Excelling in a tough interview is difficult. Often people shy away, believing the lucky few who have the gift of the gab are the ones who perform better in interview. The reality is interviewees who prepare intelligently and put in sheer hard work are the ones who perform well. The famous acronym – Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance (PPPP) – is famous for a very good reason: it works!

If you search in Google for “Interview preparation” you will see a wealth of advice from a huge range of sources. We’ve scanned tens of these sites and used our collective experience and found there are only 5 rules you need to remember in interview planning:

1. Be prepared to top and tail the interview. First impressions count, whether you agree or not, so be prepared for polite but enthusiastic and positive conversation at the start and end of the interview. Taking the initiative shows confidence – you will be surprised how few people do this.

2. Know exactly what the company or organisation does and who it sells to/serves. Being able to explain this in 3 neat sentences is one part of the trick. Secondly, knowing the client or customer base and stating the key markets with an example will put you ahead of others. Thirdly, having a few anecdotes up your sleeve about the industry (or even better, the customer industries) will be impressive.

3. Know your subject matter. This means knowing you – in principle it sounds easy – but the reality is this is what the tough interview questions are based on. What are your top 2 achievements? What are your strengths AND weaknesses? What will you offer the employer that the next interviewee will not?

4. Have a few insightful questions ready. Think about the organisation, the competition, the products & services, the markets, the clients, the economy, the politics (etc) and you should be able to come up with 2 or 3 insightful questions. Try to drop these in at appropriate points in the interview, rather than leaving to a Q&A section at the end, when it could sound too planned. Simply waiting for the Q&A part of the interview and asking generic questions such as “what are the working hours” will not cut the mustard.

5. Follow up. This may sound cheesy but stop and think for one moment. If an employer interviews 10 people for 1 job, the chances are the interviewer will find it hard to pick between the best 2 or 3. Writing a quick email in follow up shows your enthusiasm, professionalism and will give that very small differentiation it needs to land the job.

If you take your preparation seriously, follow the 5 rules above then I’m sure you will be a good interviewee. If you have prepared properly you will be armed with so many conversation points that you will see yourself actually starting to control the interview. You’ll know when this happens as you’ll start enjoying it – boosting your chances even more. Every employer is looking for a confident, can-do-attitude and enthusiasm for the role.