On your long journey through your ‘self’, what kind of person you are to work with, what you have done and what you can do, you have learned to write a letter and CV that communicates some very important things about you that the recruiter wants to know. Your letter and CV have succeeded in getting you called to an interview. When you get the phone call or the letter calling you to the interview, this is not the time to break out the champagne. Do not just lay back and relax – continue preparing! Do not make the mistake of thinking you have won the game! Many people make the mistake of betting everything on the CV and feel when they are contacted that the interview is just a formality. This is far from the truth. You have been ‘shortlisted’, true, but you are still in competition with others who have also been called to the interview. There is no doubt that you have overcome an important hurdle: your application did not go into the trash; you did say something that interested the recruiter.

On the other hand, you do not know the competition and you do not know if you are at the top of the pile or at the bottom. In other words, you do not know if you are walking into the interview as the recruiter’s first choice, or one among many!
Your best attitude now is not to worry about the competition, because you cannot do anything about them. Focus on understanding what the interviewer wants to learn from the interview-and once again – what you have to offer!