this interview the candidate was convinced that they had blown it.

The moral of this story is to make sure you go into every interview armed with as much information as possible. Just because a question has been asked by one person it does not mean that it wont be asked again.

Good luck.