How to handle a job interview: a practical guide
How to handle a job interview step by step: what to prepare beforehand, how to structure your answers, what to ask them and what to do once it is over.
How to prepare for a job interview: research the company and prepare examples
Knowing how to handle a job interview starts with two tasks that fit into an afternoon: understanding what problem the company wants to solve with the role, and having concrete examples from your experience that show you can solve it. If you arrive with both done, you don't improvise: you choose what to tell.
A job interview is a conversation in which the company checks whether you can do the job, whether you'll fit in with the team and whether you genuinely want the role. You're checking the same things from the other side. Preparing well helps with both.
What to research about the company before the interview
Before a job interview, research the company enough to talk about where it is now, not to recite its history. Half an hour well spent is enough:
- The job advert, line by line. Underline the verbs and the results they ask for: they tell you what's expected of you in your first months.
- What it sells and to whom. Main product or service, type of customer and direct competitors.
- What's happened recently. News from the past year: an acquisition, a new office, a change of leadership, cutbacks.
- Who's interviewing you. Their job title and background on LinkedIn. Talking to someone from recruitment is not the same as talking to your future manager.
The aim is to be able to say in one sentence why that role at that company makes sense for you. If you can't, you haven't done enough research yet.
How to prepare your examples with the STAR method
The STAR method is a way of telling a work example in four parts: the situation, the task you had, the action you took and the result. It gives your answers in a job interview a beginning and an end, and makes it clear what you did and what the team did.
Prepare four or five examples that cover different ground: an achievement, a problem you solved, a conflict with someone, a mistake you learnt from and a difficult decision. Write them as notes, not paragraphs. You want to remember the facts, not learn a script: a memorised example sounds memorised.
Common job interview questions and how to answer them with structure
Common job interview questions come up again and again because they check the same things in every candidate: what you've done, why you want the role and how you act when things get difficult. The way to answer them isn't to memorise a reply, but to know what each question is assessing and bring a prepared example.
The table lists the questions that come up most often, what they assess and how to structure your answer:
| Question | What it assesses | How to structure your answer |
|---|---|---|
| "Tell me about yourself" | Whether you can sum up your career with judgement | Present, relevant past and why you're here |
| "Why do you want this job?" | Whether you've done your research and your interest is real | What the company needs and what you bring |
| "Tell me about a problem you've solved" | How you act under pressure | A STAR example with a concrete result |
| "What's your greatest weakness?" | Whether you know yourself and do something about it | A real weak point and what you do to make up for it |
| "Why do you want to leave your current job?" | Whether you're moving towards something or running away | What you're looking for, without criticising your employer |
| "What are your salary expectations?" | Whether you know your worth and the role's | A reasoned salary range, gross per year |
A good answer lasts between one and two minutes. Go beyond that and the interviewer stops listening and starts waiting for you to finish. Stop at one sentence and you force them to drag the information out of you.
Which questions they can't ask you in a job interview in Spain
In Spain, Law 15/2022 on equal treatment and non-discrimination bans using grounds such as sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion or illness as selection criteria. On health it is explicit: article 9.5 states that an employer may not ask job applicants about their health.
If you're asked a question like that, you can calmly steer the conversation back to what actually matters: whether you can do the job. This is general information, not legal advice; if you believe you've been discriminated against in a recruitment process in Spain, speak to an employment lawyer or the Labour Inspectorate.
What to ask at the end of a job interview
At the end of a job interview you're almost always asked whether you have any questions, and saying no wastes the clearest chance you'll get to find out whether the role suits you. Bring three or four questions and pick two depending on how the conversation has gone.
The questions that tell you most are about the actual job, not the perks:
- What they expect from the role in the first six months and how they'll know it has gone well.
- Why the role is vacant: whether it's new, whether someone was promoted or whether someone left.
- What the team is like and who you'd work with every day.
- What the next steps in the process are and when they expect to decide.
The last question is the most practical: the answer tells you when it makes sense to get in touch about your application. Leave salary and holidays until they bring them up or until a later stage, unless the process is already well advanced.
How to handle an online job interview: camera, lighting and connection
To handle an online job interview, sort out the technical side the day before, not five minutes before: camera at eye level, light in front of you, connection tested and the meeting link opened in good time. That way all your attention goes on the conversation rather than on whether they can hear you.
What to check before you join:
- Camera. At eye level, with your face and shoulders in shot. Look at the camera when you speak, not at your own picture.
- Lighting. A window or a lamp in front of you, never behind. With the light at your back, all they'll see is a silhouette.
- Connection. Use a cable or sit close to the router if you can. Close apps that use bandwidth and keep your phone handy as a hotspot in case it drops.
- Platform and sound. Open the link fifteen minutes early to install whatever it asks for. A headset with a microphone stops echo.
- Background. Neutral and tidy. Let the people you live with know not to interrupt.
Each interview format needs different preparation:
| Format | What changes | What to prepare | Typical mistake |
|---|---|---|---|
| In person | Punctuality and the greeting count | Route, time to spare and a copy of your CV | Arriving with no time to spare |
| Live video call | Technical problems can cut the conversation | Camera, lighting, connection and link tested | Joining at the last minute |
| Recorded interview | There's nobody on the other side to follow up | Short answers rehearsed out loud | Reading notes off the screen |
Recorded interviews and interviews assessed by AI
A recorded interview is a format in which you answer questions on video with nobody on the other side, and it is sometimes assessed by an artificial intelligence system. According to Greenhouse's report on AI interviews, published on 1 May 2026, 63% of job seekers surveyed in the United States had already had an interview with an AI.
The same Greenhouse report found that 70% had not been told clearly beforehand that an AI would assess them. It isn't a figure for Spain, but the advice holds wherever you are: if the invitation doesn't say, ask who or what will review your answers before you record them.
What to do after the interview: follow-up and tracking your application
After a job interview, follow-up has two parts: a short thank-you message the same day and a record of where the application stands. The first keeps you in the mind of whoever is deciding; the second stops an application slipping through the cracks or you chasing at the wrong moment.
A thank-you email fits into four lines: thanks for their time, one specific point from the conversation that interested you, and your availability for the next steps. If you left something out in the interview, this is the place to add it in a sentence.
To track the status of the application, note each process with these details:
- Company, role and contact person.
- Date of the interview and the stage you've reached.
- The deadline they gave you for the next reply.
- Your next step and when it's due.
If the deadline passes without news, write once to ask how the process is going. In our experience in headhunting, when a recruitment process ends without success, contact with the candidate is usually lost. A record tells you when to treat a process as closed and focus on the others.
Competition is another reason to keep several processes going at once: according to InfoJobs' annual report on the Spanish job market, published on 26 March 2026, the average rose from 52 candidates per vacancy in 2024 to 56 in 2025. CompassHub lets you track all your applications on a board organised by stage, whichever job board they come from; if you're comparing options, see our guide to the best job search apps.
If you'd like to rehearse the interview with someone who has sat on the other side of the table, CompassHub's team of coaches has more than 15 years in headhunting; see how our career coaching works. You pre-register with your preferences, we let you know when the app launches and a coach gets in touch when they can.
Common job interview mistakes
Common job interview mistakes are hardly ever about a lack of ability, but about preparation: not knowing what the company does, answering without examples, criticising your previous employer or asking nothing at the end. All of them can be fixed before the interview.
- Turning up without knowing what the company does. It shows from the first question and colours the rest of the interview.
- Answering with adjectives instead of facts. "I'm a great problem-solver" proves nothing; an example with a result does.
- Criticising your previous employer or manager. Even if you're right, the interviewer pictures themselves in that role.
- Memorised answers. They sound learnt by heart and fall apart with a follow-up question.
- Not preparing for the salary question. Making up a figure on the spot usually ends in a low figure.
- Having no questions at the end. It comes across as a lack of interest, even when it isn't.
- Disappearing afterwards. With no message and no follow-up, the process depends on other people's memory.
The way to avoid these mistakes is the same as the way to handle a job interview well: research the company, prepare your examples and rehearse out loud at least once, ideally with someone who can push back with follow-up questions.