If you have seen a role you’re interested in, or just wanted to get prepared, consider looking at this page before submitting your application.
We have helped to prepare some useful hints and tips from updating your CV, right through to interview stage!
Our job adverts are normally open for at least a week or so. It's worth bearing in mind that you can save your application as a draft, and return to it at any time before submission, which means you can take care to make it as good as possible!
Have you studied our company website?
What are our company goals?
Have you checked out the business area you're apply for?
Write down some facts you found interesting
Think of some questions you'd like to ask the interview panel
Prepare your responses
Prepare your interview outfit the night before
Get a good nights sleep
Make sure to check the location of your interview on your confirmation email
Set off in plenty of time to the destination (even do a test run a few days before if you're unsure of exact location)
Be sure to re read your confirmation email as their will be documentation you need to bring along
Remember you are able to take in notes!
Practice and prepare answering potential questions that may come up
Most importantly, be yourself!
Your details
Include your name, address. Plus an up to date phone number and email address
Personal statement
2 or 3 sentence overview - your skills, your exceptional qualities. Ideally no more than 50 words
Work experience
In reverse chronological order with the last or current job mentioned first. Be sure to include dates when you started and left to show your total length of service with an employer
Additional training
Technical or soft skills
Educational qualifications
Including date achieved
Clear and simple layout - keep to two pages of A4. It should be clear to anyone reading your CV where to find the information with enough ‘white space’
Remove all unnecessary information and lose the jargon
Use action words and facts/figures to demonstrate the outcome of your responsibility or achievement
Sell yourself – what are your unique qualities, skills and experience that make you stand out from the crowd
Put emphasis on your experience
Don’t leave unexplained gaps – if you had a career break to travel or raise a family, explain what skills or experience you gained from this
Don’t make mistakes – check your spelling and grammar meticulously. Ask a family member or friend to proof read it too.
Good luck!
- The interview will be conducted either face-to-face at one of our administrative or operational sites, or over Microsoft Teams. Joining you in the interview will usually be two Anglian Water members of staff; one Interviewer and a Scribe. The Scribe will take notes from the interview, as well as contributing to the conversation. The panel will be friendly and welcoming and are there to try and get the best out of you, so, please, try and relax!
- The interview will be a mixture of Competency-based & Technical-based questions, with an opportunity for you to ask any questions you may have at the end.
- Competency-based questions are asking for an example in your past when you have evidenced a particular behaviour. Typically, these will focus on the core competencies of the role. These questions are usually framed “Tell me about a time when …”
- Technical-questions are ones which ask about the technical skills and knowledge required around the role you are applying for. They are a good opportunity for you to display the technical knowledge you posses which makes you the ideal candidate. They can take varying formats, but typically involve, "what would you do if...".
- Research the organisation – look on our website, have an understanding of what we do.
- Research and practice the STAR model (or similar) of answering interview questions.
- Prepare your responses – Try and think of times you have displayed some of the core values of the role in your work history. Think of questions you may be asked and your responses to them. Practice and prepare answering any potential questions that may come up.
- Ensure that the outcome reflects positively on you, even if the result was not favourable.
- Be specific about your actions and ensure you go into enough detail to evidence your positive behaviours. It is important you provide enough detail which evidences how you positively affected the outcome.
- Choose a specific event and avoid talking too generally, this helps focus your response on your particular actions during that event. Focus on one particular occasion that fits the question being asked.
- For virtual interviews, please make sure you have tested that the link and your device work, prior to the interview. This may mean downloading the Teams app to your device.
- Log on a few minutes early, if that helps to relax you. You will reside in the lobby and the panel will let you into the meeting, once the interview is due to start.
- If you do experience any problems with technology, which prohibit you joining the video interview, you will find a number, just below the Teams link, to join on an audio only call. Please dial this number, followed by the Phone Conference ID, to join the meeting.
- For face to face interviews, please ensure you are familiar with where you need to be and that you arrive in plenty of time. We would recommend researching the location of the interview a couple of days before your scheduled interview and contacting the resourcing team if you have any doubts or questions.
- STAR is a very useful technique when answering Competency-based questions. The technique allows you to structure your response to the interview question, whilst ensuring you include all of the important parts.
- STAR allows you to tell the story, of a particular scenario, to your interview panel. Every good story has a beginning, middle and end - STAR helps structure this for you.
- STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action and Result.
- When answering using this technique, ensure you spend sufficient time explaining your Actions, as this is the section in which you demonstrate the positive behaviours being sought.
Situation – Describe the Situation or event that you were in.
Task – Explain the Task that needed to be completed.
Action – Explain the Actions that you took to positively affect the outcome. Ensure particular attention is spent on this. Explain your thoughts and motives and focus on what YOU did, specifically.
Result – Explain the Result of your efforts.
- Ensure you are the star of the story - make sure the panel know what actions you undertook, and why, to positively affect the outcome.
- To get the best out of the STAR technique, you should have a collection of answers that reflects your working history and pre-empt the questions you think you might be asked. Typically, the interview will focus on the core-competencies of the role.
- This is not something you should do on the day of the job interview. It will take a couple of days to prepare answers that you can recall. If you are struggling to come up with a suitable example during the interview, take a moment to think about it. It’s better to take a few seconds to provide a good answer than to use an example that doesn’t fit.
