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The first fifteen minutes decide most interviews

Two questions, asked almost every time, that most candidates have not prepared.

Interviews are decided earlier than people expect. The opening, where you walk through your background and describe one piece of work, sets the frame for everything after.

Question one: tell me about yourself

This is not an invitation to recite your CV chronologically. It is a request for a narrative that ends at this job. Two minutes: where you started, the turn that led to your current specialism, what you do now, and why this role is the next step.

Rehearse it out loud until it is ninety seconds, not until it is memorised. Memorised sounds worse than rough.

Question two: walk me through a project

Pick one project you can discuss for twenty minutes without notes. Know the constraint you were under, the option you rejected and why, what went wrong, and what you would do differently. The failure and the rejected option are what separate a real account from a rehearsed one.

What interviewers are listening for

• Whether you distinguish what you did from what the team did.
• Whether you know why, not just what.
• Whether you can be concise. Rambling early makes everything after feel longer.

The recoverable mistake

If you realise you have answered badly, say so and restart. That is fine and reads as self awareness. Pressing on with an answer you know is poor does not.