How many hours should I spend preparing?

Three to seven hours for a standard professional role, more for technical or case-study interviews and for final rounds where you may meet several people.

What is the biggest mistake candidates make?

Preparing content instead of evidence — reading about the company for hours and then answering behavioural questions in generalities rather than with specific things they personally did.

Should I prepare differently for a video interview?

The content is the same. Add a check of your camera, lighting, sound and joining link, and keep your notes to one page beside the screen rather than behind it.

How do I prepare if the job description is vague?

Use the job title and the team it sits in. Look at two or three other adverts for the same title at similar companies and prepare against the requirements they share.

How to prepare for an interview

Good interview preparation is four things: understanding what the role is actually hiring for, choosing the evidence from your own experience that proves you can do it, rehearsing that evidence out loud, and preparing questions that show you have thought about the job.

Written by Ace Editorial · Published 23 September 2026 · Last updated 23 September 2026

How long should you prepare for an interview?

Most candidates should spend three to seven hours preparing for a standard professional interview, spread over a few days. Technical, case-study and senior roles usually need more.

Spacing matters more than total time. Two hours today and two tomorrow beats four hours the night before, because the recall you need in the room comes from having said things out loud more than once.

How do you work out what the interview will be about?

From the job description. The requirements listed there are what the interviewer has been asked to assess, and most questions are simply those requirements turned into questions.

Take each requirement and write the obvious question next to it. "Experience managing stakeholders across teams" becomes "tell me about a time you had to bring a team round to your view". Do that for every requirement and you have most of your interview.

What is an evidence bank and why do you need one?

An evidence bank is six to eight experiences from your own history, written down with what you did and what happened, ready to be reused for whatever question comes up.

Interviewers are not testing recall of your CV; they are testing whether you can produce concrete evidence under mild pressure. Having the evidence pre-chosen is what separates a fluent candidate from one who thinks out loud for forty seconds.

Which answers should everyone prepare?

Tell me about yourself, why this company, why this role, your strengths, a weakness, a failure, a conflict, and your questions for them.

Tell me about yourself — sixty to ninety seconds, ending on why you are here
Why this company — something specific to them, not something true of any employer
Why this role — the honest connection between your experience and the job
Strengths — evidence-backed, and chosen from the job description
A weakness — real, with what you do about it
A failure and a conflict — the two hardest to improvise

How should you rehearse?

Out loud, standing up, once through each answer. Silent reading does not prepare your mouth for the sentence.

Record one answer on your phone and play it back. It is uncomfortable and it is the fastest way to find the rambling. Most people find their answers are twice as long as they thought.

What should you prepare for the end of the interview?

Three or four questions of your own, written down, that could only be asked by someone who understands this specific job.

Avoid questions answered on the careers page. Good questions are about the work, the measures of success, the team, and what has made previous people in the role succeed or struggle.

Frequently asked questions

How many hours should I spend preparing?: Three to seven hours for a standard professional role, more for technical or case-study interviews and for final rounds where you may meet several people.
What is the biggest mistake candidates make?: Preparing content instead of evidence — reading about the company for hours and then answering behavioural questions in generalities rather than with specific things they personally did.
Should I prepare differently for a video interview?: The content is the same. Add a check of your camera, lighting, sound and joining link, and keep your notes to one page beside the screen rather than behind it.
How do I prepare if the job description is vague?: Use the job title and the team it sits in. Look at two or three other adverts for the same title at similar companies and prepare against the requirements they share.

Skip the blank page

Ace reads the job description and your CV and does the first three steps for you — the requirements, the likely questions and the evidence you should use for each.

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