Interview
Tips
Congratulations on securing an interview!
This is your opportunity to demonstrate your
personal attributes, your strengths, personality, your ability to communicate
and how you react under pressure. Here
are some tips to assist you in selling your assets:
Develop Rapport
To ensure effective communication, it is very
important to develop a good rapport with the person interviewing you. Of course, this is sometimes difficult,
particularly if you “really want the job”.
However, you must relax – get that high-pitched or tense tone out of
your voice – and appear to be calm and self-assured at all times.
One of the simplest ways of helping this is to
smile a lot. Yes, when appropriate,
smile. Not a grin but a genuine, warm
smile. Ask yourself seriously: do you
smile during the course of conversation?
Ask Good Questions
This is a big
tip! Don’t just tell the interviewer
how wonderful you are and how good your achievements have been. Demonstrate that you have done your homework
that you are really listening and you understand what’s going on. You can do this by asking relevant questions
about the department and the job in question.
Taking an interest in the big picture will have a positive influence on
the interviewer. If, in the limited time
of an interview, you can ask one or two questions that actually make the
interviewer think about the answer, or better still, maybe cover issues they
hadn’t even thought of, then you really are on the home stretch.
Preparation Will Make or Break the Interview!
Preparation is the first essential step towards
a successful interview.
Be prepared to answer a couple of standard
questions such as:
Ø What do you want to be
doing in your career five years from now?
Ten years from now?
Ø What style of management
gets the best from you? Who was your
best boss? Why?
Ø What have you learnt
from some of the jobs, you have held?
What did you enjoy the most? What
did you enjoy the least?
Ø What have you done that
shows initiative in your career?
Ø
What
are you looking for in your next role?
“Open probe” questions are different because
they strike right at the heart of issues and require more than a yes/no answer.
Ø
Why do you want to
change roles?
Ø
Give
positive answer – confident, coherent and logical explanations are critical to
the interview process.
Ø
What is your greatest
strength/weakness?
Ø
Have
some answers ready – even weaknesses can be presented positively, especially if
you are doing something about them.
Ø
Why should you be
successful in gaining this role?
Ø
Here’s
a chance to review your strengths and show how you can make a big
contribution. Sell your benefits, not your features.
Ø
How do you react to
criticism?
Behavioral/Competency Based Interviews
Behavioral interviewing is based within the
premise that past behavior is the best indicator of future behavior. With a set of competencies identified
beforehand, the interviewer will ask you to relate specific examples or
situations where you have demonstrated a particular competency in the past.
For example, let’s say problem solving is a
competency required for the role. The
interviewer may ask something like:
“Tell me about a time where you have solved a business
problem? What was the situation? What was the outcome?”
The best way to answer these questions is to
describe a specific example that demonstrates your ability in that area using
the “STAR” technique to structure your response:
S – Situation
T – Task
A – Action
R – Result
So in answering the above question, an
appropriate response may go something like this:
“The situation at XYZ Company when I first
joined was that all employees had authority to speak to the media. This created problems such as inconsistent
message, inaccurate/untimely information release and an array of other undesirable
consequences for the company’s image. My
task as Media & PR Manager was
to build and maintain a positive corporate image so the action I took was to immediately implement a policy whereby only
four nominated executives had authority to deal with the media and that all
media and PR activity initiated outside my team was to be signed off by
me. I took the time to gain the buy-in
of management and then all employees so that everyone was happy to adhere to
the new policies. The result was great – no more embarrassing
situations and a far more positive attitude to our brand as evidenced by a
recent independent survey”.
This answer clearly demonstrates the
candidate’s ability to decisively and collaboratively solve a business
problem. The answer is also very
succinct which means the interviewer is more likely to tune in to the entire
response. The interviewer can then drill
down further to obtain more detail around the “how’s” and “why’s” of the
example.
Great answers to interview questions are:
Ø Relevant
Ø Succinct
Ø Able to show clearly what you did and how you did it
Ø Delivered with an appropriate level of energy and enthusiasm
Ø Not “waffly”!
Closing the
Interview
You have come to the end of the interview. Don’t make the mistake and nervously mumble
“Thank You” and leave. Always be
prepared to ask questions at the end of the interview – have at least one
question that indicates you’ve been listening.
Of course, this is also a good opportunity to let the interviewer know
that you are terribly keen on the job.
Don’t worry about appearing too eager – as long as you’re being
yourself. The interviewer is looking for
an enthusiastic person, not someone who hasn’t decided if this is the right
career for them.
If you have answered the two questions
uppermost in the interviewer’s mind – “Why are you interested in the job?” and
“What can you offer and can you do the job?” – You have done all you can.
Good luck – and enjoy!
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