Passing an interview
If you have been working in the same job for a while, you may not be used to interviewing. It might have been years since you last interviewed, and it is a skill that most people’s jobs don’t prepare them for. Some people get nervous about interview or worry that they won’t say the right thing.
Don’t panic! We are here to help you and want to know about what your skills are, learn a little bit about who you are and find out if this job is a good match for you based on your own expectations.
To give yourself the best chance in an interview, go into it well prepared, and well rested. Breathe. Slow down. Take a deep breath. It’s not a police interview or a trial cross-examination. We just want to know more about you than what we get from your resume.
How do you prepare?
Luxury service interviews can be a little different from interviews for other jobs because you often won’t know who exactly the role is for, so for your first interview, you can’t research about the company or person you will be working for. We are often not allowed to disclose these exact details either until later in the recruitment process, though we will be able to give general information about the location and of course the nature of the job and employment conditions.
If this information is available though, spend some time to do some research about who you will be working for.
Read the job description – make sure you can answer any questions about how you are suitable based on each of the requirements.
Anticipate the kinds of questions you are likely to be asked and think about how you will answer them.
Be prepared to talk about your work – We have your resume already, so you don’t need to read that word-for-word to us! We want to know about problems you may have encountered, situations or tasks you may have had to deal with, the action you took and what the result was.
Be prepared to talk about yourself outside of a work context – in luxury service where you may be working closely with a client in their own personal homes and private spaces and living with other staff, we need to know what your personality is like.
Be prepared to talk about how you work with others. We want to know you can work as part of a team, and how you resolve conflicts.
Prepare any questions you have for us, so you get all the information you need to know if the job is right for you. Interviews are a two-way street, and we want to make sure you are still interested in the role before you progress to interviews directly with the client. Bring a pen and paper so you can take notes about the answers you get.
Dress for success – make sure when you are interviewed you are appropriately presented, both with how you are dressed and your personal appearance. This is obvious for interviews in person, but also applies for interviews via video.
For video interviews, consider the background of your video – don’t have a very cluttered or messy or distracting background.
During the interview:
Remember that we are just having a conversation, and that we are here to find out a little bit of who you are. All of us have been on the other side of the table at some stage, so we know what it’s like being interviewed.
Remember to breathe! When talking, it helps to remember to slow down and not rush what you are saying, so you can be easily understood. We want you to succeed – we want you to be the right applicant we have been searching for!
Be direct and answer any questions honestly, even if you think the answer might not be what we want to hear. There are many criteria we evaluate, and just because you don’t have some experience or may not know something, it’s better to say so than to give a false answer or wrong impression about your skill level in that area.
The best candidates are those that confident in their abilities, are adaptable to change, can learn new things and are able to handle challenges! If you can show us these traits it will go a long way regardless of any other skill or experience.
After the interview:
If you have any additional questions that you might not have thought of then you can always email us for more information.
