Interviews – Job interview tips, advice and resources

Whether you’re looking for your first job, seeking a new career opportunity or teaching employability skills to young people or adult learners, LifeSkills could offer you everything you need to know about performing successfully in interviews.

What is a job interview?

Job interviews help employers to get to know candidates for a role they want to fill by hearing about their relevant experience and skills. Job interviews will vary in length and format and it’s extremely likely that there will be more than one candidate being considered for a role. Some organisations hold two or three rounds of interviews before making a final decision.

For educators

Interviews can be daunting for people of any age and stage in their career. These interview tips, advice, lesson plans and modules will guide your learners to interview success whether they are students applying for college, university or their first job, or adult learners looking for success with their next career step.

Interview skills
Lesson Plan 14-16
Interview skills

Help students equip themselves with the tools to prepare for interviews, so they can perfect their technique and impress employers.

Interview success
Lesson Plan 16-19
Interview success

Help older students understand how to sell their strengths in an interview and get practice perfecting answers to typical interview questions.

SEND / ALN
SEND Interview skills
Lesson Plan 14-25
SEND Interview skills

This lesson is designed to help students with SEND/ALN understand the purposes of different types of interview and how to prepare for them using the STAR method.

Interview skills 1: Get the best start
Module
Interview skills 1: Get the best start

This module will introduce learners to the purpose of interviews and how to prepare for one: what to wear, how to research a company and how to make a great first impression.

Interview skills 2: Practical answering techniques
Module
Interview skills 2: Practical answering techniques

This module will introduce learners to the STAR technique, a simple model they can use during interviews to structure their experiences and give meaningful, evidence-based answers.

Interview skills 3: Preparing for assessments
Module
Interview skills 3: Preparing for assessments

Introduce different types of interview and assessments learners may be invited to, and apply what they've learnt to a mock interview to build confidence.

How else can LifeSkills support interview skills?

Interviews provide an opportunity for both a potential employer and employee to decide if they are a good fit for each other. This includes previous experience, skills and knowledge, and if they align with the workplace culture. Winning at an interview takes preparation and research to ensure the candidate can answer any question the employer could ask them, and include all the information employers will be looking for in the answer. 

You can find lots of other LifeSkills content to support yourself or your learners in preparing for an interview, whether that’s knowing what to expect, the different types of interviews employers could hold, and handy tools for crafting model interview answers.

  • Students aged 14 and over can access the Young people hub to develop interview skills, practise being interviewed in a virtual setting and writing answers to common interview questions. This will ensure you are prepared for interviews for college or university, internships, volunteering opportunities, and the world of work.
  • Educators can access our Educator hub which contains full-length lesson plans, modules, independent worksheets, online lesson films and interactive tools so you can get young people and adults interview ready, regardless of the setting. Make sure you set up your dashboard to see the content most relevant to you whether you are coaching an adult, teaching a class or mentoring a group.
  • If you’re an adult adapting to Changing worklife, our hub contains articles and advice on how you can prepare for interviews for internal promotions, changing careers or getting back into the workplace.