The interview skills most job seekers never practise properly and why they matter

Read Time: 3 mins

If you are getting interviews but not job offers, something important is already working.

Your resume is doing its job.
Your experience is credible.
Employers are willing to meet you.

That tells us the problem is unlikely to be your background. Much more often, it is about how clearly you are communicating your value in the interview itself.

This article is designed to help you prepare for interviews in a way that reflects how hiring decisions are actually made.

Start by diagnosing the real issue

Career strategist Gorick Ng suggests starting with three questions.

Is this a resume problem?
Is this a networking problem?
Is this an interview problem?

If you are consistently getting interviews, it is almost certainly the third.

Recruiters and hiring managers do not schedule interviews unless they believe you could do the job. When offers do not follow, the gap is usually in how you are coming across in the room.

That does not mean you are bad at interviewing. It usually means you are not yet focusing on the parts of the interview that carry the most weight.

Understand the two parts of every interview

Most interviews have two parts, even if they are not described that way.

The first is the fit part of the interview.
This is where interviewers decide whether they want to work with you.

The second is the job-specific part of the interview.
This is where they assess whether you can do the work.

Many job seekers prepare heavily for the technical questions and underestimate how influential the fit conversation is.

What interviewers are listening for in the fit part

The fit part of the interview often happens early. Sometimes it is the first ten minutes. Sometimes it is woven throughout the conversation. Either way, it shapes how everything else you say is heard.

You will almost always be asked some version of:

Tell me about yourself
Why you?
Why this role?
Why this organisation?
Where do you see yourself in the future?

These are not warm-up questions. They are how interviewers decide whether they feel confident progressing you.

Gorick Ng describes this as assessing three things.

Competence. Do you clearly understand your own experience and strengths?
Commitment. Do you sound genuinely interested in this role and organisation?
Compatibility. Do you seem like someone others would work well with?

If any of these are unclear, interviewers may disengage early, even if your later answers are strong.

How to prepare properly for the fit conversation

You cannot prepare for this part of the interview silently.

Practise answering these questions out loud, more than once. Focus on clarity rather than detail. Structure rather than completeness. Confidence rather than perfection.

A useful test is this.
If someone heard only your answer to “Tell me about yourself”, would they understand why you are a strong fit for this role?

If not, that answer still needs work.

How to prepare for the job-specific part of the interview

Once the fit side is solid, turn your attention to the job-specific questions.

Start by building a question bank. Search for interview questions using combinations such as:

Interview questions plus your role and industry
Add the organisation name where relevant
Look at sources such as Glassdoor, LinkedIn, Harvard Business Review articles

You will notice patterns very quickly. Most roles ask variations of the same core questions.

Collect the most common questions into one document and practise answering them out loud. This matters. Thinking through answers silently does not prepare you for the pressure of an interview.

Aim to answer questions directly, use examples that are relevant to the role, and avoid over-explaining or downplaying your experience.

Practise live and ask for feedback

Practising alone is not enough.

Run mock interviews with a friend, mentor, or coach, either in person or over Zoom. Ask for specific feedback rather than general impressions.

For example:

Where did I lose clarity?
Where did I undersell myself?
Where did I talk too much?

Most people are surprised by how differently they sound compared to how they think they sound.

Pay attention to delivery, especially for online interviews

If your interview is online, your setup matters.

Make sure you have a stable internet connection, lighting that clearly shows your face, clear audio, and a simple background.

You do not need an expensive setup. You do need to remove distractions so the interviewer can focus on what you are saying rather than how it looks or sounds.

Ask for feedback if you are not successful

Most employers will not automatically provide feedback, but it is still worth asking.

A simple question is:

Are you able to share the main factor that separated me from the successful candidate?

You may not always receive a response. When you do, patterns across feedback can be very informative.

When a pivot might make sense

Changing roles or industries can be the right move, but it should not be the first conclusion.

If interviews are happening, the market is already signalling interest. More often than not, the issue is not your background but how clearly you are communicating your value.

Strengthen your interview performance first. Then reassess.

A final note before your next interview

Interviewing is a skill. Like any skill, it improves with structure, practice, and feedback.

If interviews are happening, progress is closer than it feels.