Job interview

Frog134

Hello hope someone can help me

I have a job interview coming up. The interview is in a format that I have not done before so I’m afraid I will mess up. The confirmation email has this on it
Interview Format: Talking through your CV, your motivations for applying for the role and your knowledge of the role. There will also be a few competency based questions – typically around teamwork, organisational skills, initiative or customer service, so it might be beneficial for you to think of some examples prior to your interview.

I would like to do well but interviews are not my thing and I stumble alot

Any help with how I should prepare would be greatfully appreciated

Salary Negotiator

Compare your CV with the job description and when talking through it highlight all the relevant experience you have.

Competency based questions will be telling the interviewer about a time with you dealt with [insert scenario here] so have STAR based answers ready.

GalwayGrrrrrl

Star stands for situation, task, action and result. Think about some scenarios where you have shown the competencies listed and practice describing them using STAR. Make sure you highlight what you personally contributed to the result maybe with the percentage that you contributed in a teamwork task.

Huntergonzo

Congratulations on the job interview.

Now if it's a good job and you really want it then prepare, prepare and prepare, nothing short of that will be good enough.

Interviewers will generally ask all sorts of questions about how you deal with difficult situations, times you showed initiative, changes or improvements you brought to your place of work, times you led staff, an example of good service you've provided etc. Also they might ask about what challenges face the industry going forward and how they can combat them.

What are you most proud of it your career, what are your stengths, your weakness etc, all typical questions as well.

It's important to give scenario based answers (ie things you've actually done in your career) to all the above questions rather than theoretical answers (ie what you 'would' do if in the situation). It shows you have experience and have delivered in the past, but saying 'I would do this or that' shows a lack of experience and can bore the interviewers if used too much.

As for the organisation, I can't stress enough to do your research, nothing puts interviewers off more than a lack of knowledge about the role and organisation itself. Also if the company has a corporate plan or customer charters etc, look them up and learn a few phrases and recite them in the interview, it may impress them.

Finally all the best with the interview, if you do your homework and prepare well then there's no reason not to feel confident.

OMM 0000

Frog134 wrote: »

Hello hope someone can help me

I have a job interview coming up. The interview is in a format that I have not done before so I’m afraid I will mess up. The confirmation email has this on it
Interview Format: Talking through your CV, your motivations for applying for the role and your knowledge of the role. There will also be a few competency based questions – typically around teamwork, organisational skills, initiative or customer service, so it might be beneficial for you to think of some examples prior to your interview.

I would like to do well but interviews are not my thing and I stumble alot

Any help with how I should prepare would be greatfully appreciated

This sounds like a normal interview.

They just want you to be prepared. So when they ask you for an example of when you showed initiative, you don't stare at your shoes.

SeaFields

The public service uses competency based interviews so check out publicjobs.ie for tips on approaching those type questions

Jim2007

SeaFields wrote: »

The public service uses competency based interviews so check out publicjobs.ie for tips on approaching those type questions

Lots of companies do competence based interviews. In deed in IT is no unusual to have entire interview on the technical topics aside from the standard interview.

Name a time when you failed and when you succeeded, sounds so obnoxious and instantly off putting and tells me that this company cares more about bullsh1t.

What interviewers don't understand or particularly care about is that interviewees come in mostly prepared and can make up lots of stuff. But the person deemed to do a fantastic interview might be a clueless idiot but can pass any interview, it's incredible really how bad interviews have become. The poor sod that might struggle or freeze in the interview could be the best of the lot.

Interviews are just box ticking exercises and something for HR to do most of the time. Most of the time HR just copy and paste questions from the internet.

Companies should just ask relevant questions, to determine if the Person knows their stuff, make the atmosphere relaxed and have a normal conversation.

These days interviews have become as toxic as work places themselves and too many Jobs are advertised and the Company has already chosen who is going to get the job yet the Job has to by law be externally advertised so too many times People are going to interviews and haven't got a hope in hell to begin with no matter how good their interview is, I see it in my place all the time.

lapua20grain

I find if you make notes prior to the interview just bullet points on different scenarios and do out in when you have failed and what steps you took to prevent reoccurrence. I have interview people using the star format for the last few years and like it when people can show that they have prepped it shows they have an interest in the position and the company.
A good question to ask at the interview when they ask you if you have any is to ask what it is like to work there I find it engages me to discuss the general culture of the business and again shows interest not only in the role but the business. Best of luck I hope you do well.

As I said Interviews are BS these days, a person who works in an industry years should know their stuff so some of these questions are just printed out because HR want to fill in time and have to ask questions, I get it, but the problem is more and more of the questions asked by many companies are showing up online, the same ridiculous questions you'd expect to come from the U.S.

In my opinion, playing the game, giving the greatest interview, researching questions and making up stories, and telling the interviewer what they want to hear is just ridiculous and causes more harm than good, the Person who presents the best interview might be the greatest clown of all.

I work for a major multinational of clowns and fools and I see so much BS It makes me want to puke but the worst of all is seeing People coming in for interview knowing they are hiring internally. I feel sorry for these People.

CelticRambler

Deleted User wrote: »

Interviews are just box ticking exercises and something for HR to do most of the time. Most of the time HR just copy and paste questions from the internet.

Companies should just ask relevant questions, to determine if the Person knows their stuff, make the atmosphere relaxed and have a normal conversation.

That box-ticking comment reminds me of an interview I went for a few years ago. It was for work in what could be considered a "high stress" environment, so naturally enough - for the box tickers - I was asked to give an example of how I had to and did cope with a "stressful [work?] situation"

Well ... umm ... ehhhhhhhh .... I couldn't think of one, and I still can't. As far as I'm concerned, the whole point of my job is to be the person who doesn't get stressed, and doesn't allow stressful situations to develop. What box does that tick?

@OP On the competency questions, I had the opportunity to attend a workshop on this kind of thing a couple of years ago, and the most useful lesson I learnt from that was that your answer to this question/challenge should be very succinct and "incomplete" to an extent, i.e. summarising the "case study" into a very (very) short statement, but one that stimulates the interest of the interviewer.

SantaClaw

Deleted User wrote: »

What interviewers don't understand or particularly care about is that interviewees come in mostly prepared and can make up lots of stuff. But the person deemed to do a fantastic interview might be a clueless idiot but can pass any interview, it's incredible really how bad interviews have become

I am sure there is more then their fair share of bad interviewers out there where is is unfortunately true.

However any halfway decent one can smell the bull**** answers a mile away. When I hear someone rattling down all the buzzwords I know there is no substance behind the answer.

Interviews are a personality test in most cases. Will you fit the team is the question people are trying to answer. Sure in some companies being up to date on your empty phrases is what the team is about. But in a lot of cases all you will get for empty answers like that is a thanks for your time we will get in touch with you, and once you are out the people interviewing you will have a good laugh.

SantaClaw

SantaClaw wrote: »

I am sure there is more then their fair share of bad interviewers out there where is is unfortunately true.

However any halfway decent one can smell the bull**** answers a mile away. When I hear someone rattling down all the buzzwords I know there is no substance behind the answer.

Interviews are a personality test in most cases. Will you fit the team is the question people are trying to answer. Sure in some companies being up to date on your empty phrases is what the team is about. But in a lot of cases all you will get for empty answers like that is a thanks for your time we will get in touch with you, and once you are out the people interviewing you will have a good laugh.

Perhaps it's the case where the person in the Interview is sick and tired of company HR BS and can only hope for once to expect to find normal people in a normal interview that ask normal questions and not be Americanised and full of meaningless garbage questions that have no bearing on one's ability to do the job because most of the time HR are asking irreverent questions because they themselves may have no idea what the job involves so they have to make up rubbish, Perhaps the Person in the interview thinks to themselves, no, this smells awful familiar and it's away from this crap I want to be.

When I see in my work place, again, A major multinational U.S company, when I see who is carrying out the interviews I am in shock because in the majority of cases that Person hasn't got a clue about the job or what the daily activities are, then they give the job to someone who bullsh1ts the most in the interview and I / we are left picking up the slack because all too often the people hired are clueless and then it's left up to those who do know the job to train new hires who should already know most of the stuff. You can tell some of these individuals who get the position have the gift of the gab and could talk themselves through anything but the reality is that it's unfair on staff who have to pick up the pieces.

I will train and give anyone the time of day but it's not my job because after the person gets the job they go through an on-boarding session which is another load of BS because this is supposed to have the new employee ready to work but rather than show the new hires the proper way to do the job they have to look at BS slides about how good the company is and look at courses on meaningless things even People doing the on-boarding have not worked in the job that they are supposed to be making new hires ready for. If someone shows a keen interest I will assist them in any way I can.

Worst of all is the new employee who comes in and is there just because it's a job and they have no interest. So successful are interviews !

I've cut short several interviews in my day because I can smell the bullsh1t a mile away, I can tell that the questions are copied from the internet. Only very few companies have ever got back to me to discuss why I cut the interview short which tells me that at least they are interested in changing their interview practices.

A company has to sell itself at an interview, if I am going to leave a full time position I want to be sure that I'm leaving this level of BS behind and not want to walk in to more of it, if the people doing the interviews are jokers and Bull****ters asking irrelevant questions and taking themselves all too seriously then it tells me a lot about the Company I am thinking about working for.

OMM 0000

Deleted User wrote: »

Name a time when you failed and when you succeeded, sounds so obnoxious and instantly off putting and tells me that this company cares more about bullsh1t.

I think when you're asking this in an interview, you need to pay attention to who asked it.

If it's your potential manager, it's a red flag.

If it's HR, well then, you just know you're dealing with the average brain dead HR officer, and it's no biggie. They just wanted to ask a question, as they have no real idea what your job is.

It is absolutely an absurd question though. Meaningless.

"I succeeded by releasing the product on time and the feedback from customers was amazing, but ended up failing because I only pretended I released the product and made up the customer feedback. I ended up going to prison for 6 months".

It's unfortunate that companies use these tactics, it's a little game for them but sadly not for the person coming to the interview who may just be the perfect person for the job but sadly not great at interviews. It's sad that someone has to play a game to get a job these days.

All influenced by the U.S of course.

It's a BS world we live in today and you have to play the game, but the real sad part is that the fall out for bad HR interviewers is that the staff are the ones that have to pick up the pieces and the slack should the new hire be incompetent and useless, I understand when new staff come in the can find it intimidating, not knowing anyone too can be difficult and also the change itself and this is to be expected but wrong people in the wrong job is really horrible for everyone and all because they are successful in interviews, got the gift of the gab.

A company should be aware at interview that the HR staff are the ones representing the company and they should note that they have to sell themselves and the position to the Person in the interview because many times the Person looking for the Job isn't desperate and is testing the water and a lot of the time the HR staff aren't always the ones with the power, sometimes it's the Person they are interviewing because that person may already have a good job but is looking for a change and if the company can't sell the position to that individual and if they get bad vibes they walk, as I said before I have cut interviews short because those representing the company gave me bad vibes or were clueless or asking copied questions from the internet.

CelticRambler

Deleted User wrote: »

when I see who is carrying out the interviews I am in shock because in the majority of cases that Person hasn't got a clue about the job or what the daily activities are, then they give the job to someone who bullsh1ts the most in the interview and I / we are left picking up the slack because all too often the people hired are clueless and then it's left up to those who do know the job to train new hires who should already know most of the stuff.

Deleted User wrote: »

All influenced by the U.S of course.

It's not all about U.S. influences. I've been working on and off with a French organisation for the last four-and-a-half years, mostly filling gaps left as a result of management employing the wrong kind of person. I have, just this month, finally convinced them to at least consider giving me the responsibility for finding the right person for the job, because I'm the only one there who actually does that particular work.

It took me just two days to convince all of the "ground floor" staff to row in behind my proposal; up on the first floor, they're still agonising over my suggestion that the new recruit should be offered a city transport pass as a sweetener (10-20€/month). :rolleyes:

Haha, yeah imagine that, someone who knows about the job doing an interview ?

Another issue is that most of the time now you do not know the employer or the salary until the first interview, first it was you didn't know the employer. Next thing you know is that you won't know the salary or the company you're applying to until you get a phone call " congratulations, you got the Job" by the way the company name is xxxxx. haha. Such poor tactics from recruiters these days.

Jim2007

Deleted User wrote: »

What interviewers don't understand or particularly care about is that interviewees come in mostly prepared and can make up lots of stuff. But the person deemed to do a fantastic interview might be a clueless idiot but can pass any interview, it's incredible really how bad interviews have become. The poor sod that might struggle or freeze in the interview could be the best of the lot

And what you don't seem to understand that by the time you get to the interview stage, there is little doubt about whether you can to the job or not from a technical point of view, it is very much about choosing who they think will fit in and get along with the rest of the people there.

And if you find yourself being interviews by someone who does not seem to know much about the job, then you are either on the reserve list or their taking an opportunity to blood someone new. Good luck with it.

Jim2007

Jim2007 wrote: »

And what you don't seem to understand that by the time you get to the interview stage, there is little doubt about whether you can to the job or not from a technical point of view, it is very much about choosing who they think will fit in and get along with the rest of the people there.

And if you find yourself being interviews by someone who does not seem to know much about the job, then you are either on the reserve list or their taking an opportunity to blood someone new. Good luck with it.

Well, I've certainly seen/felt the effects of who HR think might fit in and it's truly astounding.

OMM 0000

Jim2007 wrote: »

And if you find yourself being interviews by someone who does not seem to know much about the job, then you are either on the reserve list or their taking an opportunity to blood someone new. Good luck with it.

It could also mean it's a messy company though.

I had an interview at a multinational's HQ (tens of thousands of employees worldwide) and they had no idea what they were doing in the interview. I took the job and within 6 months I got myself promoted to director level.

IMO interviews should just be "do I like this person", "do they seem relatively stable and relatively easy to manage", "will they get along with the team", and "were they in general not totally bull****ting on their CV". I believe this because interviews are such a bizarre, unnatural environment, and they don't tell you much more than what's in their CV, apart from their personality.

One of the best guys I hired was a shy, awkward weirdo in the interview, and one of the worst (I fired him) was really likeable and cool. So ****, who knows.

My aim is to get away from the major multinationals, I don't like them at all or their unreal level of bullsh1t, I want to get back into a small company that at least values their employees and treat them with some form of respect. And I'll even take a pay cut to do it.

CelticRambler

Jim2007 wrote: »

And what you don't seem to understand that by the time you get to the interview stage, there is little doubt about whether you can to the job or not from a technical point of view.

The last serious interview I went for (September) would not support that assertion. About three quarters of the way through, the guy tasked with recruiting (who happened to be one of the owner-directors) suddenly asked me - someone with 25 years in the profession and the CV to prove it - if I could a perform range of fundamental tasks, without the practical experience of which I couldn't have got my qualification in the first place.

And only last week, the colleague who employed me to stand in for her (after careful vetting by means of the recruitment platform, CV, references and a telephone interview) spent almost 15 minutes explaining to me the benefits of a particular protocol used in one aspect of the job - something that was first pointed out to me back in 1985 when I was doing work experience while awaiting the results of my Leaving.

In both cases, it was mostly a question of cultural difference (I've come to realise that UCD graduates in my field are decades ahead of their continental counterparts) - but that doesn't change the fact that neither decision-maker had really understood what I was offering.