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In this episode of all about business, James speaks with Will Moore, Senior Area Manager at Reed , about how to effectively prepare for a job interview.
With more than a decade of experience in recruitment, Will shares practical advice on how jobseekers can approach interviews with confidence and structure. He explains the four key steps to interview preparation, from researching the company and reviewing the job description, to understanding the people you’ll be meeting, and preparing examples from your own experience.
The conversation also explores how interviewees can structure answers clearly and communicate their achievements with confidence. Will highlights why using facts and measurable results is far more effective than exaggeration, and how practising answers out loud can dramatically improve performance on the day.
They also discuss some of the most common mistakes people make; asking vague questions that reveal a lack of research, failing to prepare real examples of past work, and overlooking the importance of preparation for virtual interviews, where technology, environment, and presentation still matter.
01:12 four step interview prep
06:26 nailing tell me about you
08:59 STAR method
14:41 handling weaknesses questions
19:16 practice and common mistakes
Follow James Reed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chairmanjames/
James: [00:00:00] Welcome to All About Business with me, James Reed, the podcast that covers everything about business management and leadership. Every episode I sit down with different guests of bootstrap companies, masterminded investment models, or built a business empire. They're leaders in their field and they're here to give you top insights and actionable advice so that you can apply their ideas to your own career or business venture.
James: Well today on all about business for our spring short series. I'm really excited about the conversation I'm about to have with Will Moore. Um, we are gonna be talking about how to prepare for a, for a job interview, which is a really important question. Um, will is senior Area Manager at Reed Specialist Recruitment.
James: He's been in the business and specializing in this subject for more than 10 years. And, um, he works here in west, well, central London, I should say, in Hoen. Um, [00:01:00] just around the corner, uh, from where we are now. Um, and he focuses in particular on the charity, not-for-profit and education sectors. Thanks for coming in.
James: Will,
Will: I think having
James: so really good to see you. Um, what's the first thing someone should think about if they've got a job interview coming up?
Will: So I would always advise candidates to start in broad strokes and then narrow down to the detail in four simple steps. Step one, look at the company website. Make sure that you understand their mission, their values, and their culture.
Will: Or also, um, look at, make sure that you are familiar with their products and services. It's very important. Step two would be to look at social media, recent news, press releases. Make sure that you're aware of any new funding announcements, any changes in leadership, um, and maybe they've got some new products and services that are coming up that you want to be aware of ahead of meeting with those, with the interview panel.
Will: Step three would be to get to know the interviewers, [00:02:00] look on LinkedIn, see if you have any shared connections. Um, it's always a point of comfort when hiring people that people know good people. So if you've got anybody that can champion you from the inside, then that's great. Let's assume that they, they, they don't, you just basically wanna make sure that there's, if there's any similarities with your own career history with theirs, you can point that point out.
Will: And that's a talking point. Or, um, if there's anything particularly interesting that they've done recently and delivered on that you can, that you can ask them about. Um, and then step four, crucially. Read that job description in detail. Make sure that you are aware of all the responsibilities and skills.
Will: Make sure that you are aware of any key phrases or repeated themes, and then this is what a lot of people don't do to reread your own cv. Do it a few times and make sure that you are just very aware of where you skills align with that job description and that you can recall very, very easily. Some clear examples about where your skill sets [00:03:00] really meets that criteria.
James: Yeah, those, those are all very good, um, pieces of advice. Um, what, what do you think the biggest giveaway is that someone hasn't followed those pieces of advice or haven't properly researched the organization when they go into an interview?
Will: Typically, when you ask vague uninformed questions, this is your opportunity to demonstrate that you really understand where the company's going.
Will: So if you are asking things that. Come without any insight, you're really not demonstrating your understanding of kind of not only crucially like where the company's heading, but most critically how your role then fits into that and then how delivering on your role is gonna help get them there.
James: Mm-hmm.
James: So, sort of vague questions about what have you got coming up when you could have found that out by looking at the website or sort of
Will: Absolutely
James: don't, do you many favors? This point about values I think is quite important. Uh, I mean, can you, you, you said, you know, look at that on the website. Are there any other [00:04:00] ways you can sort of ascertain what a company's values are?
James: Because I think alignment of values is important, not just for the interview, but for the job thereafter.
Will: A hundred percent. I think what I would say is be specific, not general. So you're not gonna ever find a company that aligns completely, you know. With you, if you were to go to an interview and, you know, say, you know, gosh, if I was a company, I'd look like you, you know, it is not ever gonna happen.
Will: So be very specific. Choose one project, one initiative that really speaks to you about that company. And then, and then share why. Um, if you can't find that within a company as well. Look at the interviewers and look at what their values are. Look at what they've done. Um, and do you often find that you can find, um, a, a good kind of value alignment with them as well?
James: What I'm hearing though, um, is that there's so much more available now to applicants job candidates than there used to be [00:05:00] in terms of information about all of this stuff. I mean, in some ways it's sort of overwhelming. Um, and, and you want to be well informed. But you don't wanna look like you've sort of stalked someone, do you?
James: I mean, have you gone on LinkedIn and, you know, and start telling, I, I remember one guy came for an interview and he knew that my, my pet tortoise was called John Terry. And that gave me a bit of a shock. And so, uh, so where's the boundary here? What's the right amount of sort of investigation? I.
Will: I think it may depend quite often in terms of the level that you are interviewing for, but if someone's posted something publicly on LinkedIn, for example, you know, if there is a talking point perhaps where we had one example where somebody went skiing, for example, one of the, and they win a certain, um, you know, area of France, one of our candidates reference that they, you know, they're a keen skier and they got chatting.[00:06:00]
Will: Um, and again, it's just a way to, it's a way to get to know them. So
James: this person put that on LinkedIn.
Will: They put that on LinkedIn, you know.
James: Yeah. That's in the public domain, I suppose. If they wanna tell you where they go skiing,
Will: you can
James: go and have
a
Will: look. Yeah. I mean, you probably wouldn't want to check their personal social media accounts for them personally, but I think like LinkedIn's professional platforms, so I probably, that's where the line ends.
Will: Well, this
James: is their public accounts, but Yeah. But you, um, I would say that's probably a good piece of advice.
Will: Yeah.
James: The first question in the interview book is. Tell me about yourself. And that question's the first question 'cause it's the most commonly asked question when we've surveyed all our clients. Um, a lot of people get that wrong, don't they?
Will: Yeah.
James: What's going on here? I mean, why does that happen?
Will: You don't wanna overshare and be over familiar where possible, but you, you want to, you know, the people that you work with, you, you spend more time with them than anyone else. So you wanna make sure that you can be open enough that. You know, that you're just finding areas of kind of common [00:07:00] ground, um, and people wanted to, want to know about, perhaps about, um, family or, you know, kind of how, how you've kind of ended up in front of them, really.
Will: So if you're talking about from a professional standpoint, absolutely. Share your journey in terms of how you, how you got to be saying here across from them. I think it's, um, as long as you can articulate kind of why, and it kind of helps you to. It helps them to kind of understand why, how the, the, the, the steps you've taken to get to this point.
Will: And that's, that's what you, that's what you really wanna share.
James: Is your organization prepared for what's coming next at Reed Talent Solutions? We don't just manage contingent worker programs and fill roles through our RPO solutions. We future proof your workforce from scaling operations. To upskilling teams and navigating digital transformation, we are your strategic partner in building resilient [00:08:00] future ready talent ecosystems.
James: Visit read talent solutions.com today to discover how we can help your business grow. It's always struck me that, that question, tell me about yourself. The people who have prepared an answer to that. Just knock it out of the park. You know, they, they answer very strongly, but the people who haven't prepared end up in a sort of,
Will: yeah,
James: not end up in knots really.
James: 'cause it's quite a lot to sort of compute in one go. Tell me about yourself. So I think it's a really important, it goes right back to the beginning about being prepared, particularly that question. 'cause it's so common.
Will: Absolutely. You gotta be concise
James: When you say talk about family, I mean, you don't have to talk about your family, do you?
Will: You don't, I mean, you don't have to. It depends if you, if you are open to share that, but yeah, no, you're quite right.
James: And they shouldn't ask you about it necessarily.
Will: No. Probably strictly from a HR perspective. No, I'm, I'm probably an overs sharer.
James: There's nothing wrong with that. If you want to talk about your family, I think why shouldn't you?
James: [00:09:00] So, um, one method that gets sort of mooted a lot or is this star STAR interview method.
Will: Yeah,
James: absolutely. Can you tell me what that is and how that works? A little bit about that?
Will: Yeah. I mean, we often find one of the number one issues when recruiting at all levels is basically sticking to the answer that's being asked of you.
Will: And so we would often recommend the STAR Method, which is an acronym which start stands for situation. So describe the, the context, like what was happening, like what was important to understand before you give your answer. Um, the task would be to. Describe like what your objective was within that particular setting.
Will: What were you trying to achieve? Action. So what did you do specifically? What were the steps you took to resolve this and then result, obviously the outcome. So what was the learns? What kind of happened to, to, to ensure that you made sure [00:10:00] that the outcome is what you wanted? I can give you a very general example of this.
James: Yeah. So you're saying as from what I can hear, will that this is a good way for a person to think about how to answer it?
Will: Absolutely. So
James: star,
Will: yeah. So you give yourself
James: situation, task, action, result.
Will: Yeah.
James: Um, go on, gimme an example.
Will: Yeah. So Phil, as a very, very generic example, imagine you work in customer service, so.
Will: Um, so the situation is you've got an upset customer that hasn't, um, had their delivery on time. So that's your situation. Your task is to resolve the situation quickly, making sure that the customer feels valued, um, and that it, you know, critically keep buying from you.
James: Remains a customer.
Will: Remains a customer.
Will: Absolutely. So, action. So you would say, well, I looked at the order history. I recognized that there was an issue with the courier. So I reordered the exact product for them with a fast delivery. Obviously [00:11:00] apologized to their customer about the service they've received, and there's a goodwill gesture. I've actually reduced their, um, I've given them a reduction of their next order, and so that the, they result of that was that the customer was actually very happy.
Will: They left a positive feedback on, on the review and they did continue to, to buy from, from us. In fact, actually. Their purchasing, um, his, um, purchasing, uh, occurrence went up by 20% following this.
James: So Star works well just to reiterate. Situation, task, action, result.
Will: Yeah.
James: Keep that in mind and, and, and have some stories I suppose to share the ready for when you're asked.
James: You know, what was a tough. Moment in your previous job or question of that sort?
Will: Absolutely.
James: Yeah. Okay. Well that's really helpful. Um, how do you, I mean, this is an interesting one. How do you balance confidence, which you need to have with authenticity? [00:12:00] You know, when, when talking about maybe achievements or indeed difficulties that you've.
James: Experienced.
Will: Yeah. This is a challenging one for some people, but au authenticity means being real. So I try to reframe sort of self, self, um, um, self grandeur with, uh, facts and figures. So be, be very specific. So I could sit here for, as an example, as a recruiter, um, and say I'm the top recruiter in London.
Will: You know, this is what I do instead, you'd wanna reframe that and say, um, I increased, um, permanent placements within my specialist sector by 20% from this year last year. And so when you're talking about facts and figures, it feels a lot less like bragging. More about just reciting.
James: Well then when you, when you
Will: said the
James: first thing I thought, this guy's a bit big for his boots.
Will: Yeah.
James: And when you said the second thing I thought, oh, he might be quite useful in my team.
Will: Yeah, yeah. Absolutely.
James: And [00:13:00] so, you know, that's, that was literally what was going in my
Will: mind.
James: Yeah.
Will: And so, and, and it is actually quite helpful throughout your professional career if you can, just to keep a log of what those milestones have been and make sure that they are factual and that they are accurate.
Will: Because it's a lot easier to promote things that are actually accurate rather than just kind of, you know.
James: Well, and you don't wanna make stuff up because that's dishonest. One. And also, um, you, you. Quite likely to get found out at some point.
Will: Absolutely.
James: When someone who used, used to work with in your previous job joins and says, no, it didn't recruit, increase it by 20%, it was hopeless and got fired.
James: So, you know, so it's a small world.
Will: Yeah, absolutely.
James: So BS is, uh, is a dangerous game.
Will: Yeah. You are often found out and I think from a lot of people they find kind of bragging interviews quite awkward anyways. 'cause you know, interviews can be quite. Challenging things for a lot of people regardless. So it's a lot easier to talk about if you're, you know, sticking to the facts.
James: So you don't wanna brag, do you?
Will: Nope.
James: But you do want to, um, have some [00:14:00] good facts at your fingertips that help make your case.
Will: Yeah, absolutely.
James: And numbers you say are. Helpful in that regard.
Will: So you're talking percentages talking about, um, anything where you've, you know, saved time or money, increased efficiencies.
James: Some numbers are confidential, aren't they? So you shouldn't, that's another thing you need to be careful of.
Will: Some things. Some things, yeah. I make sure that you're not sharing anything that's not in the public domain.
James: If you breach a confidence from your previous employer, the new prospect isn't gonna want to hire you because they'll think you do the same.
Will: That's true. So you can be more, more approximate about some of those numbers.
James: It depends how sensitive they are, but
Will: yeah.
James: Um, yeah. Yeah. So difficult questions. I'm always interested in these. Um, people sometimes panic when they're asked about weaknesses. Uh. We all have them. What's the right approach to those types of questions?
Will: Do you know? I'm so glad you said that. We all have them. There's always gonna be some [00:15:00] gaps in your knowledge or some weaknesses, and my advice is to approach them head on, be transparent about them and be prepared for them. Most importantly, you'll obviously want to make sure that you've done your research and gauge.
Will: How you think you'd go about tackling those, but I'm a big believer in if you have 20, you know, 75 to 80% of the skills required to do the job, apply for that job that everybody needs some stretch elements in that job description for that role to be of interested then that, that's, that's why you want the job.
Will: There's no fun in, you know, knowing everything. There's no growth in that.
James: This is a really good point. I think a lot of people maybe don't consider what's the point of applying for a job that you can do all of it already because you're not gonna grow. Absolutely. And you're gonna progress and they shouldn't be looking for you on that basis.
Will: Employers really need to recognize that 'cause that's how you keep your workforce engaged.
James: Yeah, so they should be looking for people who can do sort of maybe three quarters, [00:16:00] 80%, and you should be looking for a job where you can do three quarters, 80% and look to grow within it.
Will: Absolutely.
James: So that's, that's a, that's a good way of framing it, is a, maybe a gap, but I'm thinking weaknesses, you know, when people say, what's your greatest weakness?
James: You know, I, I, I, I'm reminded of a joke, it's quite rude. Where, where the, the, the interviewee replies, honesty, and he says, no, no, no. I, I, I, I don't think. You can have honesty as a weakness and the, the guy replies, well, I don't give a toss what you think. It's a good
Will: one.
James: It's, I mean, it sort of says it some truth in the joke, but I mean, when we all have weaknesses, um, it's true.
James: I mean, I suppose thinking myself, I know I'm an impatient person, that is a weakness. 'cause it can make you impetuous. The strength of that is I like getting things done. So I, I would frame it as well that weaknesses are the opposites of strengths.
Will: Mm.
James: So if you need, if you're someone who likes to get stuff done, that's good.
James: But your [00:17:00] weaknesses, you like to be impatient and probably make some mistakes along the way.
Will: Absolutely. You've gotta frame it in the way that it's a double-edged sword. So you had, there has to be some positiveness, you know, that comes outta that. You can't just say, well actually James, I'm late often. So,
James: oh, thank you for sharing that.
Will: Exactly.
James: Next, are you gonna go?
Will: Exactly. So you
James: do. Well, I'll tell you what, we'll tell you an earlier time to start than everyone else.
Will: Yeah. But the example that you said is brilliant.
James: Well, I'm not sure about that, but it's a late often. Well, that's interesting. What is, is it? Yeah.
Will: Yeah.
James: That's a weakness for sure.
Will: Yeah. But
James: if you stay late often, maybe that compensates
Will: so, and a better way to answer that would be that after you, you are a yes person, you often take on too much. And so you can find yourself working some quite late nights. Obviously it isn't great for, for them or the person that's in the interviewee because, you know, no one wants to be staying late.
Will: But it does show that the commitment to the employer and that this is somebody that perhaps would have to need help in managing that. But it's [00:18:00] somebody that's obviously a, a workhorse.
James: Yeah. And that should be, uh, that should be managed carefully. In work, we're often faced with pretty big challenges. How, how, how, how can someone describe a challenge that they've managed or dealt with without sort of sounding over rehearsed?
James: You know, when they're in an interview, when they say, what was your greatest challenge?
Will: I think you have to choose a genuine challenge, not just a full strength.
James: Yeah.
Will: So. What you need to do and asked about a real challenge is talk about the learns along the way and not just what went wrong and not, you know, not necessarily the result because everybody faces if it's a genuine challenge, as long as you've learned from it, and you can articulate why and how you applying that to future challenges.
Will: And that's, that's a good answer.
James: Yes.
Will: Um, you don't always have to have ev you don't have to be a shining night in every in. Every answer for [00:19:00] sure, because fundamentally, like it just comes across as insincere and in and, and not genuine.
James: Well, just as we all have weaknesses, we all know that we don't always get it right or things go wrong.
Will: Yeah, absolutely.
James: So what we take away from that, you know, there will be challenges that we, we will struggle with. Um, so what, what's the one mistake the candidates make that instantly weakens an otherwise strong interview?
Will: Yeah. Genuinely think it is practice. So a lot of the time you can have all the research, you can have done all of your homework, you can have all your answers prepared in a really good way.
Will: Yeah, actually, if you haven't practiced in saying them out loud, then it's quite a problem. So you can, um, I, I would always advise any candidates that we're working with, you know, speak to your friends, speak to your partner, you know, speak to the mirror, um, you know, but
James: do mock interviews.
Will: Mock interviews, or even, you know, you know, [00:20:00] harness.
Will: Technology, use AI to write you up a list of interview questions based on that, that job description, and then in real time try to address them. And that's
James: a good idea. Get AI to ask some questions of you and answer them.
Will: Yeah, you'll, you'll soon realize where your gaps are and then you'll have the reps to be able to be able to tackle those.
Will: Um, and then before you know it, you'll be answering those questions very smoothly.
James: Which will give you more confidence when you go into the interview.
Will: Absolutely.
James: Any other classic mistakes we should be avoiding?
Will: I mean, I've got lots that probably aren't podcast appropriate. Um, 10 years of a recruitment, you see a lot of different things.
Will: Um,
James: go on.
Will: Um.
James: Well, I had someone come in without a shirt on once. That was a mistake.
Will: I mean,
James: they didn't get the job.
Will: Yeah,
James: so that was a long time ago.
Will: One thing that is actually really common, and again, we see at all levels, which is very surprising and because of, you know, the changes in technology teams [00:21:00] zoom, you know, a lot of recruiters will tell you this, but what you have in your background matters when you are working from home or doing an interview remotely.
Will: So we've had interviews for CFOs, fds, they've got their washing hung up on, you know, rooms behind them and all people that say if there's a problem, you need to test the tech because if there's a, there's any issues with your laptop, um, say for example, then you switch over to your phone. If you're then handholding the phone, it's very distracting to everybody.
James: Yes.
Will: You know, there. And often it's the case when you are. Recruiting at that level, people's diaries are quite precious. This is the time they're available. So you wanna make sure that you, everything is run as smoothly as possible. And that is a big thing and, and often it's the case as well that you have, um.
Will: You know, they'll, they'll have a, um, uh, an in person interview booked in. There could be a last minute change. Someone's unwell, someone's, you know, things happen while you have to switch to, to be remote. So you [00:22:00] must make sure your technology is working and that you've got a safe space in order to interview whenever.
James: So that's a good additional advice around preparation.
Will: Yeah.
James: Leave your washing out the background.
Will: Yeah,
James: don't
Will: do that.
James: Make sure the text tuned in.
Will: Yeah.
James: Hey, well thank you very much for going and talk to me about this. Well, I feel we could have gone on for hours on interviews. Maybe we'll do a sequel.
James: I'm gonna ask you two final interview questions, which I ask everybody at the end of my podcast. 'cause at Reed, we love Mondays. First question is, what gets you up on a Monday morning?
Will: Uh, it is usually my 2-year-old. Um, but
James: sometimes your 2-year-old has a lion or
Will: never. Never. I wish I very
James: consistent
Will: in that respect.
Will: Yeah, no, uh, yeah. My other kids would probably fill that gap if she ever didn't, but they, um, but, but generally. Um, new things we're working on. There's always so much going on and recruitment's one of those brilliant industries where there's always so [00:23:00] much, um, init like, um, new initiatives being rolled out.
Will: Um, and Reid we're really fortunate. There's always new, uh, projects going on. Tech. Try, try and keep it out.
James: Yeah. Um,
Will: but it, there, there's always so much going on and so, you know, Monday you just gotta run and jump straight in.
James: Let's find out what's happening next. Very good. And my last question. From the interview book, another shameless plug.
James: Yeah. Why you 101 interview questions you'll never fear again is where do you see yourself in five years time?
Will: Hopefully expanding my, my team, my charity remit, so adding more specialisms to what we cover. Um, just gaining on the success that we've already had. There's six of us at the moment. There's no reason in five years there couldn't be 10 or 15 and we could look after the whole, you know, so
James: growing in the business in a
Will: sense.
Will: Yeah, abs absolutely. We, you know, we, um, got the capability to do it. So for the plan to get us there.
James: Well, I sincerely hope you do. Thanks very much. Will. Thank you. Thanks for coming to talk to me. That's very helpful. [00:24:00]
Will: Thank you.
This podcast was co-produced by Reed Global and Flamingo Media. If you’d like to create a chart-topping podcast to elevate your brand, visit: http://flamingo-media.co.uk/