TIPS ON TACKLING THE JOB INTERVIEW
No employment can be had without passing the ubiquitous job interview. Even if you’ve already submitted your curriculum vitae and credentials, and passed an exam or two, you’ll still have to go through the interview process. These few hours of face-to-face time with the hiring manager, will have a huge impact on whether you land the job or not. Ergo, beyond preparing your resume or portfolio, you’ll also need to prepare for your interviews.
But how do you prepare for an interview when you don’t know what questions will be thrown at you? To equip yourself for something you can’t foresee, you need to understand the hiring manager’s objective at the interview. Knowing what information they are trying to cull from their face-to-face time with you will help you prepare and address the questions they’ll be asking.
The first objective of the hiring manager is to get a sense of what it would be like to work with you.
To this end you want to let them know that you will be a contributing member of the team and that you will be easy to work with. So in as much as you’ll be showcasing your knowledge and expertise, a large part of the interview will also be social. Often times however, job seekers treat the interview as an oral exam with right and wrong answers, that needs to be aced. The problem with this approach is that, you’ll be so focused and giving the interviewer what you think he or she wants to hear that the interviewer won’t get to experience your social skills, much less imagine what it would be like to work with you on their team.
Instead of viewing the interview as an oral exam of sorts, try to view the interviewer as someone gauging if you could be a possible team mate. In this sense you, you merely have to show yourself – which essentially is your shared interest with the interviewer. Having this perspective puts you both on the one path of trying to achieve the same goal of getting to know each other. In this space you are working together solving the same problem and more likely to build rapport. In so doing you’ll be able to let the hiring manager imagine what it would be like to work with you.
Coming from this more positively engaging space, you would more likely treat the interviewer as you would a colleague you are comfortable with – leaning in, being in sync, smiling and engaging with energy and enthusiasm. Likewise the interviewer is more likely to mirror this language back and converse with you as if you were already part of the organization.
The second objective of the hiring manager at the interview is to assess whether you can and are willing to learn.
Even if you already have the skills and experience that the organization needs, you will still need to learn some things along the way. You will have the opportunity to demonstrate your openness to learning when a question crops up that you don’t fully understand, or don’t know the answer to. First of all resist the urge to bluff. Interviewers are so used to seeing this that they can smell it a mile to way. Second, know and accept that not knowing the answer is not a sign of weakness. It in fact is a chance to show that you have the capacity and are willing to learn. When this scenario pops up, be honest and admit that there’s something that you do not know or do not fully understand, or that it simply is something that is unfamiliar and not yet something you’ve encountered before. From there you can repeat back to the interviewer how you understood the question, or ask some clarification on some of the unfamiliar parts of the question so you can give a more informed answer. You can also ask the interviewer if they would like to hear how you would approach a first time challenge or issue. Or you could ask them if they would like to brief you on how their organization normally does it, it or both. In this way, you are able to show how you would approach a problem and while at the same time being open to learning.
Inquiring also whether the company provides seminars and classes or offers continuing education opportunities or support is another way to let the hiring manager know that you are interested in further development.
The third objective of the interviewer at the interview is to find out if you are a self-starter who takes the initiative.
Going to a job interview completely prepared is a great way to demonstrate your effort and commitment. Take the time and initiative to research on the company and have a clear knowledge of what the company does, its history, strengths and weaknesses. If you know people who have or still work there you can also ask them for inside information. Also take the time to practice your answers to common job interview questions. During your practices you’ll spot gaps and find areas where you’ll stumble. Going through the practice and troubleshooting will allow you to say your answers the right way when it matters while at the same time looking and sounding polished, confident and prepared. Don’t take the chance of “winging it” for common interview questions. You’ll have many opportunities to be spontaneous and improvise when you come across questions that you haven’t prepared for.
Although these aren’t the only information that hiring managers want to cull from you at the interview, you can bet that these will definitely always on their list. So the key really is to find out what the interviewer really wants to find out about you even before the interview and well before you are hired. Armed with this knowledge, you’ll be able to demonstrate them even before they are asked.
