Job Interview Techniques Q: Tell me about yourself? Trap: . Many candidates, unprepared for the question, skewer themselves by rambling, recapping their life story, delving into ancient work history or personal matters. Ans: Start with the present and tell why you are well qualified for the position. Remember that the key to all successful interviewing is to match your qualifications to what the interviewer is looking for. In other words you must sell what the buyer is buying. This is the single most important strategy in job hunting. Q:What are your streanghts?
Trap: You know that your key strategy is to first uncover your interviewers greatest wants and needs before you answer questions. And from question 1, you know how to do this. Ans: Prior to any interview, you should have a list mentally prepared of your greatest strengths. You should also have, a specific example or two, which illustrates each strength, an example chosen from your most recent and most impressive achievements. Then, once you uncover your interviewers greatest wants and needs, you can choose those achievements from your list that best match up. Q: What are your weaknesses?
Trap: Beware this is an eliminator question, designed to shorten the candidate list. Any admission of a weakness or fault will earn you an A for honesty, but an F for the interview. Ans: Nobody is perfect, but based on what you have told me about this position, I believe I had make an outstanding match. I know that when I hire people, I look for two things most of all. Do they have the qualifications to do the job well, and the motivation to do it well? Everything in my background shows I have both the qualifications and a strong desire to achieve excellence in whatever I take on.
So I can say in all honesty that I see nothing that would cause you even a small concern about my ability or my strong desire to perform this job with excellence. Q: Tell meabout some thing you did- or failed to do- that you now feel a little ashamed of? Trap: There are some questions your interviewer has no business asking, and this is one. But while you may feel like answering, “none of your business,” naturally you can’t. Some interviewers ask this question on the chance you admit to something, but if not, at least they’ll see how you think on your feet.
Ans: “I also like to make each person feel like a member of an elite team, like the Boston Celtics or LA Lakers in their prime. I have found that if you let each team member know you expect excellence in their performance…if you work hard to set an example yourself…and if you let people know you appreciate and respect their feelings, you wind up with a highly motivated group, a team that’s having fun at work because they are striving for excellence rather than brooding over slights or regrets. ” Q; Why are you leaving your position?
Trap: Never badmouth your previous industry, company, board, boss, staff, employees or customers. This rule is inviolable: never be negative. Any mud you hurl will only soil your suit. Ans: Never lie about having been fired. It is unethical – and too easily checked. But do try to deflect the reason from you personally. If your firing was the result of a takeover, merger, division wide layoff, etc. , so much the better. But you should also do something totally unnatural that will demonstrate consummate professionalism. Even if it hurts , describe our own firing – candidly, succinctly and without a trace of bitterness – from the company’s point-of-view, indicating that you could understand why it happened and you might have made the same decision yourself. Trap: Never badmouth your previous industry, company, board, boss, staff, employees or customers. This rule is inviolable: never be negative. Any mud you hurl will only soil your suit. Ans: Never lie about having been fired. It is unethical – and too easily checked. But do try to deflect the reason from you personally. If your firing was the result of a takeover, merger, division wide layoff, etc. so much the better. But you should also do something totally unnatural that will demonstrate consummate professionalism. Even if it hurts , describe your own firing – candidly, succinctly and without a trace of bitterness – from the company’s point-of-view, indicating that you could understand why it happened and you might have made the same decision yourself. Q: Wahy i should hire you? Trap: Believe it or not, this is a killer question because so many candidates are unprepared for it. If you stammer or adlib you have blown it.
Ans: By now you can see how critical it is to apply the overall strategy of uncovering the employer’s needs before you answer questions. If you know the employers greatest needs and desires, this question will give you a big leg up over other candidates because you will give him better reasons for hiring you than anyone else is likely to…reasons tied directly to his needs. Q: are not you over qualified for this post? Trap: The employer may be concerned that you will grow dissatisfied and leave. Ans: As with any objection, do not view this as a sign of imminent defeat.
It is an invitation to teach the interviewer a new way to think about this situation, seeing advantages instead of drawbacks. : “I recognize the job market for what it is – a marketplace. Like any marketplace, it is subject to the laws of supply and demand. So ‘overqualified’ can be a relative term, depending on how tight the job market is. And right now, it’s very tight. I understand and accept that. Q: Where do you see yourself five years from now? Trap: One reason interviewers ask this question is to see if you are settling for this position, using it merely as a stopover until something better comes along.
Or they could be trying to gauge your level of ambition. Ans: Reassure your interviewer that you are looking to make a long-term commitment…that this position entails exactly what you are looking to do and what you do extremely well. As for your future, you believe that if you perform each job at hand with excellence, future opportunities will take care of themselves. “I am definitely interested in making a long-term commitment to my next position. Judging by what you’ve told me about this position, it’s exactly what I’m looking for and what I am very well qualified to do.
In terms of my future career path, I am confident that if I do my work with excellence, opportunities will inevitable open up for me. It is always been that way in my career, and I’m confident I will have similar opportunities here. Q: Describe your ideal company. location and job. Trap: This is often asked by an experienced interviewer who thinks you may be overqualified, but knows better than to show his hand by posing his objection directly. So he will use this question instead, which often gets a candidate to reveal that, indeed, he or she is looking for something other than the position at hand.
Ans: The only right answer is to describe what this company is offering, being sure to make your answer believable with specific reasons, stated with sincerity, why each quality represented by this opportunity is attractive to you. Remember that if you are coming from a company that is the leader in its field or from a glamorous or much admired company, industry, city or position, your interviewer and his company may well have an “Avis” complex. That is, they may feel a bit defensive about being “second best” to the place you’re coming from, worried that you may consider them bush league.
Q: Why do you want to work at our company? Trap: This question tests whether you have done any homework about the firm. If you have not, you lose. If you have, you win big. Ans: This question is your opportunity to hit the ball out of the park, thanks to the in-depth research you should do before any interview. Best sources for researching your target company: annual reports, the corporate newsletter, contacts you know at the company or its suppliers, advertisements, articles about the company in the trade press. Q: Why have you been out of work so long? Trap: A tough question if you have been on the beach a long time.
You do not want to seem like damaged goods. Ans: You want to emphasize factors which have prolonged your job search by your own choice. After my job was terminated, I made a conscious decision not to jump on the first opportunities to come along. In my life, I have found out that you can always turn a negative into a positive IF you try hard enough. This is what I determined to do. I decided to take whatever time I needed to think through what I do best, what I most want to do, where I’d like to do it…and then identify those companies that could offer such an opportunity.
Q: Tell me about a situation when your work was criticized? Trap: This is a tough question because it is a more clever and subtle way to get you to admit to a weakness. You can not dodge it by pretending you have never been criticized. Everybody has been. Yet it can be quite damaging to start admitting potential faults and failures that you did just as soon leave buried. This question is also intended to probe how well you accept criticism and direction. Ans: Of course, no one is perfect and you always welcome suggestions on how to improve your performance.
Then, give an example of a not-too-damaging learning experience from early in your career and relate the ways this lesson has since helped you. This demonstrates that you learned from the experience and the lesson is now one of the strongest breastplates in your suit of armor. If you are pressed for a criticism from a recent position, choose something fairly trivial that in no way is essential to your successful performance. Add that you’ve learned from this, too, and over the past several years/months, it is no longer an area of concern because you now make it a regular practice to…etc.
Q: What makes you angry? Trap: You do not want to come across either as a hothead or a wimp. Ans: Give an answer that’s suited to both your personality and the management style of the firm. Here, the homework you have done about the company and its style can help in your choice of words. “I am an even-tempered and positive person by nature, and I believe this helps me a great deal in keeping my department running smoothly, harmoniously and with a genuine esprit de corps.
I believe in communicating clearly what is expected, getti ng peoples commitment to those goals, and then following up continuously to check progress. Q: What changes would you make if you came on broad? Trap: Watch out! This question can derail your candidacy faster than a bomb on the tracks – and just as you are about to be hired. Reason: No matter how bright you are, you cannot know the right actions to take in a position before you settle in and get to know the operations strengths, weaknesses key people, financial condition, methods of operation, etc.
If you lunge at this temptingly baited question, you will probably be seen as someone who shoots from the hip. Moreover, no matter how comfortable you may feel with your interviewer, you are still an outsider. No one, including your interviewer, likes to think that a know-it-all outsider is going to come in, turn the place upside down and with sweeping, grand gestures, promptly demonstrate what jerks everybody been for years. Ans: You, of course, will want to take a good hard look at everything the company is doing before making any recommendations.
Example: “Well, I would not be a very good doctor if I gave my diagnosis before the examination. Should you hire me, as I hope you will, I do want to take a good hard look at everything you are doing and understand why it is being done that way. I’d like to have in-depth meetings with you and the other key people to get a deeper grasp of what you feel you are doing right and what could be improved. (FIRST IMPRESSION AND BODY LANGUAGE) It takes ten seconds to make a first Impression and a Life time to undo it. 93% of Communication is Non-Verbal.
Out of this 55% is through Body Language and 38% is Tone of Voice and Balance 7% of Total Communication is Verbal. When you walk into an Interview room, walk with a little bounce, showing Enthusiasm and Energy. Do not show Nervousness. Stand tall and then walk into the room. Keep right hand free, Interviewer may be interested to shake hand. Keep your legs still and do not shake them. Keep your legs together or close at ankles. Men close at knees. No figure 4 posture. It depicts arrogance. Do not clear your throat. Try not to use “Yeah or Ya” —- Say “Yes”. Good Luck!! Jehangir Mushtaq Khan