Category: Interviewing

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.

Behavior Based Interviews

An increasingly common interview style is the behavioral interview.  With this interview, hiring managers attempt to assess candidates based on how they behaved in a variety of circumstances.

The rationale is to determine how an individual would perform by assessing how they have performed in similar situations in the past.

To interview effectively in a behavior based interview, job seekers need to be able to discuss, very specifically, what they have done.  An essential first step in preparing is to develop a selection of stories that  you can adapt to any question.

Behavior based questions typically follow the “Tell about a time when you…” format.  Each question will address one or more attributes that are important for the job.  The question is designed to help the hiring manager determine how you measure up with the attributes.

Many firms that utilize behavior based interviews will use the same or similar questions with every candidate.  They do this to make is much easier to compare candidates.

To be successful, the most important thing is to have clear, concise and organized answers.  Having interviewed a large number of job seekers, I’ve seen numerous individuals give answers that are difficult to follow.  This makes a very poor impression.  Another important factor is having a good grasp of you strengths and weaknesses.  Many job seekers have difficulty assessing themselves and even more trouble communicating their assessment.  If you want to make a positive impression, knowing what makes you attractive to an employer is critical.

Remember, you are competing against job seekers that have a similar background and the same level of experience (and perhaps more experience).  The fact that you can do the job got you the interview.  To land the job, you need to stand out.


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Your Questions

Every interview will conclude with the interviewer asking you if you have any questions. It’s expected that you will have a couple. Remember that you’re still being interviewed at this point, even though you’re asking the questions.

Five things you want to accomplish with the questions you ask:

  1. Get a better understanding of the position and the opportunity

  2. Learn more about the company

  3. Learn more about the culture and working environment

  4. Build a closer relationship with the interviewer

  5. Demonstrate that you have done your homework and prepared for the interview

Four common question types:

  1. Review the company’s website and read recent press releases. Ask a question about a new initiative the company is pursuing and how it will affect the company.

  2. Ask a question about an aspect of the job description not covered by the interviewer.

  3. Ask the interviewer to discuss why they joined the company and why they’re still there.

  4. Ask the interviewer to explain the key challenges that the position you are interviewing for needs to overcome.

One thing that many job seekers don’t consider is asking the same question to each interviewer. There’s no reason why you can’t get different perspectives. If you have a couple questions prepared, you may be able to use them through a full day of interviewing. Just remember, the questions need to be related to the interviewer – for example, an engineer shouldn’t ask technical questions about the position to interviewers from non-engineering fields. On the other hand, you could ask each interviewer how they feel about a newly announced plan for a corporate merger.

What to Take to An Interview

When you go for an interview, there are a few things you need to take, and a few others you should.

The Must Haves:

  • Directions to the location – Print out directions the night before an interview and make sure you take them. There’s nothing worse than realizing that you’re running late and your printer just ran out of ink.
  • Copies of your resume – Most of the interviewers you meet with will already have a copy of your resume. On the slight possibility that an interviewer does not have your resume on hand, you will appear very prepared by having one to provide. A more likely situation is when the interviewer has a copy but it is a low quality copy of the original. It’s common for resumes to get copied and recopied each time it’s passed on to another manager to review. If you see the copy of your resume is poor quality at the start of an interview, you may want to provide a clean copy.
  • A list of references – At some point in the hiring process, you will need to provide references. You should prepare this list at the start of your search and have it available. Usually, you will not be asked for references during an interview, but it can make a positive impression if you are prepared should the question come up.
  • A notepad – You will want to write down the name and title of everyone you meet with. Getting a business card is a good idea, since it will have the correct spelling and full contact information. If you can’t the notepad will be invaluable. There may also be details about the opportunity that you want to write down.
  • A pen – A notepad without a pen isn’t very useful.
  • A portfolio – A folder or portfolio is good to have in order to carry the copies of your resume, your references, the notepad and your pen. You can get a portfolio inexpensively at an office supply store, but may want to spend a little more on a high quality leather portfolio.
  • Your notes – It’s a good idea to review your interview prep notes, your resume and information you have gathered on the company just before you go in for the interview.
  • Documents the company requested – Some companies will ask you to bring a completed employment application or other documents.  If they ask for it, they’re going to expect you to have it.

The Should Haves:

  • A watch – You don’t want to run late. Try to be early. Make sure you know you are on time.
  • Your cell phone – If you get lost or end up running late, you will want to be able to contact the hiring manager.
  • Breath mints, a handkerchief and a comb – You don’t want your appearance to throw off your game. Having your hair a little messed up may not hurt the impression you make, but if it throws off your confidence, you’re toast.