How do I prepare for a job interview in three days?

Interviews are not memory tests. They are a check on whether you can do the job and whether people want to work with you. Three days of structured preparation beats three weeks of rereading your CV.

Day one: understand the job, not the company brochure

Copy the job advert into a document and highlight every verb and every noun that repeats. Those are the things you will be measured against. Then read the company's most recent public updates and note two things they are clearly trying to fix or grow.

Write six short stories from your own experience, each one covering a requirement from the advert. Use the same structure every time: situation in one sentence, what you decided, what you did, what happened with a number if you have one. Six stories, each under ninety seconds.

Day two: practise out loud, badly at first

Say the stories out loud. Recording yourself once is unpleasant and worth it — you will hear the rambling and cut it.

Then get someone to ask you four questions: two about your stories, one about a failure, and one about something you do not know. The failure question matters most; have one real example where you say what you learned and what you changed afterwards.

Prepare the gap answers too: a career break, a reason for leaving, a skill you lack. Say them plainly and without apology. Rehearsed excuses sound worse than simple facts.

Day three: logistics and questions

Confirm the time, the format and who you will meet. Test the video link or plan the journey with thirty minutes spare. Charge the laptop, tidy the background, print nothing unless asked.

Write four questions to ask them. Two about the work itself — what success looks like in the first six months, what the team is currently finding hardest — and two about how the role actually operates, such as who decides priorities. Do not ask about holiday entitlement in the first interview.

In the room

Answer the question that was asked, then stop. Most candidates lose marks by continuing for another minute after the good answer has landed.

When you do not know something, say so and describe how you would find out. Interviewers trust that far more than a confident bluff.

The 24 hours after

Send one short thank-you note to the person who organised the interview, referencing one specific thing you discussed. Then note down every question you were asked while it is fresh. That list is the most valuable preparation document you will ever have for the next round.