At The Interview Don t Answer Questions
any years ago when I
hated what I was doing for When you go into an interview,
a living I was encouraged you need to leave your nerves at
by my career coach to write down the door. The best way to prepare
several short stories about times is to be yourself. The best way
and events in my life where I to be yourself is to tell your
influenced the outcome. I was own story (or stories). So before
stumped at first, but after a few the interview have your stories
days, I came up with over 15 ready to go.
pages of stories of times in my
life where I influenced the This is especially great for the
outcome and either grew myself competency-based interview being
and/or bettered the existence of used more today. In a traditional
either myself or others around interview, the interviewer will
me. ask you questions focused on
whether you have the skills and
So what does this have to do with knowledge needed to do the job. A
a job interview? competency-based interview goes
further by asking you additional
If you read other books on job questions about your character
interviews, you'll notice they and personal attributes that can
feed you lists of interview better determine whether you fit
questions to learn answers to. An their corporate culture. These
interview is not an are called "behavioral
interrogation, however, it's a competencies".
conversation. To make it that way
you need to come armed with a A competency-based interviewer
multitude of small stories about will spend about half the
both your business and personal interview on your job skills, and
life. about half on your behavioral
competencies. He or she will be You may want to start by
looking for evidence of how you developing your stories around
have acted in real situations in these areas:
the past. So having your stories
ready to go plays very well for A. Times where you either made
this type of interview. money or saved money for your
current or previous company.
A company wants to find out:
B. A crisis in your life or job
1. Are you an asset or liability? and how you responded or
In other words, will you either recovered from it.
make money or save money for the
company? C. A time where you functioned as
part of a team and what your
2. Are you a team player? Will contribution was.
you fit into the corporate
hierarchy or be like sand in the D. A time in your career or job
gears? Can you take and give (if where you had to overcome stress.
appropriate) orders?
E. A time in your job where you
3. Will you fit into the company provided successful leadership or
culture? They don't want prima a sense of direction.
donnas.
F. A failure that occurred in
The best way to do that is to your job and how did you overcome
take the initiative and have it.
several personal stories that you
can tell, taking maybe 30 to 90 G. Any seminal events happened
seconds each. during your career to cause you
to change direction and how that
worked out for you.
It’s the conversation that wins
I want to emphasize that an an interview, and
interview should not be an
interrogation. It should be a It’s the conversation that wins
conversation between two equals. the job
When you accomplish this you come
away a step closer to your goal To have a conversation, have your
of landing the job you really stories ready.
want, because…
About the Author:
Joe Turner makes it easy to quickly land that next job. Learn insider job search tips from top recruiters. To claim your free 6-part Recruiter Secrets Minicourse, visit http://www.jobchangesecrets.com/Free_Job_Search_Tips.html
Read more articles by: Joe Turner
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