Interview Guidance Notes

We have prepared this as a general guide to help with the interview process. It does not hurt to spend time thinking about all aspects of the interview from the interviewer’s perspective. Apologies if some parts may seem a bit basic, however, this is a guide for individuals at all levels of experience.

Preparing for any interview in this manner helps you to differentiate yourself from other candidates quickly. It may also help you to prepare specific examples to include in your CV, grasping the attention of the reviewer above the details of other applicants.

The most important way to ensure that you are relaxed and confident is thorough preparation. Before we focus on the style a successful interview will take we recommend that the following basic preparation is undertaken first.

Research

Researching the company for which you are interviewing, not only will you have a better idea of what you are potentially letting yourself in for, but it provides you with useful information to drop into either your answers, or your questions at the end of the interview. For example: I understand that last year your company merged with Company X. How do you see this affecting the X department and what will it mean in terms of opportunities for advancement? Useful sources are the internet, internet discussion group, press releases for the organisation and Linked-in to find people who work there and their roles. You may even get to see the person you are to be interviewed by and know a little about their career background and interests.

Preparing yourself

It is now common practice for interviewers to focus on key competencies – skills or attitudes that are necessary to the role in question. Most interviews will follow a structure that is designed to bring out those qualities.

The questions should be answered by giving specific examples from your background. Therefore, it is important to have ready-made examples that you can use on cue. Go over your CV and recall achievements that are relevant to the role you are applying to.

It is important to prepare facts, when it was, with which company, what your role was in that organisation, how long the project cycle was, how you in particular prepared your what the end result was, include facts and figures.

Personal appearance

Within the first 2 minutes of the interview, the interviewer will already have formed a judgment of you and your suitability for the role – make sure it is a positive one.

Body Language

Research has shown that 50% of communication relies on body language. Many interviewees often do not realise that they are sending out negative signals. There are several issues to avoid:

Areas to concentrate on include:

walk slowly, deliberately and tall when you enter the room;
smile – show the interviewer that you are open, friendly and confident;
maintain good eye contact.

Reasons for hiring

By looking at the interview from the other side of the desk, it is much easier to understand what the interviewer is looking for; the interviewer will have 3 main considerations:

Ability and suitability

There are often other people with the right qualifications and skills to do the job. On paper, the interviewer may have little to help them differentiate between candidates. We therefore recommend that you look at the role that you are applying for and list all the technical skills and personal traits that are vital to the job. Now pick out specific examples from your past career that
highlight these qualities. Make life easy for the interviewer by painting pictures from your experience. Specifics will always win over generalisations; always prepare examples that include facts/figures/dates/measurable achievements.

Willingness

You may have the right credentials to do the job but the interviewer needs to know if you are the sort of person who will go the extra mile in order to help the team succeed. Have examples ready of when you made extra contribution in order to ensure the success of a project or task.

Problem-solving

Look at the job description and decide what challenges will need to overcome by the individual who gets the job. Again, go to your past and prepare examples of when you overcame similar problems. Pay particular attention to the approach you took, your thought process in tackling it, how you went about shaping and defining a solution.

Questions in the interview and how to answer them.

An interviewer does want to get to know you as a person along with gaining an understanding of your experience. In preparing key examples to use and remembering to use them at relevant times you will achieve both objectives together. Your personality and style will naturally come across when describing events and situations that are personal to you.

What are Competencies?

A competency is a particular quality that a company's recruiters have decided is desirable for employees to possess. During interviews and assessment processes competencies are used as benchmarks that assessors use to rate and evaluate candidates.

Key Competencies

A company will usually isolate several key skills or "key competencies" to look for in candidates at interview. You will be graded in terms of each competency based upon your answers to competency based questions.

Employers typically use some of the following as their key competencies:

Typical Competency Based Interview Structure

Questions in competency interviews will usually refer to activities a candidate has participated in at work, college or university, or any other activities that can be used to effectively display evidence of particular competencies or a particular competency.

A typical competency question could be: "Describe two situations where you have had to overcome objections in a commercial business situation" when asked a question like this, you should be able to talk for several minutes about your participation to a particularly event/project/program that you have contributed significantly to in the past and how your skills helped lead a task or project to successful completion.

Other questions are ideally needing clear examples and yet may not be posed in a competency style e.g.:-

What is your greatest achievement?
What is the most challenging customer situation that you have faced?

It is quite acceptable to ask for and to use a few moments of thinking time before answering questions. If necessary, simply notify your interviewer by explaining you "may need to think about this for a few moments". Once you have thought of a good example to use, continue with your answer. Ensure you have clear dates, figures, numbers of people involved, lifecycle of the problem and solution, financial results achieved. Facts ensure the reality of the example to the questioner rather than the answer sounding theoretic.

An example of a typical competency interview question that may entice you to answer using a negative example is:

"Tell me about a time when you failed to complete a task or project on time, despite intending to do so?"

In your response your interviewer will want to find out how you manage your time during difficult tasks and the reason why you failed to meet your deadline on this occasion (and consequently a reason why you may fail to meet deadlines in the future).

Interviewers using interviewing techniques such as competency questions are likely to probe for additional details during your responses. Always make sure you provide concise, highly specific answers that are well explained, thought out and detailed.

Although your interviewer will at times ask you to give examples of past failures (such as the question above) rather than achievements, you must adequately justify why you failed to complete tasks and defend the reasons for your failure. Clever candidates will justify failure by giving examples of positive outcomes they achieved afterwards.

Tips for answering competency based interview questions

When answering competency questions you can give examples from work, study or personal life, but make sure you give a wide variety of examples and a different example to answer each question.
Don't go into too much background detail when answering competency questions. A quick introduction is all that is needed.
Make sure your answers and examples you use are the most relevant to the questions asked, rather than the most impressive or elaborate.
Don't make your answers up! Your interviewer will find this very easy to spot

The STAR Technique

This is also sometimes known as SOAR, where "Task" is replaced by "Objective".

Situation: Describe the situation.
Task: Describe what task was required of you.
Action: Tell the interviewer what action you took.
Result: Conclude by describing the result of that action.

Be positive about your actions throughout your response and do not make up an example as you will NOT come across as believable. If you cannot think of good examples instantly, ask the interviewer for a moment or two to think about the question and then give your answer.

Why are you applying?

It is likely you will be asked why you wish to work for this company in particular, and what distinguishes this company, for you, from its competitors. This question requires you to discuss your knowledge of the firm in detail and prove to your interviewer your desire for a job.

To answer this question, you should describe:

The key strengths this firm has over its competitors in the industry (e.g. more specialised in certain niche areas, more international scope, more respected).
What appeals to you personally about the firm (e.g. your interests in the firm's niche areas, your relevant study at university).
Other relevant factors you find interesting (e.g. the impression you have of the working style at the firm, the social side of the company, the type of charitable work the firm is involved in).

Common questions

Below is a list of questions, some of which will come up in the interview, others may not. There are no penalties for over-preparation though, so it is important that you have put some thought into how you will answer all of them:

What did you dislike about your old job? It is important here to keep answers short and positive: e.g. ‘I really enjoyed my last job but I felt that I wanted a bigger challenge’. ‘One of the things that appeal to me about working with your company is the fact the individuals are stretched to bring the best out of them’. ‘I look forward to tackling such a challenge.’
Have you done the best work that you are capable of doing? By saying ‘yes’ you give the image of being a spent force. Say something along the lines of being proud of your work to date, whilst assuring the interviewer that you feel the best is yet to come.
Where do you see yourself in five years’ time? A good response is to throw a question back: What opportunities are there within this company? If possible and honest, blend this answer with your prepared answer.
What are your biggest accomplishments? A golden opportunity to sell yourself. It is absolutely crucial that you have several well-prepared examples, including facts and figures. Be conscious of time though, try to get relevant detail into as short a time as possible.
Can you work under pressure? A simple ‘yes’ does not separate you from the crowd. Think of specifics from your past including how you dealt with pressure. What are your greatest strengths?
What most interests you about this job? A definite on the spot question that is frequently used. Good answers include “opportunities offered”, “good match to my skills” and “a chance to develop”.
Describe a difficult problem that you have had to deal with? This is a chance to show off your approach to problems. Show that you employ a logical thought process by outlining a step-by-step approach to problem solving and then give an example of a problem that you are particularly proud of solving.
What have you done that shows initiative? It is best to think of some example that is work related, but use examples from outside professional life if absolutely necessary.
What qualities do you think it needs to be successful in this field? If you have listened to the interviewer’s preamble at the beginning of the interview, you will know what they want to hear.
Do you work better on your own or as part of a team? By knowing about the role you will have an idea of the balance of work in terms of how much time will be spent working on your own and how much contributing to team efforts. Answer according to the necessary balance.
Tell me of a time when you had to communicate with people from different levels. What problems did you encounter? What were the results? This is not only a question designed to probe your interpersonal skills, but also to determine how you dealt with a problem. As above, show a logical approach to problem solving.
Give me an example of an event that really challenged you. How did you overcome the challenge? Answer in the same manner as the previous question. Be sure to portray the challenge in its worst light. The darker you can paint the problem, the more you will shine.
How have you benefited from your disappointments? Resist the temptation to explain specific disappointment in detail. This is one of those questions where it is better to give a general answer, e.g. ‘I treat disappointments as learning experience. I looked at what happened, why it happened and how I would deal with things differently if I had the chance. Having done that, I put the disappointment behind me and look forward to tackling the next problem with a better understanding.’
What is your greatest weakness? Keep your answer short and end it on a positive note if possible, e.g. ‘I like to give projects 100% and I sometimes find it frustrating when others in the team do not give the same level of commitment. I am conscious of this weakness and aim to overcome it by a positive attitude that I hope will catch on.’