Interview tips

We understand that interviews can be a nerve-wracking experience. But remember, it’s a two-way street. We want your interview to be a positive experience, and for you to perform to the best of your abilities.

LPPA interviews consist of either a one or two stage process. They will be conducted online by Microsoft Teams, face-to-face in our Preston office, or a mixture of both.

There will normally be a panel of 2 interviewers and notes will be taken during the interview.

Our interviews are competency based, so we will ask you questions that require STAR answers (see guidance below), to understand your specific skills. We will also ask some behavioural questions, which help us to gain insight into your personality and understand how you would fit into our organisation.

Depending on the role, we may also ask some technical questions too.

We will always ask if you need any reasonable adjustments to allow you to fully partake in the interview, please do let us know if this is the case. As part of our recruitment process, we also use online psychometric assessments through our provider Saville.

Ensure you have done your research on the company. There is a lot of information on our website to help with this, as well as internet research.

Read the Job description carefully, including the personal specification – Pick out the key skills and competencies highlighted in here. These are the areas you should expect to be questioned on. For each one, prepare an example of where you have displayed that attribute – you will need to demonstrate examples of how you have dealt with particular situations using the STAR technique.

An example of a competency question could be: describe a time in which you had to adhere to a tight deadline.

Your examples should be formatted in a STAR response:

Situation, Task, Action, Result

Formulate it into a short key point, making sure you include how you achieved the result and how your actions addressed the initial situation and task.

For an online interview

Ensure you have the technology set up and you have your meeting invite to hand.

Make sure you are in a quiet, well-lit space, where you won’t be interrupted, and that you are prepared with your notes and have a copy of the job description. If you get chance, it’s a great idea to do a practice interview with a friend or family member to see how you appear on screen and get comfortable talking on Teams.

For face-to-face interviews

Ensure you know where you are going and allow plenty of time to get there allowing for delays in traffic/ public transport.

Its great to do a dummy run to find our office if you do get the opportunity. Please do not log on or arrive too early or be late.