Category: Interview Examples

Interview Recording Assessment

I’m continuing this week with the interview recording from the administrative assistant I started last week.  The question in this recording is:

Tell me about a time when you helped a coworker improve their performance.

Listen to the Interview Answer(Time 1:37)
This is interview was recorded and posted with the permission of the job seeker.

The answer is in two parts – the initial answer and the follow up.  The initial answer was pretty good.  She described the situation and the actions she took well.  I thought the description of the 360 feedback was great.  This answer also gave her the opportunity to talk about the person she supervises.  Many admin assistants have little to no supervisory experience.  Highlighting that she manages someone in this role demonstrates leadership experience and shows that she was successful enough to be put in a lead position.  All of this is good.

The thing that is missing is whether she was successful.  My follow up question addressed this by asking what success she had had with this.  Her answer focused on providing more details about the situation.  She did indicate that there was improvement but it wasn’t clear how much improvement was made or the benefit to the company.

A much better answer would have included specific results.  Did the person she coached perform better after the coaching?  What feedback did they receive from others in the office?  The coaching process started with a 360 feedback exercise – results of a follow up to this would be great to discuss.  If there wasn’t a follow up, then the comments of one or more people in the office would help.

The key is to show a hiring manager success.  Telling them that you were responsible for something doesn’t mean you were successful.  You have to give examples to stand out.

Recorded Job Interview

For the last month, I’ve been posting recordings from an interview with a transitioning military officer.  This week, I’m making a shift to another job seeker – a professional administrative assistant.  Top-notch admin assistants are unbelievably valuable to the companies and executives they work for.  This individual has some great experiences, but has never been trained to interview effectively.

This is the first question from the interview:

Tell Me About Yourself

Listen to the Answer

(Time 1:08)
This is interview was recorded and posted with the permission of the job seeker.

Like many job seekers I’ve interviewed, this individual didn’t see the point of the Tell Me About Yourself question.  It’s not designed to find out about an individual’s personal life.  It’s intended to get picture of the professional’s background, experience and potential.  (By the way, I’ve heard how many dogs and cats job seekers have as an answer to this more times than I can count – it has yet to persuade me to hire someone or put them in front of a client.)

After her answer, I had to ask the follow up question, “Walk me through your career progression” to get at the information I was looking for.  Even with the answer to the follow up question, the job seeker missed a great opportunity to highlight why she should be hired.  This answer was a list of facts about what roles she had held.  This is the time in an interview that she should be highlighting her best accomplishments and why she is successful.

Another problem with this answer is that it’s way too short.  This candidate has done some great things in her career but the entire question, answer, follow up and answer took only a minute and eight seconds.  The amount of time she spent on her current role – a position she has held for several years, was two seconds.

One last note about this answer…  The job seeker starts by saying they are a “full adult.”  This may seem like a very odd thing in an interview, but it’s a result of the misconceptions that surround admin assistants.  It stems from the stereotype that admin’s are teenagers right out of high school doing menial hourly work.  The truth is far from this.  Good admin assistants are not kids and the work they do is not menial.  Many executives will say that a good admin assistant is the most valuable member of their team.  It unfortunately most don’t get the respect they deserve.

Military Officer Interview: Professional Development Question

I have one final interview answer from a transitioning military officer.  Each week for the last four weeks, I’ve shared one question from this interview.  Next week, I’ll have a recording from a different interview.

The answer in the recording below is to this questions:

What are you better at now than a year ago?

Most interviews will have a question regarding your ongoing professional development.  Asking how you have improved is one style of these questions.

Listen to the Answer (Time 1:18)

Tomorrow, I’ll post my assessment and recommendations for this answer.  I welcome any comments you may have regarding this answer.

Note: I only record and post interviews when I have the permission of the job seeker prior to conducting the the interview.

Military Officer Interview Assessment

Yesterday, I posted the recording of a transitioning military officer I interviewed. The question asked was:

Tell me about a time when your planning led to positive results.

This is a typical behavior based question and gives a job seeker the opportunity to discuss an accomplishment demonstrating their planning and organization.

The answer the transitioning military officer gave reviewed a good accomplishment from his background. The delivery did not make as good an impression as possible.

The primary problem with the answer was that it used too much jargon. The background of the situation was presented clearly. From there, it will was disorganized and the jargon made the answer tough to follow.

All job seekers need to be careful when using technical terms. A word you use every day at one employer may be unheard of at another. This is especially important for transitioning military officers to remember. The language used in the military can be vastly different from the civilian world.

To alleviate this problem, make sure you explain technical terms, or leave out the term and just give a descriptive explanation. In the recording, the individual talks about the "OPG-SOP" and explains that this is the Operational Planning Group Standard Operating Procedure. Using the acronym and then the formal name is unnecessary. It can distract the listener while they try to digest and remember the term. A better approach would be to just state that he "developed the standard operating procedures for our group." This is much shorter and simpler, and yet still conveys sufficient information.

Another problem with this answer was that it didn’t provide a tangible example of the results. There should be little doubt that strategic planning would be improved with more communications, better organization and improved cooperation. What isn’t clear is how significant this change was. All it would take is one example of a project that was improved in a clear, measurable way because the planning process was improved.

The answer also missed an opportunity. Although it demonstrated good strategic thinking and process improvement skills, there was nothing about how this experience would help another employer. The job seeker is not going to face an identical challenge later in their career. Despite this, the experience should help the individual to be successful in other roles. Great interviewers take experiences like this and directly show how the experience will benefit an employer.

In this interview, concluding the answer with a much stronger statement would have been better. Something like this:

Improving our planning process showed me how important it is to coordinate the activity of a decentralized team. The improvement we saw from the cross-talk between departments was significant. With this experience, I know that in the future, I will be able to improve an organization by maximizing the coordination of work between departments.

The more specific you can make the benefits you achieved in the past and will be capable of achieving in the future, the better.

Transitioning Military Officer Interview Recording

I have another interview answer from a transitioning military officer to share.  The question I asked was:

Tell me about a time when your planning led to positive results.

Listen to the answer (Time 3:28)

Just as I did the last two weeks, I’m posting the recording today, and will post my assessment of the answer tomorrow.  Please feel free to post your thoughts as a comment.

Note: I only record and post interviews when I have the permission of the job seeker prior to conducting the the interview.

Assessment of the Recorded Interview

Yesterday’s post contained a recording an interview question and answer.  The interview was with a transitioning military officer and the question asked was “Tell me about a time when you helped someone improve their performance.” Below is my assessment of the answer.

The interview answer was a pretty good answer. It directly related to the question and showed the success of the job seeker. The conclusion was strong, providing clear benefits to the organization.

Unfortunately, the answer provided too much detail of unimportant information and not enough detail of some key points.

The job seeker spent a lot time explaining the circumstances. A much shorter description of the responsibilities of the individual being mentored would have been better. For example, explaining why the Department of Agriculture needs to do their inspection doesn’t add value. What is important is that the subordinate needed to learn how to manage that process.

The other area that could be improved is related to the actions of the job seeker. He described some of the activities he performed to develop the individual, but his explanation was light. He emphasized that her primary need was to gain experience.  With this goal, he had to take a more supportive approach, rather than just driving performance.  To make a stronger impact, the job seeker should have clearly described the coaching he provided.  Describing the expectations he set, the frequency of his reviews, and the topics he coached would have created a clearer picture of what he did.

The key is to make it absolutely clear to the interviewer how you achieved specific results.  This allows the interviewer to picture you providing similar results in their organization.  One technique with this answer that may have been successful would be to describe a single coaching session, or even just a portion of the conversation from a coaching session.

Try to keep your answers on topic, well organized and specific and you will make a better impression. Overall, this answer was good. It would probably be adequate in most interviews. Making a few improvements could change it into a real winner.

 

What any aspects of the answer that you think could have been improved?  Please leave a comment with your thoughts.

Interview Recording: Developing a Team Member

Below is a recording of an interview answer given by a transitioning military officer.  The question I asked is a typical behavioral based interview question:

“Tell me about a time when you helped someone improve their performance.”

Listen to the Answer (Time:  3:25)

Please post your comments on the answer this individual gave.  In tomorrow’s post, I’m going to discuss my recommendations.

This is the second in a series of recorded interviews that I will be posting.  My goal is to post at least one recorded interview question per week. Interviews were recorded and posted with the prior permission of the job seeker.

Interview Assessment

In the recording I posted yesterday, you heard me ask a transitioning military office the ice breaker question that kicks off most interviews – "Tell me about yourself." 

The answer included the officer’s military career in chronological order and concluded with some information about hobbies.

Overall, this wasn’t a bad answer and is typical of a lot of job seekers.  There were several areas where this could be improved. 

First, the individual focused on the career stops they made, and not the overall progression.  For example, the listing of the locations of their postings didn’t help the answer.  This information is on the resume.  There’s no need to repeat. 

Second, the individual listed very little in the way of accomplishments.  When you start an interview, you should discuss some of the high points of your career. 

Third, the individual didn’t discuss the reason he transitioned from Infantry to Strategic Plans.  This would have a great talking point.  A lot of job seekers fail to discuss why they made important career moves.  Explaining the motivation behind their career moves gives a great opportunity to highlight skills and abilities.  For example, this individual might have said something like this:

"I really enjoyed serving as an infantry officer was able to develop my leadership skills in this role.  Despite this, I had a significant desire to utilize my analytical skills in a more strategic role.  Moving into Strategic Plans allowed me to focus on developing these skills.  In particular, I was successful at… <insert short description of an accomplishment> …This experience helped me become a much more well rounded leader."

My example sheds some light on what motivates and interests the individual, it highlights a couple skills and it provides a specific accomplishment.

Fourth, the discussion of hobbies did nothing for the answer.  In a short answer like this, you only have a few minutes to discuss your entire career.  You should not run out of professional information to discuss in that time. 

Transitioning Military Officers: Interview Example

Recently, I conducted a practice interview a military officer preparing to transition into the civilian workforce.

As with most interviews, the first question I asked was “Tell Me About Yourself.”  Many interviews start with this and it’s a question many job seekers find challenging.  Listen to this individual’s answer and assess it for the following:

  • Did the individual answer the question asked?
  • Was the answer clear and easy to follow?
  • Was the answer concise?
  • Was the content appropriate, too detailed or not detailed enough?
  • Did the answer create a professional image?
  • What do you think the individual should have done differently?

Listen to the Answer

Tomorrow’s posting will have my assessment of job seeker’s answer.