What is appropriate to bring to an Interview?

godtabh

I have an interview next week.

It will be a “normal” competence based interview that I am sure will focus on project management, team work, interpersonal skills and technical capability.

A few of the competences will be based on work I have done previously. I have samples of this work in the form of 2 No. A4 brochure and the others I have put into a presentation I have prepared to help me get ready for the interview.

Is it appropriate to bring in the brochures and the presentation (on an iPad) to the interview given that I wasn’t asked to?

statss

I don't see how bringing them will harm your chances at all, in fact, it should result in the exact opposite.

Olidolly

It shows initiative ! Go for it and good luck

micosoft

Presuming an IT role but answer would remain the same in any case - an emphatic No.

The purpose of a interview is to get you to talk through, without notes, your experience or in the case of competence based interview your STARS (Situation, Task, Action, Result). The interviewer wants to see that you can recount accurately and concisely the facts of what you did. Bringing in aids such as a4 brochures etc shows an inability to do just that and would make most interviewers very suspicious. Bringing an iPad in is just inappropriate.

Furthermore one of the reasons for structured competence based interviewing is to ensure all interviewees are asked the same questions in the same format and that you can compare like with like when you have 5/6 candidates to get through. So you must answer in the format that they ask without distractions.

Finally if they want a presentation they will ask - normally that is at 3rd interview stage (after phone screen and chronological/competency interviews).

A few of the competences will be based on work I have done previously

ALL of the competencies MUST be based on work you have done previously - otherwise you are not competent to do it. You need to have a STAR for each one of the competencies they gave you above - Project Management, Team Work, Interpersonal Skills, Technical skills. As a rule you can get away with one from outside the work environment (e.g. hobbies, sport etc) if you are very short of experience.

Practice your STARS - make sure you can rattle each one of them out within 4 minutes (leaving 2 minutes for further questions). Always have a "lesson I learnt" and "What I would do differently" for each STAR and throw them in - if you can show you learnt from your experiences it's worth any amount of slides.

Best of luck.

godtabh

Its not for an IT role but it is technical.

I have already prepared something similar to STARS. Never heard of that before just working off a different principle.

I wasn't suggesting that I would give them a presentation. What I was suggesting was that in order to highlight a point I could show them the documentation.

For example one of the competences is around communications. I obviously have significant experience around this and can demonstrate at interview different levels of communication targeted at different audiences etc. But one of the elements of the job spec was a certain qualification. I lecture on how to achieve this qualification (as well as having this qualification) and have developed a course to aid people achieving this qualification. I was going to link this qualification to communications through the brochure which outlines course content and learning outcomes. This I believe copper fastens my ability to demonstrate this competence. I have something tangible to demonstrate it as well as being able to talk about it at interview.

I am not set one way or the other on bring things in. I haven’t done it before so I am not sure what is appropriate or not.

Mrs OBumble

micosoft wrote: »

The purpose of a interview is to get you to talk through, without notes, your experience or in the case of competence based interview your STARS (Situation, Task, Action, Result). The interviewer wants to see that you can recount accurately and concisely the facts of what you did. Bringing in aids such as a4 brochures etc shows an inability to do just that and would make most interviewers very suspicious. Bringing an iPad in is just inappropriate.

Furthermore one of the reasons for structured competence based interviewing is to ensure all interviewees are asked the same questions in the same format and that you can compare like with like when you have 5/6 candidates to get through. So you must answer in the format that they ask without distractions.

Ahh, I'm sure it's like that in your organisation. But other organisations can be quite different.

TBH, an interview is simply a chance for you to convince the interviewer that you can do the job and are a good fit for the company.

If the job involves doing presentations without notes, then most probably you'll need to do this in the interview. But very very few jobs would require this anymore - in most, the ability to use visual aids would be a plus, if not a requirement.

OP, I'd say take them, brochures in a folder, and follow your instincts about whether to pull them out or not.

This is easy. Instead of listening to that dude who obviously works for Microsoft (or else wishes he did) , I don't see it being a problem.

Definitely show them the A4 brochures if you think it will help you. I've done it before, nobody complained, they really liked it actually and I didn't force it on them, I said I brought them in if they wish to see it.

Re: the laptop, bring it in, say you have a presentation prepared that you'd like to show them, all they can say is no. Don't force it on, ask them can you turn it on to show them.

They want the best candidate for the role, remember that...

micosoft

Deleted User wrote: »

This is easy. Instead of listening to that dude who obviously works for Microsoft (or else wishes he did) , I don't see it being a problem.

Never worked nor have had a desire to work for Microsoft. So what if I did?. On the other hand I do agree that it's OK to offer at the end of an interview supporting material for later perusal if they want. By the way "This is easy" - touch arrogent no?

JUSTMARY wrote:

1. Ahh, I'm sure it's like that in your organisation. But other organisations can be quite different.
2. TBH, an interview is simply a chance for you to convince the interviewer that you can do the job and are a good fit for the company.
3. If the job involves doing presentations without notes, then most probably you'll need to do this in the interview. But very very few jobs would require this anymore - in most, the ability to use visual aids would be a plus, if not a requirement.

1 Have worked in the Engineering (not IT), Software, NGO, and Consultancy sectors let alone different organisations as a hiring manager. There are a small number of "different" industries - PR, Design where the interview is very different, but the OP would know that if he was in that industry and not be on boards.
2 The interviewers job is to identify the best candidate for the job not to be "convinced" by anybody.
3. Then they will ask you to give a presentation.

Instead I read his OP - and this is an important one for interviews (and business in general). Answer the question you were asked and not the one you want to. The OP was clearly told it was a competency based interview and there is one way of doing that across all industry and all organisations regardless if you are the janitor or the CEO.

Here's the drill from the interviewers point of view. I have narrowed down 5 candidates. It's 45 minutes to do an interview plus 15 write up. 5 minutes introductions and settling. 15 minutes to run down the cv chronology. 5 minutes per competency (4 of them) 5 minutes for closing questions. That's really tight and I can't afford delays that back up the rest of the day/candidates. So I want people to make my life easy by coming in on time and answering the questions I want answered with the minimum fuss. I then want to be able to compare the candidates fairly across the competencies that I am measuring. If it's a panel it's even more complex as everyone on the panel need to compare notes.
OP - make it easy on the interviewers and answer the questions they have told you they will examine you on.

By all means hand over supporting documentation at the end just before you leave. But you have 5 minutes to answer the competence question on communications. Beware of focusing too much on one to the detriment of others - you have a great story to tell in that format on communications for example - you don't need props to get that across.

micosoft

micosoft wrote: »

Never worked nor have had a desire to work for Microsoft. So what if I did?. On the other hand I do agree that it's OK to offer at the end of an interview supporting material for later perusal if they want. By the way "This is easy" - touch arrogent no?

It's spelled "arrogant" actually. Come on you're a hiring manager, you crucify candidates for not spelling things correctly

OP, you can't go wrong with informing them that you have additional materials to show them/present to them, if asked "why" (which they won't), simply state you want to show them why you feel you're the best candidate for the job.

donkey balls

Hi, op as someone who in the past has used supporting documents in interviews go for it I reckon the two jobs that I got years back both in mgmt were down to the letters of recognition from my old Snr mgr&MD,I regard these letters as priceless as companies normally only give a reference on an employees start&finish date etc were as these letters backed up my C.V and experience.

Bandana boy

micosoft wrote: »

The OP was clearly told it was a competency based interview and there is one way of doing that across all industry and all organisations regardless if you are the janitor or the CEO.

This will vary from company to company and industry to industry.They will most certainly vary depending on the seniority of the position.

Even if the role is not that senior Interviews are run by people and people often do things differently or in a manner they find more natural.

I have had competency based interviews that have gone on for 6 hours.

I would agree with JM and bring whatever materials and tools you feel you might need but only use them if you feel its appropriate in the interview.

godtabh

I brought my documents and referenced what I was talking about to the documents. I left them there with the relevant information marked. Just left it there and said they could read it at their leisure if they wanted to.

I've a second interview next week.