On a regular basis, I get calls from people saying that they have been called for an interview at short notice and they are completely unprepared.
I need some interview coaching they will say adding what questions do you think I will be asked?
What questions will I be asked is the key part of their query to which the short answer is, I haven’t a notion what questions will be asked. How could I possibly know?
During interview preparation I find people tend to focus too closely on the details of what they do in the course of a day’s work.
However, interviews tend to be fairly broad based on the first meeting. It’s the second or third interview gets more and more detailed as candidates work their way through the process.
So, it is reasonable to assume that if you have been called for an interview there is something or many things in your CV that were of interest. Someone decided they wanted to talk to you further.
Therefore, it goes without saying that you need to rehearse in your mind all the relevant experience you have had and that would be of interest to your potential employer.
The Interview Questions
So this comes back to the questions you may be asked?
Thinking in too much detail when trying to anticipate questions you might be asked opens up huge amounts of options. The list of standard questions an interviewer would fill pages and pages of A4 text.
So reduce the odds and think of topics under which you may be asked.
As an example, if you were asked to guess the colour of the next car coming around the corner on a busy road, I would imagine that your chances of getting that right would be in the 100’s to one at the very least.
Now if you were asked what would be the make of the next car, it would immediately reduce the odds of a right answer to 10 to one or thereabouts. Likewise, if anticipating interview questions reduce the odds in your favour.
PAR
I suggest as a preparation exercise to take a page and write down five or six of the key heading under which you know you will be asked.
If for example, you are a Sales Manager it would be fair to say that you will be asked questions under the headings of;
Your sales strategy – budgeting and forecasting – branding – customer relations – reporting – advertising, etc, etc.
Now under each of these headings think back over your career and recall two situations that you were involved in under each of these headings highlighting where;
– You had an issue or a problem you had to deal with
– What you did about each issue
– the result you achieved, which is hopefully something positive such as an increase in revenue or gross margin, a reduction in discounts or any other achievement worth talking about.
In short, you will define a Problem, the Action you took and the Result achieved. You could call this your list of PAR’s.
By doing this you will be recalling events from the past, recalling every little detail about what and how you dealt with an issue and importantly the result you achieved. You will be reviewing this in your mind, refreshing your memory so when asked a question you will respond immediately, enthusiastically and with great detail of how you dealt with a similar situation in the past.
There will be no ah’ing, hesitation, and head scratching while you try to recall a past event. It will be all ‘pre-thought’ through allowing for an instant response.
It is important to do this preparation exercise again and again.
I meet clients who insist they are fully familiar with their career history, but in the stressful environment of an interview, they forget vast amounts of detail that they thought they knew off word perfect. Without extensive preparation, you will leave an interview furious with yourself because you forgot to say this or that.
Your Career and Your Skills
During an interview, you will be asked about only two things; your career history which we have just covered and your skill sets. That is what you’re good at, where your talents lie and/or the kind of person you are.
That is what you’re good at, where your talents lie and/or the kind of person you are.
Your skills need to be thought through carefully and rehearsed in your mind so when asked, for example, how do you deal with conflicting demands on your time’, you will have a convincing answer.
The final part of your preparation is listing the skills you have which can be a difficult task to do when you are assessing yourself.
Go back to your list of PAR’s and look at the results section and on each line ask yourself ‘what skills do I possess that made this achievement come about?
With some thought, you will identify skills that repeat several times, which is proof positive they are true skills of yours. Well thought through and well practised along with your PAR’s you will enter your interview fully prepared and answering all questions fully, concisely and in an informative manner and showing yourself to be on top of your game.
Having done good careful preparation you should have five headings written on your page with two examples under each.
Five times two is ten which means you will have ten real examples of tasks or achievements fully thought through.
If any one of your examples doesn’t answer a question in full, then part of one and part of another will nearly always provide a good coherent and practical example. Your response will be instant and convincing because you will have instant recall.
Add a smile while you’re at it and you’re a winner.
Colm Cavey has over 24 years’ experience in helping people change careers and find the kind of job they want. Colm can review your CV, help you organise your job hunt and provide one to one interview and presentation coaching or all of those elements together in a full Career Change programme. To find out more about Colm you can contact him directly on 086-3017207 or via his company Professional Career Consulting