Home » Candidates » Career Advice » The Interview
THE INTERVIEW
Do your research! Make sure that you are able to demonstrate why you are interested in the role and the organisation at interview. Look at the website, locate press articles, search for information on the web etc. Identify what you find particularly exciting about the opportunity as well as the company.
Arrive on time! Make sure that you print off a map to the office, and plan your journey. Remember to leave plenty of time to allow for any travel disruptions.
Prepare! Make sure that you have some good examples that demonstrate your experience and skills learnt to date. These should include both technical knowledge and softer skills (personal/interpersonal skills). Try to anticipate the questions you may be asked and practice your answers. What impression will you be painting? (see INTERVIEW QUESTIONS section below)
First impressions count! Dress in appropriate business attire, give a firm hand shake, and maintain eye contact throughout the meeting. This will tell the interviewer than you are a strong communicator and confident in the information you are providing. The interviewer will find it hard not to listen to you if you are looking them in the eye!
Be positive! Employers want people that provide solutions rather than create problems. Make sure you are able to explain how you have deal with difficult situations and been able to problem solve to meet the required results.
Ask questions! Make sure that you have some questions to ask at the end of the interview. This will demonstrate your interest to learn, and most importantly will provide you with additional information to assess whether the organisation is right for you. It is a two way process! i.e. why has the position become vacant? How does the role fit into the structure of the department? What assessment procedures do you use to ascertain my performance?
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Interview questions come in three styles:
1. Introductory questions
2. Competency based questions
3. Commercial questions
Introductory Questions
These are generally used as a warm up to the interview and for you to build a picture of yourself to the interviewer. This is the chance to sell yourself and capture the interviewers interest.
Example questions include:
Q: Tell me about yourself
A: Spend approximately 2-3 minutes painting a picture of your life to date. This should focus on education and work experience but should also give the interviewer an insight into who you are as a person so do mention extracurricular activities. Try to grab their attention with something unique about you! Make sure that you try to highlight any skills that are particularly relevant to the job.
Q: What have been your key achievements to date?
A: Select an achievement that is experience related and fairly recent. Identify why they were key achievements and what made your action so measureable. The interviewer want to hear that you go the extra mile to achieve things others many not. Demonstrate your hunger for life!
Q: Walk me through your CV?
A: Start from your education, move onto an overview of your work experience and mention other interests at the end. This should serve as a broad overview so don't go into too much detail here, but do spend extra time on the more recent or relevant parts of your CV.
Q: What do you like about your present job?
A: Match your likes to your skills. Talk about project work you have particularly enjoyed or a specific contribution of achievement you have made. Be positive - even though you are leaving make sure that the interviewer sees that you have fully engaged in your work to reach the level you are currently at.
Competency Based Questions
Competencies are the specific skills that exist in a role. Typically these may include the following:
Decision Making & Problem Solving
Creativity and Innovative Thinking
Personal Impact (ability to persuade, negotiate, convince etc)
Leadership
Interpersonal Effectiveness
Personal Drive and Aspiration
The key to answering these questions is to talk about a specific example and structure your answer using the CAR model:
C - Explain the CHALLENGE. What was the scenario/situation?
A - What ACTION did you take? Explain each outlining your methods.
R - Sum up by describing the end RESULT to show your action was effective.
Example questions may include:
Q: Tell me about the most difficult situation you have had to face and how you tackled it?
A: Briefly explain the issue you faced, why it presented a particular problem etc then move on to talk in detail about your chosen route of action. Sum up but showing the results and how you overcame the original challenge.
Q: What are your greatest weaknesses?
A: Ensure that your weaknesses are outweighed by strengths and that you have a personal strategy in place to deal with each. For example, "My weakness is that I find it hard to switch off at night. I am particularly conscientious and am able to get good results because I spend time really thinking problems through to get the best result. However longer term I am very aware this could lead to burn out so I make sure I play squash three times a week to wind down and also am a member of x club. Make sure you have more than one weakness just in case!
Q: What kind of decision do you find most difficult?
A: These tend to be decisions that have had to be taken without sufficient information. Explain how you approach these decisions and the methods you use to get a good result, rationale to your ways of thinking etc.
Q. Describe a time when you have working in a team with differing viewpoints.
A. Describe how you managed to play a significant part in knitting the team together to reach the end goal. How did you get everyone on the same page? Demonstrate how you took time to listen to differing viewpoints and helped structure the approach and create a common goal. Don't forget to show the results.
Q. Tell me about your most creative idea in your current role.
A. Show the interviewer you are able to think outside the box and come up with innovative ideas to get the required result. Show that you are able to bring a fresh yet realistic approach, motivating others and demonstrating leadership skills amongst your peers.
Commercial Questions
Here you may be asked to demonstrate specific knowledge or display the ability to think ‘big picture'. This is where the good candidates are quickly split out from the bad.
Questions may include:
Q. What is our share price today?
Q. Where do you think this market will be in 5 years time?
Q. What does your current role contribute to the wider organisation?
Q. What type of people do you find it difficult to work with?
Q. How do you measure your own performance?
Q. What standards do you set for yourself?
Q. How would your colleagues/boss describe you?
Q. What five adjectives would you use that best describe you?
Q. What self development activities have you undertaken in the last 12 months?
Q. How do you keep up to date with financial news?