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Interview Advice
Interview Skills
Interviews are the make or break of the job search. No matter how good your career record is to date, the job interview remains one of the most important steps towards achieving your career goals. Therefore, preparation for the job interview is crucial.
Before you begin the interview process you need to:
Know Your Potential Employer
Always research the organisation you are being interviewed by, and not just for knowledge. Use the information you discover to develop questions to ask those interviewing you. Look for trends, study the financials and ask questions about strategy and direction.
You can research organisations by reading the business press, reading their annual reports and prospectuses, talking with your networks and, of course, make use of the Internet.
Interview Styles
Company recruiters and recruitment agencies use a number of different interview styles and quite often a combination of styles is used. To help you prepare for interviews, learn to recognise these styles since each requires a different approach by the person being interviewed.
The most common styles are:
Behavioural or Competency Based
The basis of behavioural interviewing or 'targeted recruitment' is 'past behaviour as a predictor of future behaviour'.
If during the interview you find yourself beginning answers with:
'Well, what I would do...'
Stop and think about a specific example and begin an answer with:
'Well, what I did was...'.
If you have detailed information about the role you are being interviewed for, you can do some very specific preparation by aligning your experiences with the job's key competencies.
The S.O.A.R. model provides an easy outline for demonstrating your skills.
S – Situation. Think of a situation in which you were involved that resulted in a positive outcome
O – Obstacle. Describe any obstacles you encountered A – Action. Describe what action you took in this situation to overcome the obstacle and achieve your results. R – Results. Describe the position outcome(s) of your actions. Preference Based
The preference-based interview is, in reality, the preference-based 'part' of an interview. You will probably encounter this style when being interviewed by a recruitment agency consultant.
This method is used to find out what individuals really want out of a career . It is based on a theory.
Don't be thrown by questions (at the beginning of an interview) like:
Ad Hoc
If a line manager in an organisation is interviewing you, there is a good chance that no pre-ordained method or model will be followed. It is still very important in this situation to know your CV and the organisation.
You will need to develop answers so that you are prepared for the following questions:
It is important in an ad hoc interview to be prepared to answer questions about weaknesses or areas of development. It is important to acknowledge weaknesses but it is equally important to state your intent to do something about these, for example:
Q: What are your weaknesses?
A: I have an energetic marketing orientation. I enjoy meeting people and am pro-active towards my customers. However, I don't always follow-up paperwork so I guess that is something I need to work on...
Two commonly asked questions at the start and end of interviews provide you with the opportunity to give an impression summary to the interviewer:
Q: Why are you here?
and later, maybe last, in the interview:
Q: Do you have any questions for me?
These examples will give you an opportunity to explore the different kinds of information the interviewer might be looking for in the CV and in your interview conversation. They will also indicate the different kinds of questions that you could prepare to ask the interviewer.
Example Questions
The examples below include the three styles have outlined previously. Each question is followed by the style of interview associated with that question. Why are you here? (Preference/General)
What type of position are you looking for? (Preference)
Don’t be too general. Refer to job titles, responsibilities and the reasons why. Describe your ideal company. (Preference)
What are your career aspirations? (Preference)
Be honest but flexible. What salary/package are you looking for? (Preference)
Discuss your previous package and perhaps quote a desired range - be flexible. Why did you leave your last employer? (Preference/General)
Keep it short, factual, to the point and positive. Provide an overview of your career. (Preference/General)
Be structured, but not necessarily chronological, focus on skill sets. What are your key strengths? (Behavioural/Preference)
Need 4 or 5 and identify a good example for each, in SOAR format. What are your limitations/weaknesses? (Preference)
Need 1 or 2 and highlight what you are doing about them or preferably describe what was once a weakness and, after feedback, you worked on it and turned it into a strength. What have been your major career achievements? (Preference)
Need 4 or 5 and give examples in SOAR format. What do you bring to a new employer? (Behavioural/Preference)
Refer to type of experience, industry knowledge, unique skills, personal characteristics etc - consider using a SOAR example. Describe your management/leadership style. (Behavioural/Preference)
Don’t use “general” statements, describe how you go about it and use examples in SOAR format. Tell me about a project that you initiated/managed/completed. (Behavioural)
Tell me about a difficult people issue that you had to resolve. (Behavioural)
Tell me about a time you managed a change process. (Behavioural)
Do you have any questions? (General)
Don’t forget your presentation
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