interview « Off the Shelves – The Careers Group Library Blog

The 7 sins – interview mistakes to avoid September 16, 2009

Posted by helencurry in interviews.
Tags: interview, Interviews, job interviews
1 comment so far

Ever had one of those moments at interview when you realise while answering a question, as the very words tumble out of your mouth, that you really shouldn’t have said that? I was reading an article in THES from a serial interviewee, Nicholas Tesla, and I loved this example:

You get asked about your strengths and weaknesses. I once made the perfectly correct but suicidal point that I had never seen a strength not turn into a weakness in the wrong context, and vice versa. It was a nadir in my career as a professional interviewee. As soon as it was out of my mouth I knew it was over, and it was only the second question.

I wrote once before about the importance of practice, that any interviewee ought to have a ready answer to such common questions.

Here are some more tips to save your interview performance! Remember the seven sins…

Pride – You know you have to sell yourself, so you have prepared short speeches on your achievements, and bold statistics to quantify the improvements you made, but how do you know when you have gone too far? When you can’t remember what the question was anymore. It is a matter of judgement when selling-yourself turns into boasting, so do keep an eye on your interviewers reactions – have they glazed over? Are they still making eye contact? If your answer is getting long check if they really want to know more…
Greed - It can be difficult to know when to begin the salary negotiations. How about waiting until you are actually offered the job? Many employers will be put off if you seem too concerned with the bottom-line. Even if they ask you early on what you expect salary-wise, it might be best to defer this question, say you want to know more about the position – the responsibilities, typical hours etc. That way you will demonstrate a commitment to the work they are offering – it is not just a job to you.
Envy – ‘where do you see yourself in five years?’. How about ‘sitting in your chair’! Scary stuff. Ambition is good, as long as you demonstrate a good understanding of the work involved and the steps you will need to take to earn it.
Wrath – The question comes up ‘why are you leaving your current/previous job’ or ‘would you say your last boss was a good manager?’ This is not the time to vent your feelings on the idiosyncracies of the organisation or your manager’s deficiencies. Keep a cool head and analyse his or her management style, express what you consider makes good working relationships.
Lust - Flirting with an interviewer is a very risky strategy. See the video here at number 12. It is usually going to turn out awkward, embarassing, and what are you going to do if you actually get the job??
Gluttony – So the assessment centre or networking event has a free buffet, or you have been invited to lunch – obviously food is not the main event here. Keep it neat and modest. Demonstrate your professionalism through good personal presentation even outside the interview room.
Sloth – Lack of research about the company, poorly structured answers… it speaks of disinterest, poor attention to detail, and a lack of self-management. Late to the interview? Overly-relaxed body posture? Thin CV? Don’t do it!

For a more general overview of preparing for interview, see our free leaflets on Interviews and Telephone Interviews.

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interview

New podcast series – Difficult Interview Questions April 22, 2009

Posted by helencurry in interviews, podcasts.
Tags: interview, podcast, podcasts, questions
1 comment so far

After talking with careers advisers Jeff and Deena, we thought a new series of podcasts on how to answer tricky interview questions would be useful to a wide range of people, particularly at this time of year.

These podcasts will be shorter, up to 10 minutes, which will make it quick and easy to pick up some top tips. Each will include a brief analysis of what the recruiter might be looking for when in asking that question, a discussion of some possible approaches and descriptions of concrete examples of how to answer the question.

I have just published our first episode on the question “What is your biggest weakness?”. It’s a question seemingly designed to trip you up, so make sure you have prepared for it!

Remember, as well as our webpage Podcasts and Videocasts, you can also download and subscribe to “Podcasts from The Careers Group” through iTunes – just search for us!

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Choosing a legal career: job interviews – say as little as possible?? March 19, 2009

Posted by helencurry in law.
Tags: advice, interview, Interviews, job interviews, law, legal, solicitor, tips
2 comments

Continuing the legal theme this week, I thought I’d discuss an interview tip given in a new book we have acquired. In “The Legal Job Interview”, Clifford Ennico gives valuable advice on every stage of the interview process from initial body language to negotiating salary, and the perspective on legal culture makes it particularly useful over general interview books. However his top tip, his “key rule”, stood out to me as somewhat controversial and needing a little more examination.

SAY AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE

He calls this the 20/80 rule. In any successful interview he reckons he will do 20 percent of the talking, and the interviewer does 80 percent. Why?

the less you say, the less likely you are to say anything risky, anything that contradicts their beliefs. You should be like a politician, even if you all agree on everything but one point, that one negative is what will stick in their minds. They are probably interviewing a lot of candidates for each position, so they might only remember a couple of key things about each candidate.
lawyers like to play things safe. They want to pick the safe candidate who is keen to do things their way. If you assert your own opinion too strongly you might signal to them that you are not a team player, that you are more interested in doing things your way.
they want someone calm and collected who will reassure clients with clear, concise answers. You need to be the lawyer they are looking for.

Of course, the key to success with this approach is asking the right questions.

Rather than demonstrating the qualities they are looking for in your answers, instead you demonstrate them in your questions:

show intelligence and insight in your questions. If one of their specialisms is in an area that is economically doing particularly well or badly, ask how that affects the future of that area – which specialisms are growth areas?
demonstrate your qualities as a good listener who values the opinions of others.
demonstrate the skill of active listening, skilfully asking further questions to get beneath the surface and extract more information.
show them your enthusiasm and ambition – ask what they think is key to being successful in that position (you will also learn if the culture values working hard and long hours, or is more about politics – getting on well with the right people)
flatter the interviewer by showing interest in what they do and being keen to learn from them and soak up their views.

It is an interesting approach – it sounds a little too evasive at first, until you realise the importance of the questions you are asking. While I wouldn’t worry trying to achieve the magical 20/80 ratio, the main point to take away is how important it is to ask good questions. Some of the qualities listed above are difficult to demonstrate in any other way, it is a key way of showing your interest in the firm, and they will at least expect one question from you at the end to round off the interview. It is worthwhile preparing a few, so even if they answer some prior to the interview you still have something to ask.

No matter how detailed the recruitment brochure and website has been, no matter how clearly the presentations have explained everything about the firm, it is essential ask them questions!

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law solicitor

Interview questions: real-life examples February 26, 2009

Posted by tcginfo in interviews.
Tags: graduate, graduate recruitment, interview, Interviews, job interviews, questions
1 comment so far

As my previous posts on interview questions have proved very popular, I thought I’d just put up a short list of some websites where you can find real-life interview questions that candidates have reported being asked.

eFinancialCareers.co.uk – interview questions for graduate programmes and internships in financial institutions
WikiJob – covers major employers in a range of sectors. Check out both the employer pages and the forums where students report their experiences.
Whatwilltheyask.co.uk – covers a range of sectors, with personal reports on specific jobs. There aren’t as many on here, but it is still useful if you can find just what you want.
Prospects – the student forums are quite active, so it might be worth posting details of the interview you have coming up in the Applications and Interviews forum, and seeing what information or support people can offer.

All these sites are dependent on students sharing their experiences every year, so if you use them do submit your experiences to them afterwards. eFinancialCareers are even offering a draw for an iPod nano as an incentive

And just a word of caution, recruiters can change questions and indeed whole recruitment strategies without warning, so check the dates of these student reports, and use these as guidance rather than a definitive programme.

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Tips

Often there is no right answer, or you are given a false choice when really you should talk about how you can adapt to both options e.g. “working with a team energises me when I am thinking up new ideas, but sometimes I like working alone when I am concentrating on a specific task”.

You might not have a suitable example from your work experience to answer a question. If not, you can either describe an example from your wider life experience (sports teams, university coursework, musical activities…), or you can describe what you would do in that hypothetical situation. You can develop a hypothetical answer by describing a real situation you observed, and saying what you would have done if you were in charge.

And remember, if you don’t understand, or if you have a hundred possible answers to give, don’t be afraid to ask for clarification to make sure you give them what they really want!

Resources

These books will give you more examples of questions and answers, pointing out the pitfalls and traps in some questions, and explaining how to maintain a professional attitude when asked personal questions.

Yate, M. J. Great answers to tough interview questions.