Most interview disasters happen before the interview: a missing certificate, a wrong address, arriving sweating after a traffic jam. All of them are avoidable the evening before. Prepare a folder and a plan, and your mind is free for the questions.
- Documents: two printed copies of your CV, original certificates and one copy of each, your ID, a list of three referees with phone numbers, and the saved advert.
- The route: know the exact building and gate. If you can, pass by the day before. Plan to arrive 15 minutes early; in Mogadishu and Hargeisa traffic, that means leaving 30 minutes earlier than you think.
- Clothes: clean, ironed and modest. Formal enough for the organisation: a shirt or a neat dirac and garbasaar are both right in most offices; a suit is not required for a field post. Decide the night before.
- Your kit: two pens, a small notebook, a bottle of water, your phone charged and switched to silent before you enter the gate.
- Your mind: read your four STAR stories and your research sheet once, say your one-minute introduction out loud twice, then stop. Sleep seven hours.