[Closed] Job interviews

I work in HR and interview a lot. If you want some advice/practice then message me and I'd be happy to do a call/Zoom.

But from what you've said - you're risking over-thinking the process, it's understandably demoralising, but practicing how you tell your career story is the best way of building your confidence.

Edit: if a prospective employer equates a stammer to incompetence or makes other similarly superficial judgements then they're to be avoided.

You just have to find a way of being comfortable in doing the interview, if you've got a uni background, and been at the PhD level, then treat it like a Viva Voce, go away, review the information (Job Advert, CV, etc) and then work out your responses to most of the conceivable questions, very rarely are job interviews a trick, the interviewers have the job advert, your CV and a few template questions, so very rarely will they go outside of this, HR are just there to cover any core competences or HR specialist questions.

Reality is, if you're at an interview you've made the sift with your CV and are deemed as potentially good enough, that means you just need to brush up on your history and map it against the potential questions, google can help with this, as there are a lot of those template questions out there with the key indicators for responses.

As for unsuccessful interviews, i just forget about the last one, so many things can go well, or bad, we all have interviews where we could do better, or ones where we just weren't the best candidate, you need to just move on from those and focus on the next one, if you're getting interviews it means your CV is good, you just need to sell yourself more, and turn those examples of your careers into the answers to their questions.

Key things to remember at interview though:

1. Listen carefully, if you don't understand it, as for a further explanation, or example, they want evidence that you achieve the required competence, giving further information shouldn't be an issue.

2. Have the key examples of your career in a format such as STAR (situation, task, action, result), i.e. beginning, middle and end of your example, honestly, the amount of people who can answer a question without doing this is not good, it's all evidence, for them to mark accordingly they need to know why it was such a priority task, why you deemed it complex, how you managed it and what the end result was, it's a story, so walk them through it in the given time without getting bogged down in the little things.

3. The interview is all about you, you may have always been in a team, work well in a team, but all examples are about you, so it's I, I, I to all questions, where you do mention team, it's on how you utilise that teams ability to meet the end target, again I managed this aspect of the task and used the team...

4. Use the end part of the interview to catch up on any missed opportunities, a lot of folk are brow beaten at the end when they say 'is there anything else you'd like to add', well this is the time to go back to question 1 and tell them, 'actually, on that first example, i'd like to add, if i may, that a better example would be......', honestly, use the whole interview to give them that evidence, if like most interviews they have key words, point scoring against key indicators, then if you mention them in the example, or later, they should mark appropriately.

As always though, you can plan as much as you can for an interview, but it's also down to the interviewers a lot of the time, i have seen good and bad ones, this is sometimes where you can read the room a bit and see what perks their interest, or not, they'll give you a brief on who they are and what they do, so this can help as well, if you are good at that type of thing.

Ask for feedback - I bet half the candidates we reject don't have any insight into why they didn't get the job and will walk into the next interview and do the same. You seem to have more insight than most, but I've spoken to candidates who thought it gone well when it really hadn't and those who thought it was awful when actually it was good. I don't want to worry you but some of the weaker technical answers we see come from people with PhD's - you've spent three years getting more and more focussed on one niche so when asked to think beyond that it can be hard, and often when we ask WHY you did something it was your supervisior's plan... its not another PhD viva but you should be able to succinctly explain your work, why etc.

2 obvious solutions:

1. Stop applying for jobs that recruit with panels, using what you consider to be the indignity of HR type questions. Plenty of jobs around that are 1 on 1 or 2:1 interviews, and probably more likely to be a relaxed teams call than face to face just now.

2. Practice. Get some friends to be a panel. Get them to ask you questions and give feedback. Or do it in the mirror, or better still with a camera so you can watch it back. Frequently asked competency questions can be found on-line so write some out put them in a hat and pull out until you are happy answering quickly - then if its that sort of job they usually list the competencies before hand so make sure you have two examples for each one, think outside the box they don't all need to be from a professional setting. In my experience the issues people have with these questions are:
a. they've not thought of examples - and just go blank
b. they give huge long waffly answers - I asked for a situation where you'd been in a team and had to take control, not the entire history of your ice hockey club and the personalities involved.
c. they can't really give me enough information - or talk in the third person about what the team did not what they did/achieved.

Whilst all that personal speaking and centre of attention stuff might be alien to some job roles, there aren't many that involve selection panels that don't involve you being the focus of the dialogue at some point - so actually just being pleasant to have a discussion with is part of the test, because colleagues, managers, customers, etc will all have to work with you at some point.

"The job would have suited me very well I think."
Remember - the question is not just could you do the job, but are you better than all the other people who have applied.

Some great advice above already. I interview a fair bit with work and STAR along with focusing on “I” not “we” are my common bits of advice.

Also, prepare some examples on the job specification. It helps to have examples which work on a number of questions. Think along the lines of questions which look for evidence of managing difficult decisions, seeking support from stakeholders, working to timescales or budget and so on (these are our typical areas in local government at least).

And don’t be afraid to take written notes in with you. Any decent employer shouldn’t have an issue with this. It’s not a memory test after all.

Edit: if a prospective employer equates a stammer to incompetence or makes other similarly superficial judgements then they’re to be avoided.

This. I actually go out of my way for people struggling to give them the benefit when interviewing.

Bringing notes in is a good call. If nothing else, it tells me a) you bothered yourself, b) you actually care enough about the role to bother. Certainly wouldn't be marked down for it.

Whenever I've interviewed it's been easy to tell the nervous but competent, quite because they are out of their depth and noisy but incompetent candidates apart. So e good advice above.

Done it twice as a candidate in 2 years. So my tips would be preparation.

Learn about the company and role you are applying for. With corporations they'll often have standardised q's and often these are based around company values which can be found online. Sites like Glass Door and LinkedIn can also give you an idea.

Read about the subject, you can find out about drives and challenges that may prompt questions.

Spend some time reflecting. Write down skills and examples that demonstrate them in the STAR format.

Think about what you want out of a job and your values and drives. How does that fit with the position. What evidence can you use to back this up.

Don't over think it. My interviews were with small companies but they are all still just conversations with another person and not something to fear. It's a human on the other side of the table. Think of them as an equal not a superior.

without the ‘indignity’ of HR type questions. I’m much better at talking shop one on one than ‘performing’ to a group

If you are better at talking shop one on one then do that. Talk to the person who you'd be working for. When I interviewed people (which was admittedly pretty rare) it was for someone to join my team. My decision. I want to know if you can do the job, but also if I want to spend every day with you. HR were there to make sure procedure was followed and forms filled out. Obviously be polite and don't ignore everyone else. Have your stock hr answers ready but focus on the job and the person hiring.

Be more Spud.

Some good advice already. Many places use competency based questions these days...find some online, and come up with a STAR format answer for one or two in each category (the example can be the same situation demonstrating a different competency). Review these often so you have the fundamentals embedded. Before the interview, try to figure out how you might tweak the answers for what you've been able to find about the job.

SOAR

Situation - the interviewer gives you this.
Obstacle - describe the problem the situation was giving you.
Action - how you fixed it.
Result - err the result.

Then you need your real life answers.

Bully at work
Competing priorities
Asked to lie/go against procedure
Cross functional teamwork
Self starting example

A trick I use is to go in with 3-4 copies of my CV in a simple binder "latest version" so it narrows their questions down and you have a copy yourself.

...... a well respected public body. Many important details were not in the online description and only came to light during the interview.

I've noticed this happens occasionally with public service jobs. One that I applied for was so different from the description that I decided that I didn't want the job before I'd even been asked a question.

Great advice above, especially about getting feedback. I'll add two points:

1. If I had a pound for every time I'd thought of a better answer AFTER the interview, I'd own more bikes.
2. Don't beat yourself up, sometimes there are other people who are just better candidates. Doesn't make you a bad candidate, or that you interviewed badly, just that there was someone better on the day. Helps ease the stress (a little).

I interview a lot - the above is all good advice - I would add that you need to remember that it is a two way process, you are interviewing them too! I know that is cheesy but it is true. Nerves are a sign that you are normal human person. It is soul destroying for the panel too sometimes.

I would add that you need to remember that it is a two way process, you are interviewing them too! I know that is cheesy but it is true.

@hels makes a very good point. Its worth working out some questions you will ask in advance (thet interviewer has worked out their questions - why shouldn't you), but:

1. Bear in mind that you probably have time for 2 or 3 questions max. I once had someone come with a page of A4.
2. Some of those questions might have been answered in the interview - don't ask something just because you have prepared it.
3. There's a trend recently of people asking things like "do you enjoy working here" - I'm not sure how candidates really expect people to answer that. "No its pretty shit, but my chance for promotion needs me to fill your role" or "actually the company is crap, but the people are good so I'm trying to hire for this role so I don't leave my mates in the shit when I quit next week" or maybe "its used to be good when I did the sort of role we are hiring for but now I have to do a load of management bollox, but at least I get paid more than you will!"?

If asked “where do you see yourself in 18 months/two years” please don’t say “doing your job” assuming it’s your prospective line manager interviewing you…

Had this more than once and whilst it shows ambition it’s evidently not going to endear you to a manager.

I totally agree with Poly on part 3. I've been helping to do interviews at the moment and I hate it when people ask this. As Poly says I'm hardly going to say it shit go elsewhere even if that's what I might be thinking.

You could how ever ask what sort of person likes working here, and does well….

Interesting reading as I had an interview today.
Think I gave the panel a tougher time than they did me 😄

Web meeting interviews I'm finding a bit lacking for land based jobs, so many questions I wouldn't have to ask if I was there.

The criteria for getting a job are entirely divorced from the criteria for doing a job. I was going to add "these days" but I suspect it's been the case for some time.

I interview a lot for technical roles - everything from entry level to 30+ years experience and PhDs. I normally only get through 3-4 structured questions in an hour and prefer to let the discussion continue by picking up on points in the initial answers.

A few points from me:

At least 2 of my questions are situational. “What would you do if…” I really, really don’t care about the technical detail in your answer, but I do want you to answer with your head inside the business. I can draw upon approx 800 years of technical experience to teach you the specifics once you’re in the door, but I’m looking for you to demonstrate that you can see the problem from our perspective, understand the implications for us and our client and have at least read enough of the job description to know what tasks and decisions might be required of you in coming to a resolution.

Try to read the room (and the JD) before you overplay the ambitious, hard working, always looking for progression card. I mean, I’m very ambitious too and couldn’t criticise anyone for it, but my resourcing plan tells me I need 40% of my department to come in and do very routine technical tasks to a good standard day after day, and today could be the day that I’m interviewing for that role. My department’s success is every bit as reliant on the people doing that kind of work as it is on the high-flyers doing the shiny new headline stuff. I have had to turn people down because I knew they’d be quickly tired of it.

Usually candidates are fairly well versed in the STAR or SOAR structures but if you’re going to bring up an example from your past, make sure you know it inside out and back to front. 2-3 good examples that you can describe every detail will carry you through an interview better than 10 patchy ones. I’m an engineer, so I will pick on details and “because my boss/mate told me to” or “that’s just how we always did things” doesn’t give confidence in your critical thinking abilities. I value people who can reflect upon processses and outcomes, so I’m liable to also ask what you didn’t do to resolve your fictitious situation - what were the alternatives, what risks and benefits did they bring, why didn’t you choose them, did you seek and receive feedback, would you do it differently next time?

The end bit is always awkward, but have at least 2 questions prepared - make one about something in the job description and the other about the team or clients you’ll be working with -don’t overthink it.

I’m fine with people discussing salary or working arrangements at interview but be tactful when doing so. If aligning your office days with the rest of the team because your dog goes for a haircut every second Thursday (yes, really!) presents a problem to you, now is not the time to spend 20 minutes negotiating it. I’m an advocate for our flexible working arrangements but if it feels like that’s all that’s important to you then I’m not going to hire a headache.

Lastly, don’t worry about being nervous - it’s expected. If the interviewer is any good, they’ll see through it. It’s the over-confident ones I always watch out for because they’re liable to trip me up later on.

3. There’s a trend recently of people asking things like “do you enjoy working here” – I’m not sure how candidates really expect people to answer that.

I've been interviewing *lots* of people recently, and maybe I'm weird, but I try to answer that pretty honestly, and tell people what's good and what's crap. I'm always happy to answer that question.

I want people to know what they're getting into and to be able to make informed choices. It's as much about making sure that we'll be a good fit for them as they'll be a good fit for us.

The job would have suited me very well I think.

I think you might be thinking about it wrong. Interviewers, for the most part[0], aren't looking for whether the job would suit you, more whether you would be a good fit for the role.

[0] I look for both, but I think that's uncommon.

Dont be too keen to answer the question until you understand why they are asking it. So ask a question back to get more detail about how your answer needs to relate to the business. This also buys you some time to think.

For example:
Them. Tell us about a time when you’ve worked in a team to achieve a goal?

You. Hmmm, I’ve always enjoyed being part of a team, what sort of projects would I be part of here and how are teams structured in your business?

Asking questions about stuff ironically makes you seem much more experienced than just answering with a random example. In a way the interviewer will put words in your mouth that they want to hear.