Congratulations! You’ve been offered an interview with Gallagher. The idea of an interview might be daunting, but it is a great opportunity for you to showcase your experience and interest in the company. It’s also a chance for you to learn more about us and decide if we’re the place for you. Interviews are a two way street and ultimately, it’s about getting to know each other.
There are a couple of things you can do to prepare which will really set you apart from the crowd and a little bit of practice goes a long way, especially if you’re feeling a few nerves on the day.
Firstly (and this advice applies to not only interview settings, but networking and business meeting environments, too), expect to be asked, ‘tell us about yourself’, or a version of this. Sounds broad doesn’t it? The key here is to be succinct and speak to your relevant life and work experience. The panel isn’t just looking for information by asking this question, they’re going to be seeing how clearly and effectively you communicate.
There’s a handy framework you can implement to keep you on track: Present, Past, Future. This means breaking your response into three sections:
For example, ‘I’m currently studying a Bachelor of Business at the University of Queensland. This semester I am on track to achieve a Distinction average and have excelled in my Financial Markets and Risk Management units. In addition to my studies, I am employed part time at The Brisbane Golf Club, where I work in a customer facing hospitality role and have enjoyed the opportunity to implement my problem solving, service and communication capabilities over the past 18 months’.
For example, ‘Following graduation from high school, I took a GAP year where I travelled and worked in the United Kingdom in a variety of hospitality environments. This allowed me to develop strong organisation skills as I planned the 12 month experience from start to finish, build resilience as I took this trip alone and gain an understanding of cross cultural communication as I worked with colleagues from all over the world’.
For example, ‘I’m really excited to be considered for your graduate program because I am interested in creating a long term career, not only in the insurance broking industry, but at a company who cares about their ethical responsibility. I’d love to use the knowledge I’ve built at University and think Gallagher would provide an exceptional opportunity for me to do this.
The second handy interview tip you can use to make sure you’re showing the panel what you’ve done and how well you’ve done it is to implement the STAR method when answering behavioural based questions. It’s likely during any interview you attend, now and throughout your career, you’ll will be asked behavioural questions.
These are questions like, ‘can you tell me about a time you handled pressure well?’ or ‘was there a time you went above and beyond for the success of the team?’.
The STAR method is an acronym for Situation, Task, Action, Result and responding by following this formula will mean you’re explaining the scenario succinctly and showcasing your strengths. Let’s take a look at another example you can use to help you practice.
Situation: This is where you provide context to the interviewer. It’s setting the scene to your story. You should spend about 20% of your time on this piece of your response.
Task: Next, talk about the problem or challenge you took responsibility for solving. Spend about 10% of your time on this part.
Action: Your time to shine! Share what you personally did to reach the goal or overcome the challenge. (It might not feel natural to use language like ‘I’ here, if you’re not used to taking credit, but make sure you do, so the panel know what actions you took). This should take up the majority of your response, about 60%
Result: The final 10% of your response is your opportunity to summarise the positive outcome of your actions. It’s important to be specific here and provide quantifiable results if you can.
Finally, and perhaps above all else, research us. We are a unique company with a long and meaningful history. Knowing the culture, purpose and values of Gallagher means understanding the impact you’ll have as an employee. If you are familiar with who we are, you’ll be able to articulate why you want to join us. And that can make all the difference.
If you practice using these frameworks and take them into your graduate interview, you can feel confident you’re communicating effectively and showing the panel just how wonderful you are.
Good luck!