A lot of coaching clients come to a session with a job interview on the calendar. They want to feel ready, and what they usually describe is anxiety about the conversation itself. They know their work. They just are not sure how to talk about it under pressure.
That is where coaching can make a real difference. The candidates who do well in interviews are usually the ones who understand their own story and can tell it clearly. Helping someone get there is coaching work, and a solution-focused approach fits it well. Instead of digging into everything the client is worried about, the coach helps them notice what already works, picture what a good interview looks like, and take small steps toward it.
I run an interview prep platform, and after reading through a large number of interview reports from candidates, a few patterns stand out. Here is how coaches can use them with clients.
Before practicing a single answer, ask the client why they want this role. It sounds basic, but many candidates walk into interviews without a clear answer, and it shows. "Why do you want to work here?" and "Why are you leaving your current job?" come up in almost every interview, and they are hard to answer well if the client has not thought about them honestly.
Useful coaching questions here include:
The answers often shape everything else. A client who is clear on their motivation tends to sound more confident in every other part of the interview.
A solution-focused question that works well early on is: "Imagine the interview went really well. What would you notice yourself doing?" Clients usually describe things like speaking calmly, giving clear examples and asking good questions at the end. That picture becomes the goal for the rest of the prep.
Scaling questions help too. Ask the client to rate how ready they feel from 1 to 10, then ask what puts them at that number and not lower. The answer points to strengths they already have. Then ask what would move them up one point. That small next step is often more useful than a long list of everything they could fix.
Most interviews include behavioral questions: "Tell me about a time you handled a conflict," "Describe a project that did not go as planned," "Give an example of a time you led without authority." Candidates who try to answer these on the spot usually ramble or go blank.
A better approach is to help the client prepare five or six real stories from their work that can be adapted to many questions. Good stories usually cover:
Coaching conversations are a good place to find these stories, because clients often undervalue their own experiences. Asking "What happened next?" and "What did you do, specifically?" helps them see the details that make a story convincing.
The STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) is a common way to organize behavioral answers. It works, but clients sometimes use it so rigidly that they sound scripted. I suggest a lighter version:
Encourage the client to say "I" rather than "we" when they describe their actions. Interviewers want to know what this person did. Many candidates, especially those from collaborative teams, hide their own contribution without realizing it. Dataford's guide to behavioral interview questions and answers has examples of how strong answers are structured if your client wants to see a few models.
Clients often say they have "prepared" when they have only thought about their answers. Saying an answer out loud is a different skill. A mock interview in a coaching session, even a short one, helps the client hear themselves and adjust.
When giving feedback, focus on a few things:
It also helps to ask the client how the answer felt. Often they know which part was weak before you say anything.
Work on the mindset around rejection
Most people will hear "no" more than once in a job search. Interview data makes this clear: at many well-known companies, a large share of candidates who reach the interview stage do not get an offer, even when they are well qualified. That is normal, and it is rarely a verdict on the person.
Coaches can help clients treat each interview as practice and a source of information. After each interview, a short reflection works well:
Clients who reflect this way tend to improve quickly from one interview to the next. Starting with what went well matters. It keeps the client focused on what to repeat, and it makes the harder questions easier to answer honestly.
The same habits help in the interview itself. Interviewers are trying to picture how a candidate will handle problems on the job. Candidates who describe what they did to move a situation forward, what resources they used and what they would try next come across as people who get things done. A client who has practiced looking for solutions in coaching sessions tends to answer this way naturally.
Almost every interview ends with "Do you have any questions for us?" Clients who say "No, I think you covered everything" miss a chance to show interest and to learn whether the job is right for them.
Help the client prepare three or four genuine questions, such as:
These questions also connect back to the first step: helping the client decide whether this is a role they actually want.
A few practical reminders can lower stress:
Good interview prep helps clients understand what they bring and say it clearly. That is something coaches are already well trained to do, and it can make a big difference in how clients walk into the room.
ABOUT AMNEY MOUNIR
Amney Mounir is a senior product growth analyst at Meta and the founder of Dataford.io, an interview prep platform he scaled from 0 to 50k users. He has 85k+ followers on LinkedIn, where he writes about interviews, hiring and data careers.
To follow and connect with Amney on LinkedIn, visit his profile.