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Q: I’ve got a first-round interview for a security role. How should I prepare?

Today, I will share a step-by-step guide to help you with any first-round interview. I’m writing this because I’ve cracked the code and I know the lessons I’m about to share will help you thrive in your career and land the job you deserve.

TL;DR

• Typical first-round interview structure: 10% intro, 80% questions for you, 10% questions from you

• Know yourself: tidy up socials, tailor your LinkedIn and study your CV.

• Know your why: why do you want the role.

• Know the role: map the job spec to your experiences.

• Know the company (and industry): know why you want to work for this specific company and understand the challenges it faces in the industry.

• Use the STAR framework: half the battle is delivering your responses effectively.

• Practice, practice, practice: to avoid brain fog and build confidence, do mock interviews, or practise out loud.

• Don’t memorise answers: hyper analyse your experiences so you can find the answer to any question within them.

• Ask high signal questions: this is prime time to highlight you’ve done your homework on the business and its industry. Boast that genuine excitement you have to join the team.

What’s the purpose of a first-round interview?

If you’re invited to a first-round interview, you’ve likely already applied or been referred for a role and you’ve spoken with a recruiter or HR rep (a quick phone screening to check you’ve applied for the right role and expectations are aligned).

This invitation is a signal you’re doing something right - your CV did its job getting you through the door. The goal of this interview is to filter out candidates who aren’t likely to get an offer and determine who warrants another interview. Interviews are an expensive process for an organisation (time, coordination, resources, opportunity cost).

If you pass a first-round interview, the next step is often a second, or final-round interview. It’s rare that you’ll be made an offer after a single 40-60 minute conversation (if this does happen, I would question why and wonder how well vetted your future peers were).

Expectations

• Set-up: Most first-round interviews are 30 minutes to 1 hour, on the phone or via video chat, with just one interviewer (not panel-style). This will most likely be with the hiring manager or a future peer. Make sure you’ve got a strong connection, dress appropriately and have a clean background.

• Structure: The standard structure of an interview is 10% intro questions and small talk, 80% questions from the interviewer, and 10% questions from you.

• Focus: Most first-rounds will focus on your CV (your own experiences), competencies critical for the role, and whether you’ll be a good culture fit.

• Special cases: If you’re applying for a technical role, you may be asked to complete a technical screening. If you’re applying for a managerial role, the focus will likely be more on leadership and management questions.

Introductions & Small Talk

Great small talk starts with research. Before your interview, look up your interviewer. Review their LinkedIn, check their socials, and Google their name. The aim is to try and find common ground you can leverage to build rapport.

• Example: Your interviewer may ask you what you did on the weekend, or if you have weekend plans coming up. If you share a similar hobby, this is the perfect opportunity to mention it and watch the conversation explode!

Prepare for basic questions, such as:

• Tell me about yourself (keep this concise, 60 seconds elevator pitch)

• Why do you want to work here?

• What do you know about the role?

• Why are you leaving?

Tactics to prepare for success

Know yourself

• Digital footprint: Recruiters and hiring managers will do an open search before your interview. If it’s posted online, it’s open for them to bring up in your interview. We’re talking LinkedIn posts, X posts (tweets), Medium articles, GitHub - you name it.

• Curated footprint: Reframe this as an opportunity. Tidy up and tailor your online presence for the direction / role you’re applying for. It should be clear that you’re a suitable fit for the role and their organisation.

Know your why

• Stand out: When interviewing, you’re competing with at least 3-5 other people. To stand apart from the rest, you need to be able to clearly and concisely articulate why you want the job.

• Pitfalls: Avoid the obvious pitfalls like pay, remote work, need a change, complaints about previous employment etc.

• Your why: You need one single, compelling reason that brings together benefits to the employer and to you. It must cover what you bring and how it will help your career.

• Example: “I’ve spent six years supporting over a dozen clients to build cyber security capabilities in the financial services sector. An exciting opportunity for me would be to bring my expertise to a fintech start-up as it presents a new frontier of challenges.”

Know the role

• Step 1: Copy the job spec into a doc and highlight keywords, concepts and responsibilities - this is likely the blueprint for questions you’ll be asked!

• Step 2: Make a simple two column table with keywords/responsibilities on one side and your experiences on the other.

• Step 3: Use this as your cheat sheet. Study it before your interview and when answering questions, use their language to explain what you did. It will resonate with them 10x more.

Know the company

• Language: use relatable language to their organisation and industry.

• Context: contextualise your responses by showing you understand the organisation’s size, capability, limitations etc. What laws and regulations are applicable to them? Does their industry face any unique threats?

• Relatability: Seek to relay the challenges you know they are facing to present yourself as a great solution.

Choosing the right experience example

I’ve tried everything when it comes to preparing for interview questions. I’ve written answers to hundreds of questions, hand written notes spread all over my wall, and attempted to create a system to give the perfect response. The reality is, this overloads the brain and causes ‘blackout brain’ in your interview.

The optimal way to get better results is to list 3-6 major projects / experiences you’ve had and hyper-analyse them. This will 10x your responses, making them detailed, thoughtful, rich in context and outcomes.

Here are some questions you should answer in relation to a project or experience:

1. What was my role?

2. Who were the key stakeholders?

3. What was the goal?

4. Why was it complex?

5. How did I overcome challenges / conflicts?

6. What actions did I specifically take?

7. What did I learn?

Pro tip: Try to keep projects as recent as possible. Firstly, it will be easier to recall details about it. Secondly, the interviewer may question its relevance if you haven’t performed a similar action more recently.

Note: Maintain this list of experiences and keep updating them with new ones over time. It will make preparations easier for future interviews.

The art of answering questions

Interviewers love a behavioural question, and there is one framework that makes them easy - STAR:

• S: Situation - what was happening (important contextual info)?

• T: Tasks - what were you responsible for?

• A: Action - what did you do to solve the problem?

• R: Result - what was the impact of your actions?

I like to add two extra steps to this - STAR++:

• + Learnings: what did you learn from the experience?

• + Future improvements: how have you applied these learnings since?

There are 3 formats for behavioural questions. The intention of these questions are to predict how you would perform in the role.

High signal questions to finish strong!

Interviews are often won or lost by the questions you ask the interviewer at the end. We all want to work with exceptional colleagues who work hard, get things done, and push us to greater heights.

Here are 3 steps to ask great questions:

1. Define what is important to you in a role and would determine if you’d want the role. Only you can determine this.

2. Do your research on the industry, company, competitive landscape, news, team/product, and even the interviewers.

3. Formulate questions that highlight that you’ve done your homework and that give you the signal you want.

Note: You can even reuse some of these “first-round” questions in later interviews to get diverse perspectives from the full panel.

Examples:

• “I can see you’ve expanded your service offering to include X, how has this impacted your role?”

• “Seeing as you’ve been with the company for X years, what do you know now that you wish you knew then?”

• "What goals has your manager / the team set for the next 6 months? How could I help you achieve them?"

Bonus tip: if you run out of time, ask questions in a follow-up email!

How long should I spend on all this?

Some timing guidelines:

• Cleaning up your CV and LinkedIn (and broader footprint): 2-3 hours

• Draft a compelling career story about your experience and career direction: 1 hour

• Reverse engineer the job description: 15-30 minutes

• Analyse 3-6 projects / experiences: 2 hours

• Practising behavioural questions: 4-6 hours

• Writing high-signal questions for interviewers: 1 hour

That’s a wrap! Reach out with any questions or clarifications.

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