We all know job interviews are stressful. Just a one hour conversation can have a massive impact on your career future and confidence, yet too many of us still leave job interviews to chance.

In Knockout Interview by John Lees (McGraw-Hill, January 2017, £11.99), the UK’s top careers expert, John Lees, shows how you can rapidly improve interview performance – whether you’re a first-time jobseeker, career-changer, or returning after a break. Why do you want to leave your current role? Where have you had to work under pressure? and, if our roles were reversed, what questions would you ask? It’s tough questions like these that can unnerve even the most confident jobseeker, proving that it’s not always the best candidate who gets the job, but the best interviewee – preparing for this performance, ensuring you give the best of yourself and avoiding classic interview errors can put you on the short list.

Knockout Interview reveals the practical things you can do to get results and the job you want in one simple toolkit – from anticipating what the employer is looking for, understanding your strengths, preparing lines of defence and understanding that strong interview performers prepare for every type of question – routine, difficult, probing, competency-based, or just plain off the wall. With a ‘fast-track’ preparation option for readers who have an interview tomorrow, along with 125 of the most common interview questions. John will show you how to anticipate what will happen in an interview, drawing on hard evidence of what employers and recruiters ask, and what they hear in an unguarded reply.

While new technology now provides some interview short cuts, face-to-face interviews are still seen as good value. Interviews may be getting shorter, less exploratory and with smaller short-lists to reduce staff time – interviewers are also becoming more process-driven, less likely to spend time getting to know candidates and more reliant on technology, or quick-fix processes such as online applications – BUT face-to-face or video interviews remain critical to their final decision.

Candidates are also often having to jump more hurdles including online testing, telephone and Skype interviews, so managing the picture you create from the very first time you contact an organisation is critical – building towards a great interview technique, whatever the method. With new insight into what goes wrong in interviews and why, John will teach you what makes an interviewer really tick, the signals that set off alarm bells, what information to cut out and the things that really matter, how not to shoot yourself in the foot and how to get past the toughest interview questions. While it’s a tough marketplace for some candidates, with many graduates or later lifers facing an uphill struggle and often resorting to relatively low-level positions, applying Knockout Interview will give you the best chance to impress.

So, want to know what makes a great interview? Knockout Interview provides a complete guide on how to prepare, plan, perform and impress. Chapters include how to use this book if you have an interview TOMORROW; Understanding the world of job interviews; The secrets of interview preparation; Decoding the job; Initial impact; Fitting in; Tricky interview structure and methods and Difficult and wildcard questions. While an interviewer’s task is to decide as quickly as possible whether you’re right for a job, your task is to help – providing information in the right way, showing how well you fit the role, team and organisation. Your job now is to make it easy for the interviewer to offer you the job.