It looks like your resume did a great job for you, so did you while screening, once you are invited for a personal interview with a potential employer. We do not intend to couch you on the importance of being polite, punctual, properly dressed and groomed when you go to the interview. We are sure you know that well. We just wanted to give you some basics of what the interviewing process particularly entails and what phases of interview to be prepared for? Moreover, what can affect an interview decision and how to avoid disappointing results?
The purpose of the well prepared, thought through interview is to collect more information about the applicant. The information that stands beyond what is laid out in you resume. To preserve precious interview time, try not to repeat literally everything what was previously discussed in the phone screening with the same interviewer. If asked, be prepared to elaborate on what you touched on in previous conversation providing some new essential details about your work experience and future aspirations. Keep the interviewer interested and throw in some new relevant details. Usually, in the beginning, the interviewer gives you a chance to talk about the highlights of your background, your achievements and most significant milestones in your career. That is a moment when your thoroughly prepared homework should come in. It is a time for your short presentation – your 3-5 minutes of fame. Keep in mind, that while you may have all reasons to be proud of your career achievements, the interviewer, as you speak, will be thinking about what it is to them in all your achievements.
Allegedly, interviews are conducted to assess the candidate’s job knowledge and general suitability for the role. In practice, the main object of the interview is to assess personal traits of the candidate such as:
- Conscientiousness
- Social skills
- Confidence
- Initiative
- Personal attitude
- Team work ability or ability to work on your own (depending on the job)
- Flexibility etc.
Interviews can be structured and unstructured. The unstructured interview is an informal conversation between the interviewer and interviewee. The interviewer does not have questions prepared in advance. The questions emerge depending on how the interview develops. No surprise that such interviews usually end up with poor hiring results. While making decision the interviewer relies only on his or her impression of the candidate and might not remember all particularities after the interview, especially when there are many of them.
Structured interviews are easy to distinguish. The interviewer has a list of questions and makes detailed notes of the candidate’s answers as they speak. Moreover, all candidates are asked the same questions and all answers are rated after the interview. Only these rating results serve as a ground for decision making (no gut feelings).
The structured employment interviews can be divided into three major categories:
- Situational interview
- Behavioral interview
- Comprehensive structured interview
In both behavioral and situational interviews questions are focused on behaviors or samples of different work situations but not on self-evaluation. The difference between behavioral and situational interview is as follows: In behavioral interviews candidates are asked to give examples of what they actually did in a given situation at work, while in situational interviews candidates suggest what they would do in a hypothetical situation. It is important to know the difference and not to interchange those types of questions in the interview. Besides, it is useful to have a couple of good examples ready for the interview. Think of your achievements and accomplishments both recent and distant ones. Illustrate that you have been developing your skills through your entire career.
Third type of interview is comprehensive structured interview and is a combination of a little bit of everything: job knowledge, personal characteristic, situational interview and willingness to do the job.
Willingness to do the job requires specific attention. In order to tackle these questions successfully you have not only to demonstrate enthusiasm about the job but also have an intimate understanding of what the job entails. There was an interview once for the position of a teacher’s assistant. A young lady that was interviewed for this role generally made a good impression on an interviewer until she mentioned that she hates typing. Needless to say that she did not get an offer, as 70 % of the job involved typing.
Other than by the context, interviews are distinguished by the form.
More than one interviewer can be present at one time in the interview. This type of interview is called a panel interview. The panel interview requires significant concentration from the candidate because to find yourself in front of a number of demanding people might be quite intimidating. However, do not forget to keep an eye contact with all interviewers, not only with that one who asks questions.
Quite overwhelming might be also a serial interview, when you meet with several interviewers in sequence. There is a greater chance to establish a good rapport with an interviewer in a tête-à-tête. However, certain attention is required as well. You need to remember what you have said in each and every interview, because all interviewers usually meet afterwards and share their opinions of candidates. In order to avoid any contradictions you need to be consistent and honest as far as possible.
In regards to the questions that are asked during these different kinds of interview, they may vary from pretty plain to very tricky. In any case you have to show enthusiasm to do the job and persuade the interviewer that you have all necessary skills and experience. If you happen not to have ALL of them, be honest and say so, but at the same time you know how to obtain necessary skills fast and prove it with examples from your past experience.
At the end of the interview there is usually a time for the candidate’s questions. As we already mentioned in our other articles: interview is a mutual process. You cannot come for an interview without your list of questions prepared. The questions you ask will say a lot about you: your intelligence, knowledge of the company, understanding of the job, your willingness to do the job and your personality. Eventually, you will be accessed not only by your answers to the interviewer’s questions but to an equal extent by the questions you ask. Your questions can be used as an additional chance to illustrate your suitability for the job.
Interview feedback
Unfortunately, it became a common practice when a job applicant after going through a long selection process did not receive any feedback after the final interview. Interviewers usually promise to get back to the candidate as soon as a decision is made, even if the decision is against making an offer. As a matter of fact, very rarely job applicants receive a feedback. Guess why? Giving a feedback, especially a negative one, requires sensitivity and certain qualifications. Though it must be part of the HR job, not all HR specialists possess those qualifications or are just reluctant to get into this somewhat stressful situation.
Our advice would be to be professional and call your recruiter or hiring manager any way, even if you did not hear from them when promised and obviously you are not their choice. By doing this, you will once again demonstrate your interest in the company and the job. You never know what might happen in the future. Being rejected in the first place, you might be a suitable candidate for another role at the same company. Keeping friendly relationship with the employer or the recruiter may give you a chance to hear from them again, should they happen to look for someone with your qualifications. In other words, keep in touch even with those who turned you down for the time being.
In our article Hiring Process – Step-By-Step we also touched on the main types of the selection interview.
Most popular interview questions are listed in the article Interview Questions.