Career Development…to assist you on the
road to success!
The job interview
is your opportunity to shine! It gives you the chance to display
your intelligence, talent and enthusiasm. It lets an employer
learn about you and your:
• Abilities
• Work experience
• Talents Education
• Interests Motivation
• Personality
Preparation
is the key to having a successful interview experience.
Know
yourself
Before you go to an interview put thought into why you want this
job. Understand how the job will match with your personal interests,
abilities and values. Be able to explain to the employer how the
knowledge you gained from your college training and previous work/volunteer
experiences will help you be the right person for the job. Also,
understand your strengths and weaknesses. We all have them and
you need to be able to explain them to the employer. Tell what
you are good at and areas where you are working for improvement.
The interview is your chance to sell yourself.
Do this with enthusiasm. Participate in conversation with the
interviewer. Use examples or stories to explain what you mean.
Look the interviewer in the eye. Use your hands to illustrate
what you mean. Smile. Add humor.
These are the reported top ten qualities employers
seek. Be prepared to tell about your competence in these areas:
• Communication skills (written and verbal)
• Honesty/Integrity
• Teamwork skills (works well with others)
• Interpersonal skills (relates well with others)
• Motivation/Initiative
• Strong work ethic
• Analytical skills
• Flexibility/Adaptability
• Computer Skills
• Self-Confidence
Know
the Organization
Knowing
about the organization before the interview will impress the employer
and give you an edge over other candidates. Learn all you can
about the employers:
• History Locations
• Products or services standing in the industry
• Business methods organizational structure
• Current job openings
To find this
company information do an internet search for a company website.
If you can’t find information, check with the Career Development
office or call the company directly and request company literature
to be sent to you. Before the interview, or at least early into
it, try to find out what the essential responsibilities of the
job are. Throughout the interview, give information from your
background that shows you can handle those responsibilities.
Know
what to wear
Take
a good look at yourself. Employers are increasingly broadminded
about clothes and hair, but few are truly ‘liberated’.
If you are serious about getting the job, then you need to look
and dress the part. No interviewer will tell you what to wear,
but the person will measure your maturity and judgment partially
by your appearance. Remember that the first impression is often
a lasting one. It’s not necessarily the best-qualified person
who gets the job, but the one who makes the best impression. You
never get a second chance to make a good first impression!
Points to
remember about your appearance for an interview:
• The
employer will assume this is the best you’ll ever look
• Lean
to the side of conservative dress
•
Lay off the
jewelry (especially multiple earrings, eye brow, nose, lip or
tongue rings)
•
Smell good,
clean. Your scent should leave the room when you do
Know how to respond to questions
Answer as
directly as possible, articulate and natural-no canned answers
and be honest!
Be yourself
and focus on positive qualities; never apologize for your lack
of any thing; back up everything you say with examples
Take a couple
seconds to think about how you are going to answer a question
so your response is accurate and appropriate
Know the type of questions you can expect to be
asked
Tell me about yourself.
Why do you want this job?
Why should I hire you over other candidates?
What are your career plans? Where do you see
yourself five years from now?
Why did you leave your last job?
Why do you want to work for us?
Tell me about an accomplishment in which you
take pride.
What does success mean to you?
What have been your favorite and least favorite
classes?
What jobs have you enjoyed the most? The least?
Why?
What specific skills do you have that relate
to this position?
What do you do in your leisure time?
What were the three most important decisions
of your life?
What are three of your strengths?
What aren’t you good at?
Behavioral Based Interviewing Questions
You
may go to an interview where the employer is asking behavioral
type questions. Behavioral based interviewing is the systematic
use of job-related, open-ended questions to help measure your
skills for a particular job. The driving idea of this concept
is that ‘past behavior predicts future behavior'. Research
shows that people will act consistently over time.
Sample Behavior Based Question and Response:
Question:
Tell me about a difficult situation and how you dealt with it.
Response:
Problem: My marketing class was assigned to groups and given a
project that we had to complete by a set deadline. Our group decided
to divide up the responsibilities in order to complete the project
by the deadline. The problem was that one of the group members
was not completing his assigned parts or showing up for our group
meetings.
Action: Our group got together and brainstormed
ideas on how we should handle this situation. We decided as a
group that we would confront him about this and review what was
expected of him in order to complete the project.
Result: It turned out that the person had a lot
going on in his life at that time with work, school, and a sick
relative. Our group decided that we needed to help him in order
to complete the assignment. By talking with him we decided what
he should be able to complete and then we divided up the remaining
responsibilities amongst the rest of us. This experience taught
me the importance of teamwork and how an effective team can work
together to get a goal accomplished.
Other Sample
Behavioral Based Interviewing Questions:
Spoken
Communication: What types of experiences have you had in talking
with customers or clients? Specifically, tell me about a time
when you had to communicate under difficult circumstances.
Policy and
Procedures: Tell me about your experiences in documenting your
work activities in a written form. Be specific.
Written Communication:
This job will require you to spend a large amount of time writing.
Tell me about your writing experiences that you think will contribute
to your ability to do this job well.
Commitment
to Task: Tell me about a time when you were able to provide your
own motivation to produce even though you were working alone.
What were the circumstances of the situation and how did you manage
to motivate yourself?
Analytical
Problem Solving: What was your greatest success in using the principles
of logic to solve technical problems at work? Be specific.
Goal Setting:
What have been your experiences in defining long-range goals?
Tell me what specific goal was set, how it was set, and how successful
you were in its achievement.
Decisiveness:
Describe a situation in which you had to draw a conclusion quickly
and take speedy action.
Assertiveness:
Tell me about a time when your job required you to say how you
really felt about a situation. What did you say and how did you
say it?
Coping: Tell
me about a time when you had to cope with strict deadlines or
time demands. Give me an example.
Tolerance
or Ambiguity: Give me an example of a time when you had to deal
with frequent job changes or unexpected events on the job. What
does this situation say about your ability to work in an ambiguous
or unstructured circumstance?
Know
how to conduct yourself at the interview
Plan to arrive for your interview at least fifteen
minutes early.
Establish a friendly relationship with the secretary
or receptionist.
Be aware of your body language. Your tone of
voice, posture, etc., all give clues about your feelings and attitudes.
Develop a firm handshake and use it when introduced.
Maintain good eye contact. It’s key to
building trust in a relationship.
Address the interviewer by name.
Be positive. Keep the atmosphere friendly and
pleasant. Don’t put others down to make yourself look good.
Be a good listener. Be alert to nonverbal cues
indicating when you should start or stop talking. Don’t
be thinking of your response while the interviewer is still talking.
Above all, try to relax! Apprehension, tension
and anxiety are a normal part of the preinterview jitters. Relaxation
techniques and deep breathing exercises should help.
And, BE YOURSELF! Don’t try to change your
personality. Give the interviewer a chance to find out who you
are.
Know
what to bring to the interview
Extra copies of resumes
Transcript
List of references
Pen and paper (you can jot a few notes during
the interview, but most notes should be made directly following
the interview)
List of well thought out questions you have for
the interviewer
Know what to expect in the interview
Although every interview is different, most follow
a general pattern. A typical half-hour session can be roughly
divided into four segments.
The first 5 or 10 minutes are usually devoted
to establishing some rapport and opening the lines of communication.
Try to relax and enjoy this part of the conversation. The interview
begins the moment you introduce yourself and shake hands. Your
ability to converse and express yourself intelligently is being
measured.
The adept interviewer will move subtly from a
casual exchange to a more specific level of conversation. The
second part of the interview gives you a chance to answer some
‘where, when and why’ questions about your background-to
supply information that does not appear on your resume. This is
your chance to maximize whatever you have to offer. Don’t
monopolize the conversation; let the interviewer lead. But don’t
confine your statements to yes or no answers. As you communicate
information the employer will be looking for your logical organization
and presentation of thoughts.
Part three begins when the interviewer feels
your skills and interests have been identified and can see how
they fit the organization. If a good match seems possible, the
interviewer will begin discussing the company and the job opening.
The end of the interview is usually your chance
to ask any questions that had not been answered earlier. Two final
questions to ask might be, "Do you need any additional information?"
and "What is your time line in filling this position?"
After you leave the interview take a few minutes
to analyze how you did. What questions did you find difficult?
What did you forget to say? How can you improve on the next interview?
While the interview is still fresh in your mind write a thank-you
letter to the interviewer, reiterating your interest in the job
and recalling a significant fact or idea that will set you apart
from the other applicants. One paragraph is usually sufficient.
"The Personality Matching Technique"
(reprinted from: newsletter@collegegrad.com)
This technique is the secret to successful interviewing.
If you read nothing else, read this technique.
There is a simple key to success in interviewing that very few
people utilize. It is the process of mirroring the personality
of the person to whom you are speaking, a process that I refer
to as "Personality Matching." It is based upon the proven
fact that we like people who are like us. It is the halo effect
in action-anyone who is like me must be a good person. Result?
Instant rapport.
So how does one do this "personality matching
thing?" First match the voice and then the physical characteristics
of the interviewer. In matching the voices, the most important
aspect is to match the rate of speaking (tempo), then match the
pitch. In matching the physical characteristics, it is most important
to match (or at least reflect) the facial expressions, then the
posture (sitting back or forward, etc.). Although you should not
be trying to "mimic" (like a mime in action), you should
attempt to closely match him or her.
To be effective with this technique, you need
to first understand your own personality range. For some of us,
it is quite wide and variant. For others, it may be more narrow.
As an example, I consider myself to have a very wide personality
range-I am very comfortable in matching both the very flamboyant
and the very subdued. Each type is at an extreme end of my personality
range. Most people, however, operate in a somewhat narrower personality
range. The key is to be able to identify your personal bounds
of comforts.
So what do we do if the person we meet with is
talking a mile a minute? Should we try to artificially match that
person, if it is outside of our personality range? Quite simply,
no. To attempt to act like someone we are not would be "faking
it." It’s better known as being two-faced and in the
business world it can be a real killer. Some people end up getting
sucked into this trap in order to get the job, then go through
a continual living hell as they are forced to fake it for the
duration of the job. Don’t do it. But you should be aware
of what your personality range is and be willing to move fluidly
within that range to accommodate the personality of the individual
with whom you are meeting.
Personality matching does not mean perfect matching
(it never is). It does mean that we should do our best to come
as close as possible to matching the other person’s personality
within the bounds of our own personality range. Keep in mind that
there is no "perfect personality" (or perfect anything
on this earth, for that matter) since what is perfect to one will
always be lacking in some way to another. Perfection is relative
to the recipient. Remember that.
As a side note, think about someone you truly
dislike. In most cases, it’s because the person is outside
your personality range, usually in the upper extreme (too loud,
too pushy, too cocky, too egotistical, too stuffy, etc.)-they
are "too much" of something that you do not embrace
in your own personality. If you have a "too much" area
in your own personality, you are best advised to bring it under
strict control, not only in interviewing, but in your life in
general.
If you put
into practice this one technique, you will likely increase your
chances of success dramatically, and not just in interviewing.
Personality matching is a technique that you can use in virtually
all areas of human communications.
