​Interviews can be the most intimidating part of a job application for many, but with a little forethought and preparation, you should be able to present yourself well and make an impact. Our guide covers everything you need to know to prepare with confidence:

• 15 of the Most Common Interview Questions to Help You Prepare
• Three Job Interview Preparation Steps
• ​Five Must-Know Job Interview Facts

Know this first: Preparation is meaningless if you're not on time. Lateness is always one of the top reasons for rejection per recruiters we spoke to as we researched this guide. For this reason, it's essential to get there early and have a few minutes to relax and compose yourself before you go in. Aside from being prepared for interview questions, you'll need to dress appropriately, look enthusiastic and act confident. 

Top Tip: Visit Glassdoor to read up about the experiences from people who have interviewed at the company. This information is useful, and while it can't be verified, it does help plan for your visit. You can also read the reviews of the company to see what employees (past and current) are saying about the company and its management. 

See the interview as a conversation. The interviewer is not there to catch you out. If you have been invited to an interview, they are already interested, and you have already impressed them. Remember that they need to impress you too, there have been plenty of people who decide to turn down a job because the interviewer made a bad impression on them.

Our list below covers the essentials for any interview preparation. ​

What matters here is the basics - you don't need to be an expert, but knowing more than a one-liner is essential. An employer will expect you to know about:

1. What they do
2. The products and services they offer
3. Why the company is different to its competitors

To answer effectively, you need to talk about the business, the sector/industry in general (key challengers, major competitors, innovation etc) - the more enthusiastic and insightful you are, the better the result you can expect. If you don't have knowledge of the business and industry, you're less useful to the company. 

Contracting? If you are being hired for a specific project, it's also good to research the organisation and relate it to your previous experience.

Each applicant has a different reason, but the employer asks this to understand your motivations - to succeed you must be authentic and focus on the employer's needs. Your wants are secondary. To best answer this question:

1. Demonstrate your knowledge of the company by highlighting something about the job that stands out and interests you. For example, it can be the clients they work with, the new products they've released, the work they do in a particular community, etc.
2. You can also talk about the management of the company - websites like Glassdoor have a lot of information about a company's culture, which is useful to build out your understanding. 
3. The focus is always on the employer's needs, but you can mention your personal motivations. For example, your belief that the company offers enormous opportunities for building a long-term career.
4. Whatever your answer, it must be natural and convey genuine excitement. Being prepared shows the interviewer you care about the company because you've put in the effort.

When you're asked this question, you're really being asked why the company should offer you the job. To answer this, you must tie-in your experience with the skills and competencies demanded by the company. The job advert will mention skills and experience, so this is your opportunity to relate these back to you. Specifically:

• Itemise your work history (and education, if applicable). For each skill, explain how you learned that skill and how using it has benefited your current or previous employer. By connecting skills to benefits for the company, you are selling your skills to advantage the company.
• Beyond skills, you can also describe how you work, your passion for the industry, your focus on delivering results (i.e. higher sales, cost savings and/or quality improvements), as well as why your experience is unique and how it can help the company.

Employers want to hire people who are relevant to the business and bring the right experience and skills. The skills listed in the job advert indicate what the employer is looking for. Your answer should include three strengths. To prepare for this question:

1. Memorise the top three skills and competencies the employer is looking for. You then have to relate these to your experience and skills.
2. Describe each strength separately; demonstrate it with an example which relates to your current or previous employer. For example, “I have exceed sales targets every month, which I believe is due to my strengths in prioritisation and persuasiveness.”

This question is designed to highlight what you consider to be important and who are you as an employee and person. Employers are hiring personalities to work in a role, so it's important that the person is well-rounded and resilient. This is not the time to point out an exam result or standard work achievements. Instead, it's an opportunity to talk about your aspirations and values. Good examples include:

• Learning a new language or musical instrument
• Taking part in a challenge such as the Tongariro Crossing or other outdoors event such as the Auckland Marathon)
• Raising money for a good cause
• Entrepreneurial achievements that might be relevant to the position
• With regards to your previous employment, you can mention completing a project that saved the company money, a change in processes that made the work of a specific department easier etc.
• Whatever you mention, be sure to explain why it's an important achievement for you.

Important: Work-based achievements can still be mentioned if they are specifically relevant to the job you're applying for. The best workplace achievement is one that you link directly to a benefit for your employer. For example, you won a new client which lead to a revenue jump of around $500,000 per year. 

Additional resource: TheInterviewGuys.com

The employer is only focused on "you". To answer this, you'll need to focus on what makes you valuable to the business, and what motivates you. You will need to draw on your 'unique selling points' and pitch these to the interviewer succinctly. For example:

• You're trained and experienced in a specific software, tool or trade
• You're on a fast-track to manager or director at your current company
• You've been given more responsibility at every performance review
• You have relevant qualifications which will benefit the company (you'll need to mention what these are)

This question is asked to understand your character and observe how you talk about yourself and others. To answer the question, the best starting point is to make a list of your strengths - i.e. technical and company experience. You can support these with numbers (i.e. the years of experience you have, the budget sizes you've been responsible for, how many people have reported to you etc).

​If you are unsure about how to answer this, which is common for those applying for their first full-time job etc, you can think of a time when you've exceeded expectations and outline that situation.

This is less common, but it can come up, so it's worth preparing just in case you're asked. In a nutshell, the employer wants to know what you would like to achieve and how you would contribute to the company. If you're serious about the job, answering it will come naturally. 

To answer effectively, you need to understand the nature of the work you'll be doing and go above and beyond the standard tasks. A good response includes answers such as:

1. Make notes and fully document existing processes so that I can let co-workers focus on their work and not distract them unwillingly
2. Familiarise myself with the team, clients and five priorities of the business unit/department/division I'm working in. 
3. Learn systems and upskill to ensure I can hit the ground running, mentioning that instructional videos on YouTube for outlining how specific software works has proved invaluable in the past.

​The employer wants to know if you would fit with their organisational culture and working conditions. The best way to answer the question is to do your research on the company and be honest about whether or not the working style is one you can adapt to. Glassdoor gives some indication about a workplace's culture and environment, which may be positive or negative (or both). You can also get an insight by looking at the company's website, social media profiles and LinkedIn profiles of current management and employees. Videos about the company also illustrate the culture.

Having researched the company, if you think you can happily work alongside existing team members, explain how your personality matches with the employer’s culture.

This is arguably one of the most important questions. Without motivation there's no enthusiasm, which means job performance and innovation can dwindle. The best way to convince the employer that you have motivation is to give examples where you've delivered results to a company because of your enthusiasm and follow-through. For example, this could be a story about how sales targets motivate you to close deal after deal. You can also talk about your passion for the industry and how it keeps evolving, the opportunities to outperform competitors and win new work. 

​If you answer "I've never encountered difficult people" or "I've never had a workplace conflict", this is unlikely to be believed. Conflicts arise every day in the workplace, and you need to know how to resolve them best. 

A good answer is to describe a project or assignment you were on - you can then outline how you and a workmate had different approaches to the work. The next point is crucial - you'll need to explain how you reached an agreement from the conflict. The answer should not focus on you "winning" the argument. You must not focus on what your workmate did "wrong", as is this negative. Instead, the answer should focus on compromise, talking openly and achieving results for everyone. 

You can mention the actions you took, such as this example:
"I had a situation where my workmate was missing deadlines, submitting incomplete work and going missing during the day. This placed stress on the rest of the team, so I booked a meeting with the workmate to ask him the cause of the problem. He explained that he was overwhelmed by the new project, partly because he's just become a father and was getting 3-4 hours sleep per night. Once I knew that I reviewed the project with him and asked him to identify any problem areas he needed help with. I implemented a flexible schedule, assigned specialist tasks to the rest of the team (allowing them to upskill) and re-set internal deadlines with enough lead time for me to review in advance of the external deadlines. The project progressed smoothly, and the workmate found the time to adjust to life as a dad while we achieved the expected results".

This is a chance to show your enthusiasm for the business. Good questions include "what do you like most about your job here", "what is your favourite client, and why?" and "what opportunities do you see for the business in the coming year". 

Whatever you ask, make sure the question is relevant to the business and will give you an answer that gives insights into the business. It's not an opportunity to ask about job perks, holiday leave, sick leave and working from home policies etc.

The above common interview questions list covers what most employers will ask during your time with them. To ensure you have the best chance of success, our three-step process below has you covered. Remember - answering questions is one element of an interview, but there are also soft skills and behaviours that are being observed and equally essential to exhibit.

Don't learn answers and then just parrot them back to the interviewer. Prepare by knowing what you are going to talk about in response to a question, not the exact words you are going to say. You want to look like you are thinking and answering, not reciting an answer you found somewhere. Do not look up good answers on the Internet and learn them by heart. If it doesn't sound natural and authentic, it will not help you.

MoneyHub Founder Christopher Walsh shares his experience:
"Some of the best hiring at MoneyHub happens because it feels natural. We look for people with a genuine interest in what we do, not those looking for higher salary or name on their CV. Best of all, as I've learned from working in a corporate environment, the best people are those who are authentic in their love for the industry they work in. Too many times I've seen people take jobs that are completely unsuitable for their personality. Despite the obvious misalignment, they are hired and stay in the job year after year. If you apply for jobs you genuinely have a passion for, your interview answers will be better, your enthusiasm will be noticeable and you'll have a much better experience even if you don't get the job. If you are honest and enthusiastic, you will have the highest chance of success".

Interviews can cause a bit of anxiety, but the reality is that if you're prepared and have an authentic interest in the company, you're giving yourself the strongest chance. Nonetheless, we list five must-know facts below to manage your expectations.