Most of us only have to attend a few interviews during
the course of our careers. Not surprisingly, many senior managers
approach an important interview with some trepidation. Having
worked in the executive search business for years, I am constantly
surprised at how poorly prepared many senior candidates are for
what could be a life changing event, writes Jeremy I'Anson,
director atInterview-trainer.com, a provider of one-to-one interview coaching to job
seekers.
I recently spoke to a client at a well known mobile operator who
was interviewing a strong candidate for a senior position. His CV
was excellent and, on paper at least, he looked like the perfect
candidate, but he fell at the first fence. Their HR director
commented, "We asked him a simple question about our business, but
he clearly had not done his homework and waffled. We could not take
him seriously after that."
Preparation
It seems obvious, but research and preparation are the keys to a
successful interview. If you are working through a
headhunter or recruitment consultant, you should use them as
your primary source of information. They will almost certainly have
received an in-depth briefing about the job from their client and
should be able to flesh out the job specification for you.
Ask your recruiter
"What do they really want?" This is critical to your success.
Find out exactly what the employer is looking for. Your next task
is to map your skills and experience against the qualified job
description. You can then start working out in some detail the
sorts of questions that the interviewer will most likely be asking.
Try to put yourself in the interviewer's shoes. What questions
would you ask if you were interviewing a candidate for the
position?
Your next task is to establish the likely format of the
interview. Will it be a one-to-one "friendly conversation", a
formal interview, or a very structured competency-based interview?
Will you be required to make a presentation? Each of these forms of
interview needs to be handled differently.
An important part of your research at this stage should be to
find out as much as you can about the interviewer. Check the
company website for a biography or CV, or use a search engine. You
may be surprised to find that you have worked for the same company
in the past, worked with the same clients or implemented similar
projects. The knowledge of your interviewer's background will
enable you to place your interview responses in the correct
context.
Keep it relevant
Make sure that your answers are relevant and meaningful to the
interviewer. Don't make the mistake of giving a highly technical
response to a question only to learn later that your interviewer
comes from a background in finance. One further piece of advice
would be to carefully prepare your own questions. With a bit of
research this is an excellent way to demonstrate that you really
have done your homework. "I see that you have recently acquired
XYZ, how is this going to affect your North American operations?"
beats "How many days vacation do you give?" or "What are the
working hours?" Good questions count.
Many otherwise excellent candidates have been felled by the
competency-based interview. Typically, a candidate has sailed
through their first interview with a senior manager and has
performed well only to be caught out by a competency-type question
such as, "Tell me about a time when a project was off track, how
did you to rectify the problem?" If you do not prepare then these
types of questions can be very difficult to answer.
STAR technique
Try to establish what competencies are required before the
interview and then carefully prepare your responses. I always
advise candidates to use the STAR technique when answering
competency questions, SITUATION, TASK, ACTION, RESULT. Keep these
points in mind when answering any interview question.
Briefly describe the situation, outline the task required,
describe what action(s) you took (you, not the team!) and finally
describe the (hopefully) satisfactory result of your actions.
Interviewers not only listen to what you answer, they also listen
to how you answer. A structured response goes a long way to
reassuring them that you also work in this structured way.
Finally, and most importantly, don't exaggerate. From many
anecdotes I recall the candidate who claimed that his hobby was
hang gliding. "Oh, really," said the interviewer, "mine too! Where
did you buy your hang glider what type of wing do you use?" All
very fine if you are an experienced hang glider pilot, but
embarrassing if you have only been for a joy ride on holiday!
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