Getting ready for a fashion business interview can be a stressful moment. 

Interviews are “make-it-or-break-it” situations where so much depends on a short interaction. 

Having said this, there is no need to worry.

If you have been selected for an interview, on paper you already have all it takes to succeed. 

What you need to do now is simply take advantage of a chance to make a great impression and show your willingness to join the team.

In the context of an interview, the energy and enthusiasm that a candidate brings into the room is already a great predictor of how the interview is going to go, but obviously, one can’t hope to be chosen, only because of the right attitude. 

Succeeding in an interview often comes down to preparation, so in this post, we’re going to discuss 5 simple and highly effective tips to help you score your dream job. 

Interview Structure

Before we get into our advice, let’s consider one technical aspect. 

In most interviews processes, you’ll be likely to have two distinct interviews, one with your boss or hiring manager and the other one with human resources. 

The first interview, the one with your potential boss is focused on evaluating your skills and expertise to perform your job correctly. This is the most business-oriented side of the interview, and we’ll be addressing it first in advice #1, #2, and, #3. 

The second interview is with a human resource manager, and it will revolve around two main points. 

First, someone from HR will want to understand your values, attitudes, and behaviors, not only in the context of the job you have but also in the perspective of growing within the company. 

The second focus of an HR interview is to establish your compensation. We’ll be looking into this second interview format in advice #4 and #5.

This is because, unless you succeed in your more technical interview there is no need to progress in your hiring process.  

With no further ado, let’s dive right into it.

#1 Look into The Job Description Very Carefully

The first thing we need to do is actually very simple. 

As we approach our interview process, what we will be measured against is the job description we applied for. 

The job description already contains all of the relevant information that applies to the role. 

It indicated what types of tasks we’ll be required to carry out, what kinds of skills we’re required to possess, and so forth. 

The first step to conducting a strong interview is being able to discuss the job requirements listed in the job ad. 

This does not mean that you need to be proficient in every single element listed, but that you are at least able to understand why it is relevant for the position. 

Is there anything that you know nothing about? Well, this is the time to look it up.

In any job an employer is expecting candidates to go through a little bit of a learning curve as they get started working for a new company, don’t hesitate to be honest. 

If there are skills you are looking to develop, the job could be a great way to learn about them.

Showing willingness to learn and to gain new skills to be a great employee will certainly make a good impression on your interviewer.

Great. For as simple as this first piece of advice may seem, you wouldn’t believe how many people end up making the wrong impression, just because they may not have understood what the job entails. 

Once we’re done with this first round of research, we can move on to the next step: conducting research on the company. 

#2 Research The Company

Once you know everything there is to know about the job, it’s time to broaden your horizons and learn about the company.

So much can be learned from the company’s online presence. By looking up the business online, you can collect a lot of information about the values of the organization and where its competitive advantage lies. 

At the same time, it may be a good idea to look up some more academic references, to really go in for a deep dive into the brand. 

Seach a SWOT (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis to find out what are some of the challenges that the business needs to overcome in the future and how they can be tackled. 

As we discussed in the introduction, before getting to any character or behavioral question it is essential to show our preparedness by showing that we have done our due diligence and are able to “talk shop”.

Great, but how are you going to be able to help the company overcome these challenges? That will be the focus of our next advice. 

#3 Understand How Your Job Impacts Business Performance

To complete this first section of advice on how to impress your recruiter based on your competencies and skills, you should be able to understand the following question.

How does your job impact the business performance of your company? 

This is very important because the more you are aware of how your small contribution impacts the bottom line of your business, the more you will be able to connect your position to the company’s goals. 

This is essential as it provides you with an understanding of what your career may look like within the company and how your job will come into contact with all other professionals in the organization. 

Last but not least, this will allow you to understand how your job connects to its salary. 

If you’re able to really see the worth of your contribution, that does allow you to present your job not as a simple cost but as an actual investment with clear returns.

Great! Now that we’ve covered the hiring manager section we can move into the human resource section.

#4 Don’t Rehearse Memorised Answers

When it comes to the behavioral component of your interview, you need to put yourself in the human resource manager’s shoes. 

If they’ve been in their job for long enough they will have heard them all. The rehearsed answers, that is. 

Questions like “what is your biggest strength and weakness?” or “where do you see yourself in 10 years?” are not simple to tackle but in this case, honesty is the best policy. 

An instance of this is when we’re asked to talk about experiences that were disappointing or downright failures. 

In these cases, it’s not a good idea to present our weaknesses as potential strengths such as “I am too committed to work I don’t have much of a personal life”. It’s much better to say whether you have aspects of your character or skills you wish to improve and display self-awareness.

Aside from being red flags, rehearsed answers don’t really portray your personality at all if they are prepared to make you look like the ultimate yes person.

Last but not least at some point in the interview, you will be asked to discuss topics such as compensation that can be difficult to negotiate. 

You guessed it – unless you are prepared for it!  We’re looking into this final aspect of interview preparation in the next section of our post.

#5 Look At Glassdoor for Compensation Ranges and Benefits

Glassdoor, among other sites, can be a good resource to conduct the last piece of research connected to your interview. 

By browsing similar positions in similar companies you’ll be able to understand the salary ranges and benefits that are usually considered the industry standard. 

Negotiating a salary is a challenging moment, which should be considered as the focus of another post, but at least in this stage, by conducting some basic research,  you’ll be able to have a ballpark idea of what your compensation package should look like. 

In any case, remember that it is not a good idea to discuss compensation unless an offer has been made to you. Only when a company has made an offer, you are able to reverse the tables and make one or more specific requests. 

If you get to that stage, it means you did great and you got a job offer, so that’s already a win. 

Great! Now we’ve covered all 5 tips we wanted to share with you on how to prepare for your fashion business interview. It’s now time to move on to our conclusive remarks.

Conclusions

There you have it! In this post, we’ve listed our top 5 tips on how to prepare for a fashion business interview. 

There is an element of unpredictability in your hiring process, but the truth is that being prepared makes the biggest difference. 

By reviewing our 5 pieces of advice you have now identified a simple 5-step process to get ready for that fashion business interview and maximize your chances of success.
If you’re looking for more information on fashion jobs and careers, don’t hesitate to look into our blog where we have a wealth of free articles designed to help you succeed in the fashion industry. Enjoy!