Tag: Interviewing

Should You Script Your Answers to Interview Questions?

The simple answer is yes.  Scripting the answers to questions ahead of time gives you the opportunity to think through the answers more thoroughly.  You can work on your answers and try different things.

What Questions Should I Prepare For?

When I work with someone to improve their interviewing, I usually pick out questions that are most likely to be asked in the types of interviews they will have.  I also try to ask questions that get to the heart of their weaknesses.  I don’t do this to be mean; I just want them prepared for these questions.

Hopefully, you have an idea of the types of interviews you can expect in your field.  If you don’t, work on a wide range of questions, or research the industry until you have a better idea.

Then, script as many questions as you can.

But If I Write My Answers Out, Won’t It Sound Canned?

That’s true only if you try to memorize the answers.  I don’t recommend memorizing answers.  This can make it very difficult to adapt to unforeseen questions.  The reason you want to script your answers is to get an idea of what works and what doesn’t.

Have you ever been talking with someone and ended up on a tangent that went in a direction you really wish you had avoided?  I know I have.  Having an idea of what the concepts you want to emphasize can help keep you on track.

Early in my career, I made a lot of mistakes interviewing.  I can remember getting a lot of the same questions over and over.  Every now and then, I would try answering a different way. Usually, this didn’t work out well, and I would know as I was finishing the answer “that was a mistake – better not use that story again.”

It’s a lot better to practice when it doesn’t count, instead of waiting to experiment in an important interview.

Should I Write Out The Entire Answer?

For the few answers you script, yes.  Get a few answers on paper and get comfortable with preparing this way.  Then, practice by answering out load and rehearse a lot of questions.  Pay attention to where you get hung up. Revise it and keep reading it until it’s smooth.

When you get into the interview, just relax and create your answers as you go.  Don’t worry about remembering any of the answers that you wrote.  You will naturally develop answers that are similar to your practice.  Even though you will never use any of the answers you scripted verbatim in an interview, you will remember the practice and, you will be more confident.

How To Practice

Once you have rehearsed a bit, find someone to do a practice interview with you.  The interviewer should be someone you respect, and ideally, someone you don’t know very well.  You want to simulate a real interview as much as possible. Unfortunately, a close friend can’t do this for you.  A friend or family member won’t be able to create the same level of tension that exists in most interviews.  The best interviewer for a practice interview will also have a lot of experience interviewing and be able to critique you relative to other job seekers.

If you can’t find someone that can help you prepare, get a practice interview from an interview coach.  If you do this, you will not only be less likely to make a mistake in an interview, but you will also be more comfortable and confident with your interviewing.

7 Things You Need To Do Before Your Next Interview

When you go to an interview, good preparation is essential.  It will help your confidence level, avoid getting surprised by unexpected questions and allow you to provide the best presentation of your skills, abilities and potential. 

There are a ton of things you should do to get ready for an interview – so many, it’s almost overwhelming.  I like to keep things simple, so I broke it down to the seven most important steps.  If you cover these, you’ll be in better shape than most.  Don’t stop here – the more you prepare, the better, but make sure you hit these:

1. Why should the company hire you?

This question is huge and something many job seekers struggle to answer.  You need to be able to state, clearly and concisely, what value you bring to the company and to the specific manager you would work for.  Giving a compelling reason why you should be hired will set you apart.  One of the reasons people struggle with this question, is their reluctance to brag.  You shouldn’t be arrogant, but you need to be confident in the value you will provide and be able to talk about it.

2. What is the company looking for?

You need to know what the company and hiring manager are seeking.  This will help you tailor your answer to their specific needs.  If they need someone extremely good at managing projects, you want to emphasize your attention to detail, organizational skills, abilities to coordinate people and overall project management skills.  If you don’t know this is important, you may skip discussing it entirely – and hurt your chances of being hired.  To research this, study the job description and the job descriptions of similar positions. They will clue you in to the key priorites.

3. What’s new at the company?

You need to do your homework.  At the least, check out the company’s website and read the press releases and other news they have published.  After that, Google the company – I like to search under both Google News and Blogs to find out what people are writing about them.  You need to have good questions to ask at the end of each interview.  Ask about something major going on at the company that will impact the position you are interviewing for.  This will show that you did your homework and help you understand the company better.  It’s amazing how many job seekers skip this basic step.

4. What are the company’s mission statement and goals?

Most companies will publish their mission statement and corporate goals on their website.  Read these and get a feel for what’s important to the company.  This can give you an idea of the culture of the company and their values.  If you really like what you hear (the company’s values are probably consistent with yours) this can make a great question in the interview – “I saw in your mission statement that doing XYZ is really important to the company.  I value that a lot and was really impressed.  Can you tell how well the company is at following and achieving this mission?”

5. What are three things you have done successfully in your career that will help the company?

You need to be able to talk about your accomplishments.  Some accomplishments will be directly relevant to the company, others will just show your talent and track record of success.  Make sure you have at least three accomplishments, that you can discuss in detail, that are directly related to the job you are pursuing. 

6. Why is this position a good career move for you?

Companies want to hire people that will stay.  Turnover is expensive and minimizing turnover is a big priority.  As a result, it’s important for the hiring manager to see that the position is a good career move for you.  Be able to discuss why you want to leave your current job (or why you have already left).  Have a clear explanation of what you are looking for and why this motivates you.  This is where a lot of job seekers get tripped up with "being overqualified.”  If the hiring manager thinks you are only considering this job because you need a job right now, they may assume you will continue looking from the day you start.  This is a bad situation for them if it’s true.  Know why this is a good job and why you would want to stay long term and be able to talk about it.

7. Do you have all the details you need for the day of the interview?

There is a bunch of basic information you need to have ready before  you interview.  Directions to the location, the time of the interview and who to ask for when you get there, are some of the basics.  Make sure you have this information written down at least a day ahead of the interview.  On the day of the interview, you want to focus entirely on interviewing confidently.  Getting distracted and stressed out because you realize you forgot to MapQuest the location, right before you’re walking out the door, won’t help.  Take care of these tasks ahead of time and your interview will go more smoothly.

If you work on all seven of these questions, you will be much better prepared and more confident at your interview. 

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.

Unusual Interview Settings

The vast majority of interviews will be in a similar setting.  An individual’s office or a conference room with one or two interviewers and the job seeker.  This is typical and what most job seekers expect when the go for an interview. 

It’s not the only format used, though.  Hiring managers have a wide range of motivations to deviate from the standard.  The first step is knowing what to expect.

Off-site Interviews:  When companies replace key managers, they often don’t want the employees to know of the change until they have found the replacement.  They do this to maintain stability in the organization during the change.  Because of this, early interviews are often conducted at an off-site location.  This can be a hotel lobby, a private meeting room, another companies office such as a law firm the company uses or a recruiting firm’s offices.  Most of these locations will provide a private setting conducive to an interview and shouldn’t differ from a traditional interview setting much.

Lunch Interviews: Some hiring managers will schedule interviews at a restaurant.  This could be a breakfast, lunch or dinner, although lunch is most common.  If you have a full day of interviews at a company, one of the interviews should be a lunch interview.  There are two big differences between a lunch interview and a standard interview.  First, there are constant interruptions when you need to order, get your food and have your plates cleared.  Second, there’s a couple extra phases to the interview – ordering and eating.  When you receive your menu, find a safe pick on the menu quickly.  Often the hiring manager will pick a location they frequent and not need to look at the menu long.  After ordering, the interview will be most similar to a standard interview, since there are few distractions for the next 5-15 minutes.  Once the food arrives, the interview will slow so you both can eat, but it won’t stop.  Prioritize the interview over the food.  Good preparation should help avoid problems caused by distractions.

Facility Tours: Often, a facility tour will be part of an interview.  In large facilities, such a manufacturing plants and distribution centers, it can take upwards of an hour to walk the facility. The tour becomes an interview.  In a production facility, don’t touch anything and be careful.  It’s an unfamiliar environment and you haven’t been through the safety training – don’t find out where the hazards are by getting hurt.  During the tour, pay attention to the environment but focus on the interviewer. 

Open Office Interviews: Some interviewers will choose a setting that has activity and traffic.  Either they meet with you in their office and keep the door open with people coming and going, or they meet with you in an open area, such as a bullpen.  This environment can be intimidating since you don’t know where the next distraction is going to come from or who is listening to the interview.  The key is to stay relaxed.  Don’t let the distractions throw you off your game. 

Airport Interviews:  When the hiring manager travels a great deal, they may propose a first meeting at an airport during a layover in the city where the job seeker lives.  Ideally, you will find a quite, low traffic area for the interview, but often, this endsup being in a noisy restaurant.  Usually, this will be the first face-to-face interview.  The goal of the hiring manager is to learn a little about the job seeker’s personality and assess a few key skills.

There are a lot of other settings for interviews.  Don’t let an unusual setting sabotage your next interview.  The key is to prepare thoroughly.  Have a clear idea of the message you want to deliver and the details from your background that you will discuss.  You don’t want to be thrown a curve that you can’t hit in an unusual setting with a lot of distractions.

Do you have any examples of unusual interview settings?  Please email me or post a comment with your experiences.

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.


Get our book on behavioral interviewing.

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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.