Interview Preparation Template

Interview Preparation Template

Job Application Details

Company:

Position:

Location:

Application Deadline:

Introduction

Every job application needs to be tailored for each company and position. Make sure you research the company and industry, and read the job description carefully.When answering the following questions, be specific and detailed and base your answers on the research you’ve done.

You always need to back up your claims with concrete supporting evidenceof what you’ve done or learned from prior experiences. Be creative! It doesn’t have to be purely work-related. Employers care about you as an entire package. Youcan include:

Past work experience

Your specific role in prior projects

A course you took in university

A time you helped your co-worker meet a deadline or understand a difficult, new concept

A time you resolved a team conflict

Something you’ve learned from competing in sports or from traveling or living abroad

Etc. – the possibilities are endless!

Also, remembernow is not the time to be humble. You need to express your strengths and your past achievements and successes confidently.

*This is a fillable form. There’s a text box where you can easily write your answers.

Step 1: Accomplishments

List 10 of your biggest accomplishments to date.(i.e. recognition you’ve received from a manager, an award you won, something really complicated you learned quickly, etc.).

Accomplishments
Internship at the UN
Team leader on university projects
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Step 2: Break down the job description

What are the top 5 capabilities required for this job?

Example: Analysis, Excellence, Communication, Collaboration, etc.

Step 3: Match capabilities

List your accomplishments and match them with the corresponding capabilities the job requires.

Accomplishments / Corresponding Capabilities
Internship at the UN / Work Experience, Excellence, Analysis, Adaptable
Team leader on university projects / Leadership, Teamwork, Communication
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Step 4: Prepare interview responses in the “CAR” format

Prepare structured responses you can use for interview questions probing specific capabilities. For each accomplishment, choose the capability that the accomplishment best demonstrates. Write out a more detailed description of the accomplishment with a focus on how it demonstrates that capability.

Structure your description in the 3 parts indicated:

Describe the context of the challenge or situation you faced
Describe the actions you took that made a difference (your impact)
Describe the results

Be as concrete as possible and to the point. Include statistics if you have them that will help describe the challenge (the "before") and the results (the "after"). If an accomplishment strongly demonstrates more than one capability, we recommend you write it up twice, each time with an emphasis on the specific capability.

Accomplishment: Internship at the UN

Capability:Analysis

Context / Action / Result
•Internship in Chile at UN ECLAC, in the division of International Trade
•Wrote a major self-directed research paper on Canada’s relationship with the region of Latin America and the Caribbean / •Conducted quantitative and qualitative research in trade and investment
•Analyzed trends in the past 20 years and made policy recommendations based on these trends / •Presented report to the head of the division
•This research will help facilitate business development planning for Canadian companies interested in trade and investment in Latin America and the Caribbean

Accomplishment: Team leader on university projects

Capability: Leadership

Context / Action / Result
•While studying in Vienna, we had a 3-month consulting project for a company
•16 other students > 4 sub-teams > I was a leader of a sub-team
•It was my responsibility to lead my team and also coordinate with other leaders / •Besides being the team leader and doing a lot of the work, I also presented the mid-term and final presentations to the client / •Because of my excellent presentations to the client, the other students voted me to present the project results at a major event in front of 200 people
•It was televised and I was interviewed on national TV

Accomplishment:

Capability: