Ask Sam

Hi there,

Interviews and presentations are skills that are learned with practise. Some schools and colleges might interview you before you’re accepted there. And jobs will interview you once you’ve left school. Learning how to be confident in an interview is a great skill to learn.

The most important thing to remember is to make sure they get to see the real you – most interviewers will have seen lots and lots of applicants who tell them what they think they want to know. To stand out, it’s often good to be yourself.

Confidence plays a big part in an interview, the more confident you feel, the better chance they have of seeing the real you. Confidence can come from many places, but being prepared can go a long way to giving you the confidence you need.

When going to your college interview, try to make sure you know about the history of the school, the names of key staff like the head of the college and some of the extra curricular activities they offer.

Interviews are often also a place where you can ask questions and sometimes an interviewer can be just as impressed by your questions as they are your answers. Try to think about some questions you can ask that really show them how interested you are in being there.

There’s probably going to be some interviews you’re not successful at – sometimes you can just be unlucky. All you can do is be the best you can be and show them the real you. If you're not successful, there'll be more opportunities where you can try again and every interview you do is good practise.

I hope that helps.

Thanks for the letter,
Sam