How to prepare for an interview

The week before

• Reread the job description and mark every requirement. Prepare one story for each. That list is very likely the panel's scoring sheet.
• Research the employer properly. Who owns them, what they sell or deliver, what they announced recently, who their competitors are.
• Find out who is interviewing you. Ask HR. Knowing you will face the Finance Director rather than a recruiter changes how you pitch.
• Prepare six competency stories. A success, a failure, a conflict, a deadline, a process you improved, something you learned fast.
• Say them out loud. Answers that read well silently fall apart when spoken. This is the step people skip and the one that matters most.
• Decide your salary range before anyone asks, so you are not doing arithmetic under pressure.

The day before

• Confirm the time, the exact address and the format. 'Our office' can mean three different buildings.
• Do the journey in your head at the real hour — Nairobi and Dar traffic at 8am is not the same journey as at 11am.
• Print three copies of your CV, plus certificates if the advert asked for them.
• Lay out what you are wearing. Check it properly, in daylight.
• Write down two or three questions to ask them.

What to wear

Formal — a suit, or a jacket with smart trousers or skirt — for banks, government, law, audit and most international NGOs. Smart business dress for private companies, retail, hospitality and startups. Overdressing by one step is never what costs someone a job; underdressing sometimes is.

Keep it plain and comfortable. Anything you are adjusting is something you are not thinking past.

On the day

• Arrive fifteen minutes early, not forty. Wait outside if you are very early.
• Be courteous to everyone, including reception and security. Panels ask.
• Phone off. Not silent — off.
• Take a breath before answering. Two seconds of silence reads as considered; filling it with 'um' does not.
• Ask for clarification if you did not understand. It is a better look than answering the wrong question confidently.
• If you do not know, say so — then say how you would find out.
• Take notes. It signals seriousness and gives you something to do with your hands.

Online and phone interviews

Increasingly common for first rounds, especially with regional and international employers, and they fail for avoidable reasons.

• Test the platform, camera and microphone the day before — not five minutes before.
• Sit facing a window or a lamp. Backlighting turns you into a silhouette.
• Plain background, door closed, phone on a stable surface if you are using one.
• Have a backup: a second device, a hotspot, and the panel's phone number.
• Look at the camera when you speak, not at your own picture.
• Keep your CV and notes just off-screen, and do not read from them.

Afterwards

Send a short thank-you email within 24 hours to whoever arranged the interview. Four sentences: thanks, one thing from the conversation that stayed with you, one line restating your fit, and that you look forward to hearing from them.

Almost nobody does this in the region, which is exactly why it is remembered. If they gave you a decision date, wait until two working days past it before following up once.

If it does not go your way

Ask for feedback, politely and once. Perhaps a third of employers will give you something usable, and that something is often the difference in the next interview. Keep the relationship — the candidate who came second is frequently called first when the next role opens.