Job Interview Techniques

When you get to the job interview you have achieved your marketing goal. You are now face-face with a prospective employer.

Don't blow it by being unprepared.

Designed to be read in conjunction with Job Interview Tips which is the more practical side of the interview.

This section will assist to recognise the interview techniques or processes used in professional interviewing and shows you how to quantify and qualify your answers.

Introduction to interview processes

Invariably there are core questions the employer will ask. These relate to your ability to get along with colleagues, how you work in a team, how you handle stress, how you solve problems and how you deal with the public, for example. Questions often relate to handling aggressive clients.  Usually they will ask you for an example of a situation.  They are asking you to outline the processes you used to go about handling or defusing the situation.

On a higher skill level the questions will be more complex   Nevertheless they will want to test these qualities and a lot more including your leadership style/ability, how you handle conflict with a range of people including those relating to organisational goals, initiative, and any qualities that relate to your line of work, such as negotiation, performance, outcomes etc. Technical skills are secondary.

Look at all advertised positions, not just those in your field and you will see that personal qualities and interpersonal skills required outnumber the actual work skills and work experience.

These are the questions jobseekers don't give much thought or practice.

No matter what level you are working in communication and interpersonal skills will be tested. The want to see good clear thinking and some theoretical knowledge of how to communicate effectively. So all applicants must be able to answer these questions effectively. They are just as important or even more so than your work experience.

To reiterate this point, the following information has been taken from Shell Company’s website for Graduate Recruitment.

 “The person you are is more important than what you studied”.

Types of Interviews

Unstructured interview

The unstructured interview still occurs across many industries, even in middle management positions. It is often conducted by the decision maker (even though this may be the manager of a department) and it is the best situation for you to be in.  In this scenario, you need only listen to the employer, assess their needs and convince him/her that you can fill those needs and that you are the best person for the job.  This is the marketing approach.

By using effective listening skills you can encourage the employer to talk about the company and his/her self.  You want to find out more about the position and organisation to determine if they are able to match your  needs and if you can fill their  needs. 

The structured Interview

This is the formal approach where questions have been pre set to test your work skills, knowledge, communication skills and your ability to handle stress, teamwork, etc., and to find out what sort of person you are.  It will generally be conducted by the Manager or The Human Resource Manager/Officer.  It may also be a panel interview or an interview in where a person from your area of work is present.  Be prepared to answer a wide range of questions, especially case study questioning (situational interviewing - see later).

If a Human Resource Officer conducts the interview there may be a second interview with a technical person or someone from within your area of work - even if this was not stated in the beginning.  T

Interview Preparation - Questions

Informal unstructured interview technique

Unstructured interview

Use the marketing approach in a one-one interview

By using the marketing approach, you listen  80% of the time and speak  20% of the time. 

By encouraging the interviewer to talk about him/her self and the company, you can establish their needs.

To do this you use the “W” questions used by children when they are leaning - what, when, who, where, why, and who. The trick is to know when to stop them talking.  Once they start it may be difficult to get them to stop talking about how good they are that you hardly get a chance to talk.  In this case you must

• Redirect the interview and bring the interviewer back to listening to you. 

• Come in at an appropriate stage, i.e. “that is an interesting point, I can assist you here.  For example, in my last position we had the same problem…."

• Be diplomatic and let the interviewer know that you have had previous experience and understand the difficulties they are having.

You may say, “at xxxx we had the same problem and I came up with some ideas and I was able to solve the problem.”

Use the 20% of time you spend speaking to addressing the important issues the employer has uncovered.

• Don’t boast, and certainly don’t be a know-all and do not indicate that you know more than the interviewer.

• Don’t say you can do it better unless he/she has presented all the facts.

• Give them solutions, insofar as you have the expertise to solve their problems.  Be succinct and keep to the point. 

• In any sales situation the prospective buyer wants to know “what is in it for me”. 

The seller will need to sell the benefits.  If a benefit can be answered with a “so what” answer it is not a benefit.

The formal structured interview technique

Having gone through the ideal interview situation for you, you may be faced with a different scenario. The organised, structured approach is one where the interviewer controls the interview process. However, the theory and reality of how an interview should be conducted can be quite different.  Based on the ideal theory of interviewing (from the employer’s perspective), the purpose of the interview should be to establish: -

·         Whether the applicant meets the criteria.  The criteria could include a lot of interpersonal skills and attributes and information the employer sees as being important.

·         How well he/she could handle to duties of the job

·         To select the most suitable applicant

Source: Winning Staff the EEO Way, Director of EEO in Public                     Employment. 

If these Equal Employment Opportunity principles are adhered to it may be harder to implement the marketing approach.  The interviewer is well organised and has a set of pre- arranged questions designed around the job and the job advertisement.

In A Formal Job Interview Two Main Question Types Are Used

Behavioural Interviewing – the process of doing the tasks/duties

Example: “ What did you do when…”?

This looks at past behaviour as opposed to beliefs, feelings or speculation

Situational Interviewing

Example: “What would you do if”?

In both the above examples you will have to demonstrate how you went or will go about performing the task or duty.  What processes did you, or will you, use?

The problem with behavioural interviewing is that it doesn’t allow for maturity, experience or further training etc.

If you can’t come up with a really good example, give them a situation you handled badly and admit that you learned from this and given the same situation you would now do it another way and give them a scenario.  In other words turn it around to a situational scenario. “What I would do now is…”

 I reiterate, your answers must demonstrate the processes you used to arrive at a decision.  

How the formal job interview is structured

In theory, the professional job interview will usually be conducted in three parts.The beginning, the middle and the end.

Beginning: Introductions and small talk to make you comfortable. This is an ideal opportunity to build rapport, however be brief in your response. The interviewer will supply you with information about the company and the job and tell you how the interview will be conducted.

The middle:  This will centre on you - questions and answers.  Ask if you can refer to your notes (see further on about taking in a notebook).

The end:  Winding up the interview. Conditions of employment.  The interviewer will ask if you have any questions.

There is not much time set aside for questioning because the middle usually goes for longer than the allocated time.  Make sure you check the time before you ask too many questions. 

Nevertheless you need to ask some questions to ensure the job is for you and to show them that you are interested. If you have any misgivings or questions here are a few tips about note taking before you go for the interview.

• Write yourself some interview answers - use prompts using keywords.

• A small notebook is acceptable to take into an interview and in some cases a larger notepad. 

• Just ask if you can refer to your notes and this may apply to the middle of the interview as well.

• Some Government Agencies will give you time to prepare by giving you the interview questions in advance so make sure you have some paper with you. 

• Use only use keywords or you will get confused. 

If it is not a Government interview, play safe and use a small notebook.  They will want the questions back, so don’t write on the paper.

However, making the interviewers late for the next interview may be detrimental to you, even if it was their fault they went over time.

You need to say that you did have some questions but you noticed they had gone over time so you will be brief.  Let them know that you were interested to know more. They will appreciate this.

In this case you can summarise the job, as you understand it. Then say that you are very interested and you would like to know more about a particular part of the job and ask if you can ring them the following day. 

This will give you the opportunity to review your performance and if you feel that the interview didn’t go your way, or you can improve the impression you made and you will have time to think of questions that may impress them. 

Anticipate questions and practice your answers

No matter what your occupation is you need to practice, practice and practice if you want to perform successfully in an interview.  You must take that first step and verbalise your interview answers.  Don’t just write them down.  Listen to what you are saying by recording your answers.  You will pick up everything the employer will - tone, pace of speech, passive responses and fillers such as the “um and “ah”.  Role-play with someone you trust.

Handling negatives in a job interview

You must always be prepared to handle negatives, i.e. being fired.  Whatever you do don’t speak badly about your former employer no matter how much you think you were hard done by. The employer may try and encourage you to “bad mouth” a former employer. Don’t fall for it. Keep all bitterness out of your voice and watch your body language.  It is a dead giveaway. Rehearse with a sympathetic friend.

Don’t volunteer information unless you are asked. Tell the truth and be brief. If there is anything you have learned from the experience, let the employer know.

Having said that don’t tell the employer that you “punched your bosses lights out because you don’t take any xxxx  from anyone”. Yes,  I have heard everything.  These people of course wouldn’t be pro-actively looking for work, although they do complain that they can’t get a job and it is all a waste of time trying.

See Job Search Articles for information on how to handle being fired questions.

Discriminatory interview questions

For example, “How old are you?”

How do you handle this question? This is a question is always asked by older jobseekers. My advice is that if you give your age you are dammed and dammed if you don’t.  If you make a fuss and tell the employer the question is discriminatory you definitely won’t get the job. On the other hand, you don’t really know what the result will be if you do answer honestly. Try not to show your negative reaction.  Go into every interview visualising your response to this question.  Smile and say I am 55.

The important lesson, which we touch on later, is that if you think age is a problem you need to look at your behaviour and appearance that may age you.   

Open and closed interview questions

·         Open interview question

·         Closed interview question

Open questions give you the opportunity to control your responses and will be used by most interviewers.

Examples of open questions

What method would you use in gathering data about accident rates?  (Situational)

Give me an example of a time when you had a problem with a co-worker and tell me how you handled it? (Behavioural)

 Examples of closed questions

Closed questions narrow the range of responses and may only allow for a yes or no answer.  Sometimes there is a legitimate use of closed questions when the interviewer needs to check information, although many interviewers still slip into this mode of questioning and you need to retrieve the situation.

An inexperienced interviewer may ask a closed question and you can turn it to your

advantage by offering more information and take control of the situation. 

Examples of a closed question

Do you have a drivers licence?

The answer is clearly yes or no - or is it?   Sometimes closed questions are used to clarify a point, or they may be just poor interviewers . You must decide if the question is important to the interview or not.

The question will be important if you are being interviewed for a driving position, for example, or a position as a Sales Representative. You need to expand your answer. You could say, “Yes I have a C (previously A) class licence with no restrictions” - or I hold a clean C class licence and I am proud of my driving record.  In 10 years and have never had more than one restriction at any time/never had an accident”.

Another interview answer for this question. “yes I have held a C class licence since 1975 and I have no restrictions.  I fact, I still have a 100% no claim bonus on my insurance policy”.

If, on the other hand, the licence is not needed for the job there is no need to say anything more than the class of licence you hold.

This is just an example to alert you to the possibility that you may be losing a chance to sell yourself.  Recognise poor interviewers and act immediately. 

Types of Questions

Unstructured Interview

The unstructured interview still occurs across many industries, even in middle management positions. It is often conducted by the decision maker (even though this may be the manager of a department) and it is the best situation for you to be in.  In this scenario, you need only listen to the employer, assess their needs and convince him/her that you can fill those needs and that you are the best person for the job. This is the marketing approach.

By using effective listening skills you can encourage the employer to talk about the company and his/her self.  You want to find out more about the position and organisation to determine if they are able to match your  needs and if you can fill their  needs.

The structured Interview

This is the formal interview approach where questions have been pre set to test your work skills, knowledge, communication skills and your ability to handle stress, teamwork, etc. and to find out what sort of person you are.  It will generally be conducted by the Manager or The Human Resource Manager/Officer.  It may also be a panel interview or an interview in where a person from your area of work is present.  Be prepared to answer a wide range of questions, especially case study questioning.

If a Human Resource Officer conducts the interview there may be a second interview with a technical person or someone from within your area of work - even if this was not stated in the beginning.

learn more about interview answers with these excellent resources.

Job Interview Success System

Best Interview Strategies              

   Ace the interview

Bonnie Lowe Introduces you to a simple, step-by-step system that shows you how to get the job and change your life. Simple but powerful interview strategies that will get you hired. Download now, and start preparing your interview answers.

Go to Job Search Resources for more excellent books on interview skills and learn how to prepare for an interview to land the job. If you want to succeed at anything you need to use the best resources available to assist you. In this case, you need to  differentiate yourself from your competitors. It isn't always the best qualified candidate that gets the job. You know that, don't you?

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