Getting that job: Deciding to apply

No one would dream of going to an oral or clinical examination without preparing for it. We learn the subject, we revise it, we go on courses that teach us and test us on our clinical skills, we try to predict what the questions will be, and we rehearse and practise beforehand. Yet a surprising number of people arrive at job interviews without having thought through even basic things such as why they want the job, let alone why they should be the person who gets it. In fact, people often go to interviews with a better idea about why they might not want the job and frequently have a comprehensive list of reasons why they probably will not get it.

If you sometimes have difficulty in deciding whether you want a job, have had some negative experiences at interviews that have knocked your confidence, or have a tendency to focus on why someone else should get the job then you might benefit from reviewing your approach.1