If you’re applying for grad schemes or internships, there’s no avoiding the fact that soon you’ll have to do a job interview and probably an assessment centre. So, how can your careers service help you?

Read our advice and top tips

Start with our webpages on assessment centres and interviews. They are full of advice from experts about:

• Interview formats
• Assessment centre tasks
• Typical questions
• Presentation advice
• What to do when you get rejected

Practise in your own time

We subscribe to tools to help you prepare for assessment centres and interviews. For interview prep, you can use Shortlist.Me to try out mock interviews with a range of employers. On Shortlist.Me you can:

• Record yourself answering popular interview questions
• Watch your answers back and retry
• Get useful tips on what employers are looking for when they ask certain questions

If you have online interviews as part of your application, Shortlist.Me mimics exactly what it will be like, but it’s great for practising face to face interviewing as well; by watching yourself back you can learn about your body language and work on your answers.

For assessment centres, we’ve compiled websites where you can practise some of the common tasks, like in-tray exercises, case studies and situational judgement tests.

Try a mock interview or assessment centre

Every week we have 30-minute mock interviews available for you to book. Some are in-person and some are online. Either way, if you have an interview coming up and want feedback or advice on how to approach it, a mock interview is the way to go.

For assessment centres, keep an eye on our event schedule for our ‘Career Essentials: Assessment Centres’ events, which tell you what to expect, what employers are looking for and help you approach your assessment centre with confidence.

Speak to us about employability skills

A lot of the skills employers are looking for are employability skills, sometimes called transferable or soft skills. Things like teamwork, communication and problem solving. You might have built a lot of these skills without thinking about it in your studies, part-time work and extracurricular activities, but some students find it hard to talk about them in interviews. Read our advice about employability skills, learn about how to reflect on your skills, and if you are struggling to think how you can demonstrate them, come talk to us.