Even confident professionals don’t always get it right when it comes to preparing for the interview that could land them the job of their dreams, a new survey shows. Tony McDonough reports.

Even the most confident of people can became a bag of nerves when faced with a job interview.

Now a survey of UK professionals has shown that almost half struggled to get the right advice and were self-taught when it came to interviewing processes and techniques.

And the study by UK-wide job site, CV-Library revealed that more than 64% of those surveyed believe there’s not enough education out there around interview techniques.

CV-Library interviewed 1,000 UK workers and found that many professionals are not learning these vital skills until later in life, with 14.6% admitting that they didn’t do so until they were over the age of 30.

However, 59.8% think that they do have strong interview techniques. Here are the top five rules that they believe you should follow in order to have a successful interview: 

• Research the company ahead of time (87%)
• Practise common interview questions (44.3%)
• Prepare a smart outfit (43.1%)
• Read over your CV (38.4%)
• Visit the location ahead of time (27.4%)

It’s clear that workers consider research to be vital, with a further 11.4% saying that you should also research the person that’s going to be interviewing you.

Furthermore, remaining calm and confident also emerged as a key tip, despite 72.6% stating that they get nervous before an interview.

Lee Biggins, founder and managing director of CV-Library, said: “It’s concerning to see that many workers aren’t learning about interview processes until they’re well in to their working careers, potentially having lost out on some great opportunities as a result.

“Preparation is always best, and while actions such as researching the company and choosing a smart outfit may seem fairly basic, some candidates still don’t get this right.

“Following these five simple steps could be the key to securing yourself your dream job.”

From learning more about the company, to practising interview questions, research and preparation were cited as some of the top steps to interview success.

It’s therefore concerning to learn that one in five workers only give themselves an hour to prepare before an interview, and a further 30.4% are only allowing themselves up to a few hours.