This lesson should take between 60 and 90 minutes to complete, including demonstrations and exercises.
None
- Know what interviews are used for
- Conduct pre-interview research
- Recognise the types of questions used in interviews
- Perform well in an interview situation
QUESTION: Why do people interview potential employees?
Look for:
A CV is our own, personal marketing tool. It's used to get is into the interview room, but doesn't offer any guarantees about the candidate. That's what interviews are for.
EXERCISE: (10 minutes) In groups of three, discuss what makes a great candidate? Come up with a list of attributes that a good candidate should have.
Professionalism - Keeping up-to-date knowledge of the company Initiative – optimising your own knowledge to contribute to projects and general work
Responsibility - To understand your own responsibility for failure to fulfil duties and to understand the importance of balancing both personal objectives and the objectives of the company
Co-operation - Participating in cross functional teams and projects with positive and effective response and working together to achieve the same objective to reach the potential success
It's important to fully prepare for interviews.
SWOT is a technique that focuses on Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. It can be useful when preparing for an interview.
In addition, we should aim to know something about the company we are interviewing with:
- Statistics – company size, turnover, market share, key people, etc
- Key products and services
- Who are its competitors and how do they compare?
- What does the company see as its competitive edge?
- How does it market itself?
- What are the likely challenges and opportunities ahead?
- What are the projected trends in its market?
- What technology stack do they use?
- How does it compare to the technology stacks used by competitors?
Highlight: it is essential you do this not only for the company but also your application for the actual role.
EXERCISE: (10 minutes) Imagine we were interviewing at Historic Royal Palaces? The interview is at Hampton Court. What do you think we should know?
Look for: Who built the place? When? Why? How many properties do they look after? Who funds them?
EXERCISE: (15 minutes) Imagine we were interviewing at SkyBet. Where might we find out about the internal technology they use?
Look For: SkyBet Engineering blog, Engineering Twitter, GitHub, Twitter profiles for current Engineers etc.
QUESTION: What about if we were interviewing at Slack? Where do we get their internal tech stack?
Look For: Slack Engineering Blog, Editors Medium sites and their Twitter accounts.
- Know your CV
- Body Language
- Mirroring
Remember: The interview starts the moment you arrive! Here's an example!
Fundamentally, the interviewer is trying to answer three main questions:
- Can this person DO the job?
- WILL this person do the job?
- Will this person fit in?
A good interviewer will use a blend of different question types to get answers to the these three main considerations.
When answering questions, try to keep the following in mind
- Be concise - no waffle or repetition.
- There's nothing wrong with stopping and thinking before answering a question!
- Make sure you answer the actual question asked, not the one you want to answer.
- Know the point you want to make, state it, then stop.
- Resist the urge to repeat or re-emphasise. It can sound waffly and suggest you are filling the time.
- Listen to the question asked. Think before responding.
- Be enthusiastic!
- Keep things positive and avoid apologising (unless you've just spilled coffee on the interviewer, of course!)
- Feel free to backtrack and give better examples:
"Actually no, if I may, I will start again – I have a better example I would like to share with you."
Questions generally fall into one of these categories:
Competency based
"Tell me about a time when…"
Open-ended and give the candidate opportunity to provide EVIDENCE of certain competencies. These can be FULLY prepared for and you will most definitely be asked these.
Scenario based
"If you were…"
A hypothetical situation is articulated and you are expected to explain your response and decisions.
Technical
"What do you understand about...""
Straight-forward knowledge based, aimed to answer the “can they do the job’ question in the interviewer’s mind.
Business Acumen
"What do you know about the industry?"
Also known as Commercial Awareness; how well do you know industry? What’s topical? What’s the most recent news/development in the industry/with that brand?
Further investigation
"here’s the curve ball..."
Probing questions looking for more detail in background or reasons why you took a particular course of action. Can also include "curveball" questions.
Curveballs are designed to come in out of left-field, unexpected and potentially unrelated to the topic. They can happen at any point during an interview.
They are used very tactically and not in every interview; they’re designed to be tough! (A tough interview or ‘grilling’ can be a sign they’re interested in you! A brief 5-10 minute chat with few questions suggests they know all they need to know).
The questions and it’s answer is not so much the focus or the important thing here, it’s how you respond. Do you go to pieces or produce a sensible response?
An example from a live interview with a top Client for a Graduate Test & Project management role.:
"How long would it take you to swim 10,000 metres?"
QUESTION: What's a good answer to this?
EXERCISE: (10 minutes) Work in groups of two to come up with examples of each of these types of interview questions. Discuss.
Use the 🌟 technique.
- S - Situation: Set the Scene
- T - Task: What did you have to achieve?
- A - Action: What did you do?
- R - Result
###Phase One - Paired Interviews (1 hour)
EXERCISE: (15 mins) Split the class into pairs and ask them to interview one another. Your role will be to observe the interviews, circulating the room and providing help. Key areas to look into are eye contact, posture, well formulated answers, passionate responses, clarity of speech and cogent thought.
EXERCISE: (15 mins) Discuss as a class what went well in the interviews and where improvements could be made. Discover how people felt in the unusual role of interviewer and how it affected their perception of the interview process. From your observations provide help to the class in general.
EXERCISE: (15 mins) Split the class back up into pairs but in different roles so the interviewee becomes the interviewer. There should already be a marked improvement in the role playing but be on hand to continue to offer support.
EXERCISE: (10 mins) Discuss as a class what went well in the interviews and where improvements could be made. From your observations provide help to the class in general.
###Phase Two - Observed Interviews (1 hour)
Explain to the group that you are going to choose two different members of the group and interview them in front of the class. Ask for volunteers and try to pick a weaker group member and a stronger member to provide a comparison. Explain that you will conduct an interview and you expect the group to observe and provide valuable feedback on positive and negative attributed of the interviewee.
EXERCISE: (15 mins) First Interview. Conduct in front of the class. Get feedback from the class afterwards.
EXERCISE: (15 mins) Second Interview. Conduct in front of the class. Get feedback from the class afterwards.
- Tell me a little about yourself.
- Why are you interested in this position?
- What is your greatest strength?
- What is your greatest weakness?
- What do you know about the company?
- What’s your highest achievement so far?
- What’s your biggest mistake so far?
- Do you think you have the qualities to fill this position?
- What qualities do you think make a good leader?
- How would you describe your communication style?
- What do you like to do in your spare time?
- What’s the biggest problem you have ever helped to resolve and how?
- Are you an ambitious person? If so, what drives you?
- If a member of your team wasn’t pulling their weight, how would you deal with it?
- Do you prefer to work in a team or on your own?
- What would you do if you had an issue with another member on your team that impeded your work?
- How have you overcome a failure?
- Where do you see yourself in 5 years’ time?
- What is the best quality that you offer us?
- Explain Object-Oriented Programming to me
- TBC
- Tell me about a time when you had an urgent project that couldn’t be completed by the end of your normal work day? What was the situation and what did you do?
- What were the last 3 books that you read and why did you choose to read them?
- What organisations are you a member of that aid in your professional development?
- What activities, not mandated by your employer, have you done this past year to develop yourself professionally?
- Give me 4 to 6 ideas that you have had to grow your company.
- What things have you written to advance your business or your industry?
- The Three questions interviewers are trying to answer
- The importance of preparation.
- The Types of questions asked, and how to answer them.