How to Prepare for a Job Interview in a Week
An invitation to interview usually arrives with less notice than you would like. A week sounds short, yet it is plenty if each day has one clear job. Cramming everything into the final evening tends to produce a tired candidate who has memorised facts but cannot talk naturally about them. Spreading the work out gives your answers time to settle, so that on the day you sound like yourself rather than a script.
The plan below assumes the interview is seven days away. If you have less time, compress the steps but keep their order: understand the role first, then build your examples, then practise, then handle the practical details.
Day one: take the job description apart
Print the advert or copy it into a document and read it slowly with a highlighter. Mark every skill, tool, responsibility and quality it mentions. Then sort what you marked into three groups:
- Clear matches – things you have done and can describe in detail.
- Partial matches – related experience you can connect with a sentence of explanation.
- Gaps – requirements you do not meet yet, and what you would do to close them.
This list becomes the backbone of your preparation. Interviewers build their questions from the same description, so anything you highlighted is likely to come up in some form.
Day two: research the employer
Look at the organisation's own website first: what it sells or provides, who its customers are, how it describes itself and what it has announced recently. Then widen the view to news coverage, the company's public social channels and, if it is relevant, its annual report or published accounts. You are trying to answer three questions: what the business does, what seems to matter to it right now, and where this role fits in.
Note one or two genuine points of interest. Being able to say why a recent product, project or change caught your attention shows preparation far better than repeating the mission statement.
Day three: build your stories
Most interview questions, whatever their wording, ask for evidence. Prepare five or six short stories from your work, studies or volunteering that show the qualities on your day-one list. A simple structure keeps each story tight:
- Situation – the context, in one or two sentences.
- Task – what you were responsible for.
- Action – what you did, using "I" rather than "we".
- Result – what changed, and what you learned.
Choose stories that can flex. A single example about rescuing a late project might answer questions on pressure, teamwork, planning and problem solving. Include at least one story about a mistake and how you handled it, because that question comes up often and is hard to answer on the spot.
Day four: practise out loud
Reading answers in your head is not the same as saying them. Ask a friend to play interviewer, or record yourself on your phone and play it back. Work through the classic openers – tell me about yourself, why this role, why are you leaving your current job – and then the stories from day three.
Listen for answers that run too long. A good response usually lands its point within a couple of minutes and leaves room for a follow-up question. If you hear filler words or long pauses, do not aim for perfection; aim for a clear start and a clear finish.
Day five: prepare your own questions and the awkward topics
Write four or five questions for the end of the interview. Good ones are about the work itself: what success looks like after the first few months, how the team is organised, what the biggest challenge in the role is at the moment. Keep questions about pay and benefits for later in the process unless the interviewer raises them.
Also decide how you will handle anything sensitive, such as a gap in your employment history or a short stay in a previous job. A calm, honest sentence followed by a move back to what you can offer works better than a long explanation.
Day six: logistics and a light rehearsal
| Check | In person | Video call |
|---|---|---|
| Getting there | Plan the route and a buffer for delays | Test the link, camera and microphone |
| What to bring | Copies of your CV, a notebook, any requested documents | CV open in a window, notes kept brief |
| Setting | Know the name of the person to ask for at reception | Quiet room, plain background, light facing you |
| Clothing | Match or slightly exceed the dress code you have seen | The same, at least from the waist up |
Run through your stories once more, but keep it short. The aim today is confidence, not new material.
Day seven: the interview and afterwards
Eat something, arrive or log on a few minutes early and bring a glass of water if you are on video. During the conversation, it is fine to pause before answering or to ask for a question to be repeated. Listen for what the interviewer seems to care about and connect your stories to it.
Within a day, send a short thank-you message that names something specific from the conversation and restates your interest. Our guide on writing a professional email people answer covers the structure. Then write down the questions you were asked while they are fresh; they will help with the next interview, whatever the outcome of this one. For more on work and running a business, browse the Business desk.
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