Interview Professional’s 3 most Effective Rehearsal techniques for Interviewing
People choose to prepare for interviews in different ways
There is no right or wrong way to do this, as this is all about the time, preferences, and circumstances that you as an individual find yourself in at the time
Whether you’ve chosen to self-prepare, or have subscribed to an expert interviewing service like this one, in order to stand a realistic chance in the interview itself, you’ll still need to undertake a proper amount of preparation beforehand, and a large part of that will revolve around having an effective rehearsal strategy
The purpose of effective rehearsal is that it gives you the ability to deliver smooth and flawless answers to important answers or pitches you want to introduce during your time with the interviewer. This is particularly useful where longer, complex answers are required, particularly where S.T.A.R structured competency or behavioural based examples are involved. It can also be incredibly useful for simpler things too, such as telling the interviewer about yourself, or being able to convincingly verbalise why you are the right candidate for the role, or why you’ve actually applied for that particular role in the first place
Rehearsal is essential because an interview will normally cover lots of different topics, and in order to present key information properly, as well as to retain it fully, rehearsing it until it’s fully memorized is one of the most effective strategies we have at our disposal. Before we even get to this point though, we need to fully consider what it is we are intending to rehearse in the first place
There are multitudes of areas you can potentially choose to rehearse before your interview begins. These can include things like personal statements, competency and behavioural based examples, information about the company, questions for the interviewer, why you want the role, what your best attributes and selling points are, or other things about yourself that you’ve decided that it would be useful to cover in the interview. Remember that not all areas of preparation are things you’ll necessarily need to rehearse for, so it will be up to you to determine what areas of your preparation you feel warrant a full rehearsal, and what areas only require a quick review before the interview itself
Rehearsal is a time intensive process, that’s why you should only target those areas you feel will benefit your preparation the most. The advantages of doing this before your interview though are numerous. Not only will you go into the interview feeling more confident as you’ll know exactly what you’re going to say at key points, but having pre-rehearsed areas will help you direct the conversation better with your interviewer too. Moreover, it will be invaluable if you encounter questions (or similar iterations of them) that you’ve specifically rehearsed for, not to mention the fact that you’ll go into the interview feeling more relaxed and less nervous knowing that you have specific things to say you that you can fall back on
An effective rehearsal is not at all as complicated as it seems. In fact, it’s pretty straightforward, much of it just relies on hard work and simple repetition. The main detraction against rehearsing before an interview is that depending on the method you use, it can make your responses sound scripted, and while this is a danger, it’s nothing that common-sense and attention to detail as your reciting it back in the actual interview situation won’t fix
Rehearsal can be useful on so many different levels. It is a key component of your interview preparation that will not only help you deliver answers to important questions more effectively, but it’s also a vital way to ensure you structure complex answers correctly too, that’s why it’s so important to find the optimal rehearsal strategy that works best for you. Next, we’re going to take a look at some of the main recommended methods below …
Basic Repetition
The most basic and straightforward method of rehearsal is basic repetition. This is where you will rehearse something, one line at a time, until you memorise it fully. Sometimes referred to as rote rehearsal, this is a method that can seem arduous at first, but when applied correctly it is highly effective. This method yields the best results when you speak what you are rehearsing out loud, instead of rehearsing it silently
Basic repetition is great for remembering long and complex answers, especially to things like competency and behavioural based questions. In order to be utilised most effectively you’ll need to practice for several hours a day in the time leading up to your interview. The great thing about this method though is that it is easy to utilise, and you can practice it almost anywhere. That’s what makes it great for passing the time when doing menial tasks like cleaning, laundry, or other types of household chores. This is a method that will seem arduous at first because it requires you to repeat the same thing over and over again, but the more you repeat it, the easier it will be to remember it
Start by rehearsing one paragraph at a time
Silently read the paragraph first, then attempt to speak it back out loud from memory. Once you are able to recite it fully, move onto the next paragraph
Each time you memorize a new paragraph, go back to the start and recite everything you’ve memorized up to that point from the beginning. Although it will seem arduous at first, it is a tried and tested method that is highly effective for retaining large amounts of structured information
Elaborative Rehearsal
This is a method of rehearsal where you try to memorize small bits of information through association
Elaborative rehearsal is where you try to retain information not through brute force repetition, but through mental prompts, wherein you try to remember larger chunks of information by associating them with a singular action or imagine
Elaborative rehearsal is an altogether more subjective method of rehearsal, one where you put more thought and strategy into what bits of information you are trying to retain. The whole premise of elaborative rehearsal is based on the fact that you are trying to use association to achieve this goal, rather than repetition. While its effectiveness can vary, the good thing about this method is that it is less intensive, and requires less effort than the basic repetition method does
Elaborative rehearsal involves an association method where you practice remembering actions or imagery that will help prompt you into remembering larger bits of information
For instance, you could try associating your name with what you want to tell people about yourself. That way, when you first introduce yourself, under elaborative rehearsal, it should automatically prompt you to remember all of the things you want to say about yourself to the interviewer
There are many different types of prompts you can try and rehearse for using this method. In an interviewing scenario, using commonly asked questions you can associate answers with is a good way to do this. This could be things like:
What can you tell me about this company?
What are your main strengths?
Why do you want this job?
You could also try and use this as a way to prompt yourself to remember specific competency and behavioural based examples as well, but this tends to be less effective as elaborative rehearsal is a method that tends to work best for shorter answers, or for recalling specific topics you want to cover throughout the course of the interview
The things you choose to associate information with is up to you, there is no right or wrong way to do this, and this is where the strategizing part comes in. You’ll need to use creative ideas to prompt yourself to remember the things you want to go remember in the interview. How you chose to do this is up to you, which is why this is a strategy that varies in effectiveness; however, people do find this an easier method of rehearsal on the whole
What you’re trying to do with this method of rehearsal is memorize prompts that will help you in turn remember larger chunks of information that you’ve revised for. As such, when rehearsing, you need to memorise not only the prompts themselves, but also the information in question you want to recall
When it comes to memorizing this, it’s actually best to rehearse it through simple revision, speaking out loud the information as you casually read it over at your own pace, as opposed to using a standard repetition method to retain it. As such, while this makes it a much easier kind of rehearsal technique, again, its effectiveness can vary
Grouping Rehearsal
Another similar method of rehearsal is called grouping rehearsal. This method revolves around another association technique, but instead of using actions as prompts to help us remember things like we would with the elaborative rehearsal method, for example, saying your name, or taking your seat in the interview room, and using these as prompts to remember larger bits of information, with group rehearsal you are instead trying to associate one singular piece of information with a larger group or category of information
Grouping rehearsal is an association method where you try to remember certain things you want to share in the interview by associating them with a singular piece of information, instead of using a prompt or cue to do this like you would with the elaborative rehearsal method. For example, one piece of information you could use with this method is an ‘about me’ association, that way, whenever you get asked about yourself, you could practice associating this with the basic things you wanted to mention about yourself like:
‘I was born in London, I am confident, outgoing, I’m really thorough about everything I do. I enjoy eating out and swimming, and I’m really excited to be discussing this position here with you today’.
Grouping is normally done by writing 2 lists on a piece of paper side by side each other, with associated words or questions on one side, and the information you want to remember (the associated information) on the other
For instance
About me / Thorough
Outgoing
Swimming
Eating out
Excited
The goal with grouping rehearsal is not to try and recite everything word for word like you’d do with basic repetition, rather, in the same way that you would with elaborative rehearsal, you’d do a general revision of the material you wanted to bring up in the interview beforehand, reading the information out loud as you casually review it at your own pace, that way when your interview comes it should be much easier to introduce the things you want to speak about naturally. This is a rehearsal method that is also regarded as being easier than the standard repetition method too, but again, as it’s a less intensive form of rehearsal, its effectiveness can vary
There are other strategies you can also use for remembering things such as:
Mnemonic Devices
Keyword cues
Acronyms
Music
or even rhyming, as a means of prompting yourself to remember specific information you want to bring up in the interview, however what has been outlined for you above are the 3 most relevant methods when it comes to ways you can rehearse information that you want to retain when preparing for an upcoming interview
The great thing about all of these methods is that they can not only be used for interviewing, but can be utilised for rehearsing other sorts of things you want to familiarize yourself with too. On top of this, the other big advantage is that anything you rehearse can be retained and used in subsequent interviews too!
While the basic method of repetition is the most highly recommended and tends to be the most effective for retaining most types of information, you can use any one of these methods, or a combination of all three. The most important thing is that you find the optimal strategy that works best for you so that you are able to give yourself the best chance of presenting yourself and your answers in the most effective ways possible by the time your next interview arrives