Preparing intelligent questions
# Exploring the nature of the work
# Asking about the future
# Finding out about the culture of the organisation
# Avoiding questions that create the wrong impression
At some point during the proceedings, the interviewer may ask, ‘Do you
have any questions?’
Interviewers frequently judge candidates on the nature of the questions
that are asked. Do you ask about the pay and benefits? Are you focused
about the day-to-day demands of the role? Are you more interested about
opportunities for promotion and enhanced responsibility? Different
questions give interviewers different impressions about your motivations.
This chapter contains many examples of questions for you to tailor to the
different interviewers and employers that you will meet. Not all of them
will be appropriate for every situation, so think ahead and choose carefully.
Remember that this is your opportunity to find out more about
the job and the company. If the interviewer were to offer you the
job, would you have enough information to decide whether to
accept?
DO YOUR RESEARCH TO FIND OUT THE RIGHT QUESTIONS TO ASK EVERY TIME
Intelligent and thoughtful questions can demonstrate to an interviewer that
you had the motivation and interest to do your research on the organisation.
However, when preparing a list of questions to ask your prospective employer,
make sure that they could not have been answered in any other way. Many
companies provide information in recruitment brochures, websites, job
descriptions and other materials, as well as the original job advert. If you ask
a question that could have been answered in any of these other sources of
information, you will come across as poorly prepared.
For example, it may be a valid question to ask Company A about their
plans for growth; however, Company B may have published a lengthy
statement about their expansion plans on their website. Accordingly, be
careful that your questions are relevant for the particular company that
you are being interviewed by. If you simply take the same list of questions
to different interviewers, you risk ruining your chances.
Understanding broad guidelines around your questions
Your research may uncover dozens and dozens of questions that you
might want to ask. However, asking too many questions could annoy your
interviewer, especially if he or she has arranged to interview a number of
candidates and is running behind schedule. Here are some rules of
thumb for asking questions:
# Ask at least two or three questions in every interview to show that you have
done your research and are interested in finding more about the company.
# Think about the time slot that has been allocated for your interview. If
you know that you are supposed to finish at 4.30pm and it’s already
4.25pm, you know that your questions should be fairly few in number.
# For most roles, avoid asking more than half-a-dozen questions during
the interview itself. Should you be offered the job, you could always
arrange to come back to meet the interviewer or other people within
the organisation to have your questions answered.
Bear in mind that the number of questions you can ask should be
broadly related to the seniority of the job. If you are applying for
an entry-level role, an interviewer will probably expect you to ask
only a handful of questions. For a managing director’s role, you
may need to schedule another appointment to come back to have
all of your questions answered.
SHOWING AN INTEREST IN THE WORK ITSELF
There are many questions that you could ask about the role. However,
remember to check that the questions you do choose to ask could not
have been answered in your research.
Questions to ask could include:
# What are the day-to-day duties involved in this job?
# How will my performance be measured?
# How are targets set? How much say would I have in setting them?
# How much contact would I have in this role with
clients/customers/suppliers/finance/marketing/sales/et cetera?
# Who will I report to?
# Who would I be spending most of my working time with?
# Who are the key decision-makers that I would need to get along with?
And how would you describe each of them?
# What do you see as the immediate challenges for me if I were to be given
the job?
# What do you most enjoy about working here?
You might also want to find out more about why the employer is looking
to fill this role.
# Why has this vacancy arisen?
# What happened to the previous job holder?
# Are you looking for anything in particular from the person who will take
this role?
# How do you see this role developing?
# How quickly are you looking for someone to take on this role?
Asking questions about managerial roles
If you are going to be supervising or managing others, you may want to
consider questions such as:
# What’s the make-up of the current team?
# What do you see as the challenges in helping the team to be more
successful?
# Are there any star performers or difficult people within the team that
need special attention?
# How much scope would I have to change the people within the team?
# What sort of budget would I have for running the team?
Asking questions about the broader team and organisation
You could also ask questions about the structure and current challenges
facing the company as a whole.
# How is the department that I would be joining viewed by the rest of the
organisation?
# How is the company structured?
# When was the last company restructuring? How did it affect this
department?
# What challenges is the organisation currently facing?
# What are the new initiatives/projects/campaigns that the team is
working on?
If you have an insight into how the company is perceived against its
competitors, these could also be good questions to ask, as they can show
the research that you have done. For example, ‘I read in the papers that
your competitor, Company X, has just launched a new service line. What’s
the view in your company on it? And how are you going to react to it?’
Be careful: there’s a fine line between demonstrating an interest in
the job and asking questions to show off.
EXPLORING THE FUTURE AND DEMONSTRATING YOUR
COMMITMENT
I have already mentioned the fact that employers usually want to recruit
employees who will stay for at least two to three years, so it may be worth
your while to ask some questions about the future.
For example, you could ask about your own future with the organisation:
# What training and development is given to employees?
What opportunities are there for promotion?
How does the company promote personal growth?
What kind of career paths have other people taken after coming in at this
level?
Do people move between offices much?
What opportunities are there for working abroad with the company?
Asking more questions about the broader organisation
You might also want to ask about the company’s prospects.
What are the organisation’s long-term objectives?
How has the firm been performing in recent months?
What are the company’s plans for growth? And how will it achieve these?
What new products/services is the company planning to launch?
Are any organisational changes planned in the near future?
ASKING ABOUT THE ORGANISATION’S CULTURE
No matter how informative the website and other official sources of
information, you need to be able to talk to people about the culture, the
way in which people behave towards each other on a day-to-day basis.
Here are some general questions to ask:
# How would you describe the culture of the organisation?
# What’s the best thing about working for this organisation?
# Why did you decide to join the company?
What most frustrates you about working here?
How would you describe the management style here?
What does it take to succeed here?
Could you tell me about the sorts of people who have failed here?
What was it they did or didn’t do that made them unsuccessful?
You could use questions to probe on more specific issues.
Would you describe this as a political organisation? And if so, why?
Is there much inter-departmental rivalry in the company?
How would you describe the company’s attitude to risk-taking?
How does the company respond to new threats and opportunities?
How much autonomy and latitude are people given in the organisation?
How much do people socialise together outside of work?
Avoid asking too many questions in quick succession. Bear in
mind that the tone of your questions should be conversational –
this isn’t an interrogation.
AVOIDING CERTAIN QUESTIONS UNTIL YOU HAVE AN OFFER ON
THE TABLE
There may be certain burning questions that you really want to ask and
have answered, but you do not want to risk leaving the interviewer with
the wrong sort of impression. So it may be better to avoid certain areas of
discussion until you have a firm job offer.
Topics to stay away from therefore include:
# pay, benefits and annual leave allowances;
#criteria and processes for being awarded pay rises;
# flexible working practices such as working from home or maternity /
paternity leave;
# the workload, the length of the working day, and general requirements
to do overtime.
IN SUMMARY
# Do your research and prepare a list of questions specifically for each
employer. Check that none of your questions could have been answered
by the organisation’s website or other materials.
# Focus most of your questions on the role and responsibilities of the job.
Make sure to ask at least one question about how you could develop in
the role too.
# Remember that an interview is a two-way process. It’s as much an
opportunity for you to find out whether you want the job as for the
organisation to decide whether they want you.
# Steer clear of questions on money, the hours, and other topics that
could inadvertently make you appear greedy or lazy.
Showing posts with label Interviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Interviews. Show all posts
How to Succeed with psychometric tests, assessment centres and panels during Interview
#Passing psychometric tests
#Dealing with assessment centre exercises
#Dealing with panel interviews
Employers are crafty people. With every year, more and more employers
are using techniques such as psychometric tests, assessment centres, and
panel interviewers to weed out weak candidates and hire only the very
best.
This page explains what each of these trials means for you and gives
you advice on performing to the best of your ability. There are also some
example psychometric test questions in this chapter to help you practise
for the real thing!
DEALING WITH PSYCHOMETRIC TESTS
Many candidates fear the prospect of being subjected to psychometric
tests. But there is no need to be afraid if you understand their purpose.
There are two distinct categories of psychometric tests.
1. Personality questionnaires, which measure preferences and
motivations. These try to gauge how you generally like to behave in
certain situations. What do you like or dislike? These do not have right
or wrong answers, although the employer may be looking for
candidates who have a certain ‘type’ of personality.
2.Aptitude tests, which measure skills and abilities. Aptitude tests do
have right or wrong answers.
Presenting your positive side in personality tests
Personality questionnaires can take many different shapes and forms.
Many are presented as pencil-and-paper questions for you to complete.
However, more and more organisations are using computerised or online
tests that ask you to type your responses.
Some questionnaires may ask you to tick or circle whether you ‘agree’ or
‘disagree’ with a number of questions. Others may ask you to respond
whether you ‘strongly agree’, ‘agree’, ‘disagree’, or ‘strongly disagree’ with a
series of statements. Some may ask you to write your answers directly on
the question book, while others may ask you to circle your answers on a
separate answer sheet. So read the instructions carefully to ensure that
you do not make a fool of yourself.
There’s no point in practising personality tests as they are rarely timed.
However, follow these two key tips to give yourself the best chance of
impressing the employer.
# Be very careful of trying to second-guess personality questionnaires.
Different personality questionnaires measure different dimensions of
personality and it can be very difficult to know exactly what the
interviewers are looking for. For example, you might assume that a
particular job requires employees who are very extrovert. But this
employer might have looked at previous employees and discovered in
their research that the extremely extrovert employees tend to get bored
and leave quickly. So the interviewers may in fact prefer employees who
are less extrovert. You cannot tell what the ‘right’ answer may be.
Consequently, you may distort your responses in the wrong direction.
Giving responses that you think the interviewer is looking for could ruin
your chances of getting the job. It’s better to jot down honest answers.
# Give yourself the benefit of the doubt in answering the questions.
In an interview, you don’t have to confess all of your flaws. So neither
should you be too critical of yourself when completing a personality
questionnaire.
When answering personality test questions, be kind to yourself
and try to see yourself as your mother or best friend might see you.
Scoring highly on aptitude tests
Aptitude tests are frequently used as a predictor of on-the-job
performance. They are often also called ‘ability tests’ or ‘cognitive tests’.
Most commonly, these are used to measure numeracy or verbal reasoning
skills. However, for technical jobs, employers may also try to assess skills
such as spatial reasoning or abstract reasoning. Speed and accuracy are
essential, so make sure that you do the following:
# Read the instructions thoroughly. Most of the errors made by
candidates are made because they did not read the instructions
carefully enough. Take note of any unusual directions. For example, one
test might ask you to put a pen tick in a box for the answer that you
think is right, whereas another test might ask you to completely fill in a
circle using pencil.
# Identify how the scoring works. For example, some aptitude tests take
marks off if you make mistakes, so it may be worth working slowly but
accurately. Other tests simply add on marks for each question that you
did correctly, so it may be worth guessing the answers to a few
questions if you are running out of time.
# Keep an eye on the time. Most aptitude tests are timed. It may be worth
doing a quick mental calculation before you tackle the individual
questions to see how long you should spend on each question. For
example, if there are 60 questions in total to be completed in 45
minutes, then if you struggle with any question for more than a minute,
you should definitely move on. If you do not usually wear a watch, it may
be worth borrowing one or taking a small timer along with you to an
interview in case the employer should spring an aptitude test on you.
Look online for free aptitude tests that you can practise on. Try
typing the phrase ‘aptitude test questions’ into a search engine
such as www.google.com and you will get dozens of relevant hits.
Aptitude tests are designed to be difficult, so try not to worry too much
about questions that you do not understand and are forced to skip. Most
employers specifically design their aptitude tests so that average
candidates will be allowed to make up to several dozen mistakes and still
pass the test. Even the brightest and best candidates will make a few
mistakes.
Enhancing your skill with psychometric tests
You don’t need to practise personality tests because they’re not timed and
they’re difficult to fake anyway. But here are two short aptitude tests
with 10 questions each for you to practise on. Do these without a
calculator, as you won’t be allowed a calculator if an employer asks you to
do a test. You’ll find the answers to this in the appendix located at the
back of the book. Good luck!
Psychometric Test 1
Calculate the answers to each of the following questions:
1. A household’s electricity bill comes to £184.50 and is charged at 15
pence a unit. How many units of electricity did the household use?
2. The same household’s water bill this year was £200. However, it has
been estimated that the bill will increase by 12% next year. How much
will the household have to pay for its water bill next year?
3. An office worker who gets paid £5.50 an hour filled in a time sheet
claiming that she had worked 38 hours in the first week in January.
How much did she get paid that week?
4. A plane is due to depart at 15.15 hours. Passengers are required to check
in two and a half hours before departure. One particular passenger
needs to leave two hours earlier than that to travel to the airport. What
time does this passenger need to leave the house?
5. The printer connected to your computer in the office can print 15 black
and white pages in a minute and 8 colour pages in a minute. How
many minutes will it take to print a 208-page colour document?
6. A father has £109 in his pocket. He lends £14 to his son and gives a
further £27 to his daughter. How much money does the father have left
in his pocket?
7. A survey conducted by a fizzy drinks maker found that one quarter of
people preferred the apple flavour of their drink. The survey also found
that one in eight people preferred the orange flavour of their drink.
What fraction of people preferred neither the apple nor the orange
flavours?
8. A computer hard drive spins 418 times a minute. How many times does
it spin in an hour?
9. A bank pays an interest rate of 5% on its savings accounts. How much,
at compound interest, will the bank need to pay out on £2,000 invested
for three years?
10. A plumber estimates that a particular job will cost £200 plus VAT at
17.5%. How much VAT needs to be paid?
Psychometric Test 2
For each question, choose the letter A, B, C, or D that most closely
represents the answer to each question.
1. In 2004, a survey found that 70 per cent of school leavers had poor
language skills. If there were 800 school leavers in the survey, how
many of the school leavers were found to have poor language skills?
A 600 B 580 C 560 D 540
2. A colleague dispatched 17 parcels at a cost of £18 each and 14 parcels at
a cost of £9 each. What was the total cost of sending all 31 parcels?
A £837 B £126 C £306 D £432
3. Your boss has to catch a flight from the airport at 19.15. She has to
arrive at the airport two hours beforehand and her train journey to the
airport will take her three-and-a-half hours. At what time must she
catch her train?
A 14.00 B 14.15 C 13.45 D 13.30
4. A metre of electrical cable costs 39 pence. How much would 120 metres
cost?
A £46.80 B £48.80 C £50.80 D £59.60
5. A group of four friends all put £10 each into a fund to buy leaving
presents for a colleague. If the colleague received three presents worth
£8.60, £9.15, and £21.20, how much was left in the fund?
A £1.35 B £1.05 C £1.15 D £1.20
6. If a scientist’s gyroscope spins 300 times a minute, how many times
does it spin in an hour?
A 18,000 B 180,000 C 1,800 D 90,000
7. On her son’s 15th birthday, a mother puts £400 into a bank account for
her son. The bank pays 15% interest a year. How much could the son
withdraw on his 18th birthday?
A £628.35 B £618.65 C £608.45 D £608.35
8. A wealthy individual pays 45% tax on his annual income of £45,000.
How much does he take home after tax?
A £26,250 B £24,250 C £24,750 D £24,500
9. A pack of eight highlighter pens costs £7.68. What is the cost of three
highlighter pens?
A £1.92 B £2.88 C £0.96 D £1.68
10. A survey found that one in four supermarket shoppers described
themselves as ‘very satisfied’ with the price of its goods. If 128 people
were surveyed, how many of the shoppers were not ‘very satisfied’ with
the price of its goods?
A 90 B 96 C 92 D 32
THRIVING AT ASSESSMENT CENTRES
Assessment centres are an increasingly popular way for employers to
assess the skills of candidates. Rather than simply asking you to talk
about your skills in an interview, the interviewers may want to put you
through your paces by asking you to demonstrate your skills.
The term ‘assessment centre’ simply refers to any selection method that
may ask you to sort through a mock in-tray, give a presentation, get
involved in a group exercise with other candidates, or even engage in a
role play scenario.
Handling in-tray exercises
In-tray exercises try to simulate the typical demands that you might face
at your desk if you were to be successful in joining the company. You
might be presented with a pile of memos, faxes, reports, and other
correspondence requiring your attention. Increasingly, organisations are
using electronic in-trays, simulating your email inbox too.
For example, the instructions may read, ‘It’s Monday today, the first day in
your new job. It is 9am and you have taken over from the previous
manager who left only last Friday. Unfortunately, your predecessor did
not clear his desk before leaving the company, and it is up to you to deal
with all of the remaining correspondence.’
You may be asked to read the documents and respond in writing to a
certain number of tasks. Here are some tips for managing the masses of
information that comprise the typical in-tray exercise.
_ Read the instructions extremely carefully. The instructions may ask you
to deal with every single item within the in-tray. For example, to write a
reply to every fax, email, and letter you receive. Or the instructions may
ask you to pick out only a certain number of the most important items.
You can never know what the exercise may require you to do, so read
the instructions and perhaps use a highlighter pen to help you pick out
the most critical points to keep in mind.
_ Skim-read all of the information quickly. Most in-tray exercises contain
both critical information and distracting items that are designed to lead
weaker candidates astray. Avoid responding to individual items until
you have spent a few minutes glancing at everything to give you a
sense of what information you are provided with.
_ Sort all of the items into three categories:
1. Important and urgent items – consider the instructions for handling
the in-tray and try to pick out the key ‘A’ issues that you must deal
with during the in-tray exercise. For example, there may be a letter
from a large customer that needs immediate attention in order to
retain business for your employer.
2. Important but less urgent items – create a ‘B’ list of items that you
will get round to handling only when you have handled your ‘A’ list
items. For example, there may be a letter that also needs
immediate attention, but one that comes from a smaller customer
that your employer might deem slightly less important.
3. Less important items – create a list of ‘C’ items which should merit
your attention only if you have dealt with the first two categories of
items. In reality, in-tray exercises are usually designed so that you
won’t have time to handle all of these. But that’s fine as long as
you handle all of your ‘A’ and ‘B’ priority items first. For example,
there may be a minor complaint from a supplier that, even if it isn’t
handled immediately, probably wouldn’t cause your employer to
lose money any time soon.
Giving high-impact presentations
Increasingly, employers are looking for candidates with good oral
communication and presentation skills. Some employers ask candidates to
prepare a presentation beforehand, while others prefer to give candidates
a topic to present during the day of the assessment centre itself.
You can improve your performance during the presentation element of
any assessment centre by preparing in the following ways:
_ Structure your presentation. There is an adage that says ‘tell the audience
what you are going to say, say it, then remind them what you said.’ Begin
with a short introduction to the topic before the main body of your
presentation. End with a short summary of the key points of the
presentation. It’s always better to have a short presentation with a logical
flow than to try to cram too much information into a presentation.
_ Use simple visual aids. Candidates who choose to speak without visual
aids can be quite boring to watch. Visual aids provide something else
for the audience to focus on.
_ Use bullet points in your visual aids. Visual aids should be clear and
uncluttered. Your visual aids are there to aid your presentation; they
should not be your presentation. If appropriate, draw a simple graph or
diagram to help make your presentation more visually arresting.
_Watch the time. Your brief will give you strict instructions on your
allotted time, so make sure that you stick to it. Also read the
instructions carefully to see if you are expected to leave time to invite
questions from the audience as well.
Keep your visual aids simple. If you have a choice, use either flip
charts and coloured pens or overhead transparencies. The
assessors are trying to evaluate your confidence and
communication skill rather than your technical skill with hightech
solutions such as slide projectors or computer PowerPoint
that are far more likely to go wrong.
Learning to survive group exercises
Group exercises ask you to interact with other candidates while assessors
observe your behaviour. They are looking for you to be able to contribute
to a team and demonstrate some measure of social skill.
some group exercises may ask candidates to complete a physical task
such as building a tower out of children’s bricks, assembling a piece of
office furniture, or solving some puzzle. Other group exercises may ask
you to discuss a hypothetical situation such as how to throw a great party
or whether a particular organisation should proceed with a business
decision.
Because group exercises vary enormously, you will not be able to prepare
what you say. But you can think about how you behave towards others,
by making sure that you do the following:
_ Avoid dominating the discussion. Give others an opportunity to speak
and avoid interrupting them until they have finished.
_Watch your body language. It can be easy to drift off when other
people are speaking. Always demonstrate positive body language by
making eye contact with whoever is speaking, nodding, and so on.
_ Acknowledge contributions rather than criticise them. No matter how
stupid another person’s point of view, try to say something that
acknowledges their contribution and perhaps get someone else in the
group to disagree with them on your behalf. For example, ‘That’s a valid
point of view. But does anyone have a different opinion?’
_ Avoid jumping to conclusions. You may have slightly different
information from the other candidates. It is not uncommon for each
candidate to be given one or two pieces of information that no one else
has, so check whether this is the case before making any decisions.
_ Involve the quieter members of the group. For example, if you notice
that one person is particularly quiet, you could use their name and ask
what they think. For example, ‘I’m not trying to pick on you, Jane, but I
just want to make sure that you are happy with what’s being said?’
Avoid monopolising the discussion by speaking the loudest and/or
the longest.
Learning to shine in role play simulations
Role play simulations allow employers to observe how you actually
behave, as opposed to how you say you would behave in a given situation.
For example, you might be told that you need to step in to deal with an
angry customer, a tearful colleague, or an unruly member of the team.
You will be given explicit instructions on the role play scenario. Before you
start the role play scenario, be sure to do the following:
_ Read the instructions carefully. Note how much preparation time you
have and the time you will have for the role play.
_ Make a list of questions that you want to ask. The background
materials may portray a situation that seems very black and white. You
may seem right and the other person may seem to be in the wrong.
However, the assessor or actor may possess information that you do not
have: perhaps you are the one who has been deliberately misinformed
by the instructions. It’s always worth doing some fact-finding rather
than forging ahead regardless.
_Write down any objectives that you have. For example, if there are five
key points that you want to discuss with the assessor, you can tick these
off when you come to the meeting.
Treat the role play scenario seriously. Of course both you and the
assessor know that this is not real life. But you should treat the
situation as if it were real life. Being flippant or not wanting to do
the role play will do you no favours.
When it comes to dealing with the face-to-face role play, help yourself to
perform at your best.
_ Build a rapport with the assessor. The temptation on first meeting the
assessor or actor might be to jump in with the main task that you have
been given. But it usually makes sense to spend just a few minutes
exchanging pleasantries, as you would do with any person that you are
meeting for the first time.
_ Seek compromises. Avoid charging into a role play simulation by telling
the other person what you think they should do. Try to ask questions as
much as tell them what you think. Seek a middle ground wherever you
can.
_ Be calm and positive. The person in the role play scenario may have
instructions to try to provoke you into becoming angry, so make sure
you stay calm and avoid displaying even the tiniest flash of irritation.
Similarly, try to stay positive and look for positive statements you can
make rather than only pointing out why the other person is wrong and
needs to listen to you.
COPING WITH PANEL INTERVIEWS
Panel interviews are particularly popular in the public sector, where it is not
uncommon to be faced with a row of six or seven (or even more) interviewers.
When faced with so many interviewers, you will have little chance to work
on building a rapport with them. In such situations, try to follow these
suggestions:
_ Build what little rapport you can by introducing yourself to each of the
interviewers on the panel. A simple handshake and hello to each
person in turn should be acceptable to even the stuffiest of panels.
_ Maintain eye contact with the person who asks you each question.
However, do also look occasionally at the other people on the panel.
_ Take your time to think before you answer each question. With so
many interviewers, each of whom has their own agenda and line of
questioning, it would be easy to get confused by the interrogative
nature of the panel interview.
MAKING AN IMPACT AT GROUP INTERVIEWS
Group interviews are often used to reduce a large number of candidates
to a smaller number in the shortest time possible. For example, there
may be a roomful of candidates, and the interviewers may invite
volunteers to stand up and introduce themselves to the interviewers and
the rest of the group. Or the interviewers may pose two or three
questions for each of the candidates to answer in turn.
The interviewers are looking for enthusiasm and confidence in a group
situation. They are trying to eliminate candidates who clearly do not have
sufficient interpersonal skills. So, make sure that you do the following:
_ Volunteer sooner rather than later. Candidates who are late to
volunteer are unlikely to be taken through to further rounds of the
interviewing process.
_ Speak in a clear voice loud enough for everyone to hear.
_ Smile and try to appear relaxed but enthusiastic.
IN SUMMARY
_ Avoid second-guessing personality questionnaires but always answer
questions giving yourself the benefit of the doubt.
_ Do a bit of practice before any aptitude test. Even doing a few Sudoku
puzzles or simple maths questions could help to boost your scores.
_ Keep your cool during assessment centre exercises and keep in mind the
skills that the interviewers are looking for.
#Dealing with assessment centre exercises
#Dealing with panel interviews
Employers are crafty people. With every year, more and more employers
are using techniques such as psychometric tests, assessment centres, and
panel interviewers to weed out weak candidates and hire only the very
best.
This page explains what each of these trials means for you and gives
you advice on performing to the best of your ability. There are also some
example psychometric test questions in this chapter to help you practise
for the real thing!
DEALING WITH PSYCHOMETRIC TESTS
Many candidates fear the prospect of being subjected to psychometric
tests. But there is no need to be afraid if you understand their purpose.
There are two distinct categories of psychometric tests.
1. Personality questionnaires, which measure preferences and
motivations. These try to gauge how you generally like to behave in
certain situations. What do you like or dislike? These do not have right
or wrong answers, although the employer may be looking for
candidates who have a certain ‘type’ of personality.
2.Aptitude tests, which measure skills and abilities. Aptitude tests do
have right or wrong answers.
Presenting your positive side in personality tests
Personality questionnaires can take many different shapes and forms.
Many are presented as pencil-and-paper questions for you to complete.
However, more and more organisations are using computerised or online
tests that ask you to type your responses.
Some questionnaires may ask you to tick or circle whether you ‘agree’ or
‘disagree’ with a number of questions. Others may ask you to respond
whether you ‘strongly agree’, ‘agree’, ‘disagree’, or ‘strongly disagree’ with a
series of statements. Some may ask you to write your answers directly on
the question book, while others may ask you to circle your answers on a
separate answer sheet. So read the instructions carefully to ensure that
you do not make a fool of yourself.
There’s no point in practising personality tests as they are rarely timed.
However, follow these two key tips to give yourself the best chance of
impressing the employer.
# Be very careful of trying to second-guess personality questionnaires.
Different personality questionnaires measure different dimensions of
personality and it can be very difficult to know exactly what the
interviewers are looking for. For example, you might assume that a
particular job requires employees who are very extrovert. But this
employer might have looked at previous employees and discovered in
their research that the extremely extrovert employees tend to get bored
and leave quickly. So the interviewers may in fact prefer employees who
are less extrovert. You cannot tell what the ‘right’ answer may be.
Consequently, you may distort your responses in the wrong direction.
Giving responses that you think the interviewer is looking for could ruin
your chances of getting the job. It’s better to jot down honest answers.
# Give yourself the benefit of the doubt in answering the questions.
In an interview, you don’t have to confess all of your flaws. So neither
should you be too critical of yourself when completing a personality
questionnaire.
When answering personality test questions, be kind to yourself
and try to see yourself as your mother or best friend might see you.
Scoring highly on aptitude tests
Aptitude tests are frequently used as a predictor of on-the-job
performance. They are often also called ‘ability tests’ or ‘cognitive tests’.
Most commonly, these are used to measure numeracy or verbal reasoning
skills. However, for technical jobs, employers may also try to assess skills
such as spatial reasoning or abstract reasoning. Speed and accuracy are
essential, so make sure that you do the following:
# Read the instructions thoroughly. Most of the errors made by
candidates are made because they did not read the instructions
carefully enough. Take note of any unusual directions. For example, one
test might ask you to put a pen tick in a box for the answer that you
think is right, whereas another test might ask you to completely fill in a
circle using pencil.
# Identify how the scoring works. For example, some aptitude tests take
marks off if you make mistakes, so it may be worth working slowly but
accurately. Other tests simply add on marks for each question that you
did correctly, so it may be worth guessing the answers to a few
questions if you are running out of time.
# Keep an eye on the time. Most aptitude tests are timed. It may be worth
doing a quick mental calculation before you tackle the individual
questions to see how long you should spend on each question. For
example, if there are 60 questions in total to be completed in 45
minutes, then if you struggle with any question for more than a minute,
you should definitely move on. If you do not usually wear a watch, it may
be worth borrowing one or taking a small timer along with you to an
interview in case the employer should spring an aptitude test on you.
Look online for free aptitude tests that you can practise on. Try
typing the phrase ‘aptitude test questions’ into a search engine
such as www.google.com and you will get dozens of relevant hits.
Aptitude tests are designed to be difficult, so try not to worry too much
about questions that you do not understand and are forced to skip. Most
employers specifically design their aptitude tests so that average
candidates will be allowed to make up to several dozen mistakes and still
pass the test. Even the brightest and best candidates will make a few
mistakes.
Enhancing your skill with psychometric tests
You don’t need to practise personality tests because they’re not timed and
they’re difficult to fake anyway. But here are two short aptitude tests
with 10 questions each for you to practise on. Do these without a
calculator, as you won’t be allowed a calculator if an employer asks you to
do a test. You’ll find the answers to this in the appendix located at the
back of the book. Good luck!
Psychometric Test 1
Calculate the answers to each of the following questions:
1. A household’s electricity bill comes to £184.50 and is charged at 15
pence a unit. How many units of electricity did the household use?
2. The same household’s water bill this year was £200. However, it has
been estimated that the bill will increase by 12% next year. How much
will the household have to pay for its water bill next year?
3. An office worker who gets paid £5.50 an hour filled in a time sheet
claiming that she had worked 38 hours in the first week in January.
How much did she get paid that week?
4. A plane is due to depart at 15.15 hours. Passengers are required to check
in two and a half hours before departure. One particular passenger
needs to leave two hours earlier than that to travel to the airport. What
time does this passenger need to leave the house?
5. The printer connected to your computer in the office can print 15 black
and white pages in a minute and 8 colour pages in a minute. How
many minutes will it take to print a 208-page colour document?
6. A father has £109 in his pocket. He lends £14 to his son and gives a
further £27 to his daughter. How much money does the father have left
in his pocket?
7. A survey conducted by a fizzy drinks maker found that one quarter of
people preferred the apple flavour of their drink. The survey also found
that one in eight people preferred the orange flavour of their drink.
What fraction of people preferred neither the apple nor the orange
flavours?
8. A computer hard drive spins 418 times a minute. How many times does
it spin in an hour?
9. A bank pays an interest rate of 5% on its savings accounts. How much,
at compound interest, will the bank need to pay out on £2,000 invested
for three years?
10. A plumber estimates that a particular job will cost £200 plus VAT at
17.5%. How much VAT needs to be paid?
Psychometric Test 2
For each question, choose the letter A, B, C, or D that most closely
represents the answer to each question.
1. In 2004, a survey found that 70 per cent of school leavers had poor
language skills. If there were 800 school leavers in the survey, how
many of the school leavers were found to have poor language skills?
A 600 B 580 C 560 D 540
2. A colleague dispatched 17 parcels at a cost of £18 each and 14 parcels at
a cost of £9 each. What was the total cost of sending all 31 parcels?
A £837 B £126 C £306 D £432
3. Your boss has to catch a flight from the airport at 19.15. She has to
arrive at the airport two hours beforehand and her train journey to the
airport will take her three-and-a-half hours. At what time must she
catch her train?
A 14.00 B 14.15 C 13.45 D 13.30
4. A metre of electrical cable costs 39 pence. How much would 120 metres
cost?
A £46.80 B £48.80 C £50.80 D £59.60
5. A group of four friends all put £10 each into a fund to buy leaving
presents for a colleague. If the colleague received three presents worth
£8.60, £9.15, and £21.20, how much was left in the fund?
A £1.35 B £1.05 C £1.15 D £1.20
6. If a scientist’s gyroscope spins 300 times a minute, how many times
does it spin in an hour?
A 18,000 B 180,000 C 1,800 D 90,000
7. On her son’s 15th birthday, a mother puts £400 into a bank account for
her son. The bank pays 15% interest a year. How much could the son
withdraw on his 18th birthday?
A £628.35 B £618.65 C £608.45 D £608.35
8. A wealthy individual pays 45% tax on his annual income of £45,000.
How much does he take home after tax?
A £26,250 B £24,250 C £24,750 D £24,500
9. A pack of eight highlighter pens costs £7.68. What is the cost of three
highlighter pens?
A £1.92 B £2.88 C £0.96 D £1.68
10. A survey found that one in four supermarket shoppers described
themselves as ‘very satisfied’ with the price of its goods. If 128 people
were surveyed, how many of the shoppers were not ‘very satisfied’ with
the price of its goods?
A 90 B 96 C 92 D 32
THRIVING AT ASSESSMENT CENTRES
Assessment centres are an increasingly popular way for employers to
assess the skills of candidates. Rather than simply asking you to talk
about your skills in an interview, the interviewers may want to put you
through your paces by asking you to demonstrate your skills.
The term ‘assessment centre’ simply refers to any selection method that
may ask you to sort through a mock in-tray, give a presentation, get
involved in a group exercise with other candidates, or even engage in a
role play scenario.
Handling in-tray exercises
In-tray exercises try to simulate the typical demands that you might face
at your desk if you were to be successful in joining the company. You
might be presented with a pile of memos, faxes, reports, and other
correspondence requiring your attention. Increasingly, organisations are
using electronic in-trays, simulating your email inbox too.
For example, the instructions may read, ‘It’s Monday today, the first day in
your new job. It is 9am and you have taken over from the previous
manager who left only last Friday. Unfortunately, your predecessor did
not clear his desk before leaving the company, and it is up to you to deal
with all of the remaining correspondence.’
You may be asked to read the documents and respond in writing to a
certain number of tasks. Here are some tips for managing the masses of
information that comprise the typical in-tray exercise.
_ Read the instructions extremely carefully. The instructions may ask you
to deal with every single item within the in-tray. For example, to write a
reply to every fax, email, and letter you receive. Or the instructions may
ask you to pick out only a certain number of the most important items.
You can never know what the exercise may require you to do, so read
the instructions and perhaps use a highlighter pen to help you pick out
the most critical points to keep in mind.
_ Skim-read all of the information quickly. Most in-tray exercises contain
both critical information and distracting items that are designed to lead
weaker candidates astray. Avoid responding to individual items until
you have spent a few minutes glancing at everything to give you a
sense of what information you are provided with.
_ Sort all of the items into three categories:
1. Important and urgent items – consider the instructions for handling
the in-tray and try to pick out the key ‘A’ issues that you must deal
with during the in-tray exercise. For example, there may be a letter
from a large customer that needs immediate attention in order to
retain business for your employer.
2. Important but less urgent items – create a ‘B’ list of items that you
will get round to handling only when you have handled your ‘A’ list
items. For example, there may be a letter that also needs
immediate attention, but one that comes from a smaller customer
that your employer might deem slightly less important.
3. Less important items – create a list of ‘C’ items which should merit
your attention only if you have dealt with the first two categories of
items. In reality, in-tray exercises are usually designed so that you
won’t have time to handle all of these. But that’s fine as long as
you handle all of your ‘A’ and ‘B’ priority items first. For example,
there may be a minor complaint from a supplier that, even if it isn’t
handled immediately, probably wouldn’t cause your employer to
lose money any time soon.
Giving high-impact presentations
Increasingly, employers are looking for candidates with good oral
communication and presentation skills. Some employers ask candidates to
prepare a presentation beforehand, while others prefer to give candidates
a topic to present during the day of the assessment centre itself.
You can improve your performance during the presentation element of
any assessment centre by preparing in the following ways:
_ Structure your presentation. There is an adage that says ‘tell the audience
what you are going to say, say it, then remind them what you said.’ Begin
with a short introduction to the topic before the main body of your
presentation. End with a short summary of the key points of the
presentation. It’s always better to have a short presentation with a logical
flow than to try to cram too much information into a presentation.
_ Use simple visual aids. Candidates who choose to speak without visual
aids can be quite boring to watch. Visual aids provide something else
for the audience to focus on.
_ Use bullet points in your visual aids. Visual aids should be clear and
uncluttered. Your visual aids are there to aid your presentation; they
should not be your presentation. If appropriate, draw a simple graph or
diagram to help make your presentation more visually arresting.
_Watch the time. Your brief will give you strict instructions on your
allotted time, so make sure that you stick to it. Also read the
instructions carefully to see if you are expected to leave time to invite
questions from the audience as well.
Keep your visual aids simple. If you have a choice, use either flip
charts and coloured pens or overhead transparencies. The
assessors are trying to evaluate your confidence and
communication skill rather than your technical skill with hightech
solutions such as slide projectors or computer PowerPoint
that are far more likely to go wrong.
Learning to survive group exercises
Group exercises ask you to interact with other candidates while assessors
observe your behaviour. They are looking for you to be able to contribute
to a team and demonstrate some measure of social skill.
some group exercises may ask candidates to complete a physical task
such as building a tower out of children’s bricks, assembling a piece of
office furniture, or solving some puzzle. Other group exercises may ask
you to discuss a hypothetical situation such as how to throw a great party
or whether a particular organisation should proceed with a business
decision.
Because group exercises vary enormously, you will not be able to prepare
what you say. But you can think about how you behave towards others,
by making sure that you do the following:
_ Avoid dominating the discussion. Give others an opportunity to speak
and avoid interrupting them until they have finished.
_Watch your body language. It can be easy to drift off when other
people are speaking. Always demonstrate positive body language by
making eye contact with whoever is speaking, nodding, and so on.
_ Acknowledge contributions rather than criticise them. No matter how
stupid another person’s point of view, try to say something that
acknowledges their contribution and perhaps get someone else in the
group to disagree with them on your behalf. For example, ‘That’s a valid
point of view. But does anyone have a different opinion?’
_ Avoid jumping to conclusions. You may have slightly different
information from the other candidates. It is not uncommon for each
candidate to be given one or two pieces of information that no one else
has, so check whether this is the case before making any decisions.
_ Involve the quieter members of the group. For example, if you notice
that one person is particularly quiet, you could use their name and ask
what they think. For example, ‘I’m not trying to pick on you, Jane, but I
just want to make sure that you are happy with what’s being said?’
Avoid monopolising the discussion by speaking the loudest and/or
the longest.
Learning to shine in role play simulations
Role play simulations allow employers to observe how you actually
behave, as opposed to how you say you would behave in a given situation.
For example, you might be told that you need to step in to deal with an
angry customer, a tearful colleague, or an unruly member of the team.
You will be given explicit instructions on the role play scenario. Before you
start the role play scenario, be sure to do the following:
_ Read the instructions carefully. Note how much preparation time you
have and the time you will have for the role play.
_ Make a list of questions that you want to ask. The background
materials may portray a situation that seems very black and white. You
may seem right and the other person may seem to be in the wrong.
However, the assessor or actor may possess information that you do not
have: perhaps you are the one who has been deliberately misinformed
by the instructions. It’s always worth doing some fact-finding rather
than forging ahead regardless.
_Write down any objectives that you have. For example, if there are five
key points that you want to discuss with the assessor, you can tick these
off when you come to the meeting.
Treat the role play scenario seriously. Of course both you and the
assessor know that this is not real life. But you should treat the
situation as if it were real life. Being flippant or not wanting to do
the role play will do you no favours.
When it comes to dealing with the face-to-face role play, help yourself to
perform at your best.
_ Build a rapport with the assessor. The temptation on first meeting the
assessor or actor might be to jump in with the main task that you have
been given. But it usually makes sense to spend just a few minutes
exchanging pleasantries, as you would do with any person that you are
meeting for the first time.
_ Seek compromises. Avoid charging into a role play simulation by telling
the other person what you think they should do. Try to ask questions as
much as tell them what you think. Seek a middle ground wherever you
can.
_ Be calm and positive. The person in the role play scenario may have
instructions to try to provoke you into becoming angry, so make sure
you stay calm and avoid displaying even the tiniest flash of irritation.
Similarly, try to stay positive and look for positive statements you can
make rather than only pointing out why the other person is wrong and
needs to listen to you.
COPING WITH PANEL INTERVIEWS
Panel interviews are particularly popular in the public sector, where it is not
uncommon to be faced with a row of six or seven (or even more) interviewers.
When faced with so many interviewers, you will have little chance to work
on building a rapport with them. In such situations, try to follow these
suggestions:
_ Build what little rapport you can by introducing yourself to each of the
interviewers on the panel. A simple handshake and hello to each
person in turn should be acceptable to even the stuffiest of panels.
_ Maintain eye contact with the person who asks you each question.
However, do also look occasionally at the other people on the panel.
_ Take your time to think before you answer each question. With so
many interviewers, each of whom has their own agenda and line of
questioning, it would be easy to get confused by the interrogative
nature of the panel interview.
MAKING AN IMPACT AT GROUP INTERVIEWS
Group interviews are often used to reduce a large number of candidates
to a smaller number in the shortest time possible. For example, there
may be a roomful of candidates, and the interviewers may invite
volunteers to stand up and introduce themselves to the interviewers and
the rest of the group. Or the interviewers may pose two or three
questions for each of the candidates to answer in turn.
The interviewers are looking for enthusiasm and confidence in a group
situation. They are trying to eliminate candidates who clearly do not have
sufficient interpersonal skills. So, make sure that you do the following:
_ Volunteer sooner rather than later. Candidates who are late to
volunteer are unlikely to be taken through to further rounds of the
interviewing process.
_ Speak in a clear voice loud enough for everyone to hear.
_ Smile and try to appear relaxed but enthusiastic.
IN SUMMARY
_ Avoid second-guessing personality questionnaires but always answer
questions giving yourself the benefit of the doubt.
_ Do a bit of practice before any aptitude test. Even doing a few Sudoku
puzzles or simple maths questions could help to boost your scores.
_ Keep your cool during assessment centre exercises and keep in mind the
skills that the interviewers are looking for.
Handling weird, wonderful and wrongful questions during Interviews
# Telling the interviewers what they want to hear
# Responding positively to negative questions
# How to open up closed questions
# Dealing with illegal questions with finesse
Skilled interviewers know that they must put candidates at their ease and get them to talk about how they have used their skills and experience in the past. Unfortunately, many interviewers have never been trained and, because they don’t know any better, may end up asking some fairly crazy questions.
HANDLING QUESTIONS DESIGNED TO EXPLORE HOW YOU THINK
Some questions can’t possibly tell the interviewer anything about your ability to do the job, but obviously the interviewer thinks that it is a good question. You have no choice really but to have a shot at responding briefly to the question, then trying to turn the question to your advantage to show off some skill.
What was the last book you read?
Few interviewers will expect you to have read a business book. Just be ready to discuss the plot or contents of a book that you have read. Ideally, the book should have improved you in at least some small way. If you can, try to show how the book has benefits for your working life. I read a book that talks about the plight of the servant classes in turn-of-the-century China. It’s a very humbling description of the effects of poverty and injustice.
I’m reading a book at the moment on emotional intelligence, which is about how people can build more successful relationships with other people. I’m learning quite a lot about understanding other people’s perspectives and improving my listening skills with
colleagues. Don’t be caught lying. If you are going to say that you have read a key business book, then be ready to answer technical questions about the content of the webpage.
Who in your life has inspired you?
As with many of these questions, the person you name is perhaps less important than the reasons you give for identifying that person. My tutor at university had a really big part to play in my personal development. I’d never been switched on to my studies at school, but my tutor helped me to understand that I was good at something. She gave me a lot of encouragement about my academic work and helped me to volunteer for more activities
within the department, which really helped me to grow in confidence. She was a great influence and we still exchange Christmas cards and the occasional email.
What was the last news story that caught your eye?
Interviewers sometimes like to know that candidates keep up to date with current affairs. Whatever story you choose to mention, try to relate it to the job you are being interviewed for. I was just reading about the big banking merger which will create a new financial services giant with over 140,000 employees. I can imagine that will be a big opportunity for an IT contracting business such as yours. Make it a habit to buy a quality newspaper or read up on the newspaper’s website, and scan the top handful of stories on the day of any interview.
What was the last film you saw?
It does not matter what the last film you saw was. Just be prepared to talk briefly about the plot and why you saw it. I saw ‘Action Movie 4’, which was a big budget adventure movie.
I watch all sorts of things from independent French films to romantic comedies, but on this occasion I wanted something escapist to watch.
See this pencil I’m holding? Sell it to me
This is a common question and rarely asked of salespeople. You could be asked to sell just about anything that the interviewer has within reach, from a lamp to the chairs you are both sitting on. The interviewer is trying to put you on the spot, testing how you respond to the sorts of unexpected pressures that can crop up at work, as well as your ability to communicate and sell ideas. Think of the interviewer as a potential customer for the object that you are being asked to sell, and follow the following three steps:
1. Ask the interviewer about his or her needs and exposure to objects of this sort. For example, if you were selling a chair: How would you rate the chairs around your house or in the office? Do you need to sit at a desk for many hours of the day?
2.Talk about key features of the object. For example, a chair may be comfortable. A pen may be filled with red ink.
3. Discuss some of the key benefits of the object. A comfortable chair could help the interviewer to work for longer without getting backache. A red ink pen could help him to correct documents more easily without confusing the corrections with the original text.
If you were an animal, what would you be?
The interviewer has probably read a ‘pop psychology’ book claiming that candidates can be rated based on the types of animals they would describe themselves as. This is a silly question as there is no link between job performance and types of animals. Unfortunately, you need to play along with this amateur Freud. Select a suitably noble animal such as a lion, eagle, wolf, etc. and go on to relate how its characteristics relate to your ability to do the job. Resist the temptation to choose an animal with comical or sinister qualities such as
a sloth or a snake. I’d be an elephant because I can cope with a heavy workload. I’d be a Labrador because I pick up skills quickly and I’m good around other people There are endless variations on this question. I have also heard an interviewer ask ‘If you were a type of vehicle, what would you be?’ Again, think about certain cars that are known for their reliability, or speed, etc.
Tell me a story
Ideally, you should tell a story about your career, including examples of the skills that the interviewer is looking for. Perhaps first ask, ‘Can I tell you the story of my career?’ However, if the interviewer insists that you tell a story about something outside of work, try to tell a story about something that you have achieved, whether it is learning a musical instrument or designing an extension for your house. I decided five years ago that I was getting a bit out of shape so I decided to get fit. I joined a local gym and started an exercise programme. I was very unfit to begin with and I used to ache after coming back from my routines, but I was determined to stick with it. I made sure that I’d go at least once every weekend and once
during the week and possibly twice if I could manage it. After about six months, I’d lost a bit of weight and discovered that I had a lot more energy. I’ve kept up the exercising ever since.
Alternatively, try to tell the interviewer the story of how you triumphed against adversity in some way, perhaps while you were growing up. Make sure the story has a happy ending.
If you could meet anyone living or dead, who would it be and why?
Pick someone who has characteristics or skills that would be desirable in the job you are applying for, such as a notable business leader. However, resist citing the really well known business gurus such as Tom Peters or Warren Bennis, as that could make you sound clichéd. Politicians can also be risky choices if you do not know the political leanings of your
interviewer. Also steer clear of poets, humanitarians, or artists, unless you can argue that they have traits that you would use for this particular job. I would like to meet Sir Peter Alexander, who was the chief executive of Matazar, the European retailer. The firm grew from 5 shops to 80 shops and saw sales grow by over 1000 per cent in 6 years. I’d love to
pick his brains about his vision for the retail industry.
Who do you admire and why?
Think about the skills or competencies that the interviewing organization is looking for. Perhaps you could talk about a tutor or previous boss who was a good role model for one of those skills. Giving an example of a manager that you have worked for will also give the interviewer the impression that you are respectful of those who are senior to you.
My previous manager was a really good role model. She was on the fast track to partnership at the firm, but almost invariably managed to squeeze her workload into a 9am to 6pm day. She was very focused on her work during the day, which allowed her to have a good work-life balance too. I’d like to believe I’ve learnt some of her tricks for managing her workload and getting more
done during the day.
What kind of manager would you like to work for?
Your answer depends on what you know about the organisation. So make sure you do some research on how you are likely to be managed. For example, if you think that the organisation is driven by strict rules and procedures, you might say: I would like to have a manager who will give me clear instructions and expect me to be able to deliver good results.
If the organisation is known for its creativity and giving employees a great deal of autonomy, a candidate might say: I’d like to work for manager who will listen to my ideas and give
me the authority and responsibility to do a good job.
How many cars are there in Australia?
Management consultancies and investment banks, in particular, like to ask questions that may require you to ‘guesstimate’ an answer. Typical questions might ask you to estimate the size of a market. For example, ‘How many mobile phones are there in China?’ or ‘How many litres of orange juice are consumed in France each year?’ On the face of it, these would seem impossible to answer, as you are not going to have the facts to hand. However, the interviewer is actually interested in two key skills:
1. Your capacity to make estimates, apply rules of thumb, and extrapolate from information that you do possess when no definitive data is available.
2.How quickly you can make mental calculations. The interviewer is not expecting you to have the actual answers. They are more interested in hearing your thought processes on tackling the question. So one critical tip, which the interviewers often forget to mention, is to talk aloud as you work out the answer to the problem. Start by breaking down the question into the facts that you would need to estimate. For example, in order to estimate the answer, you need to know how many people are in Australia. Then you would need to work
out the ratio of people to cars in the country. A candidate’s answer might go along the lines of the following: I have no idea of the exact population of Australia. I know that it is
a huge country, but it is much less densely populated than most European countries. I know that the population of the UK is less than 60 million people, so perhaps Australia has 20 million inhabitants give or take a few million? Now, not everyone has a car. People may live in family units, so even though there may be 20 million people living in Australia, we
probably have only about 7 million households, because on average maybe three people live in each household. Not every household has a car though, so let’s say that only one in two households has a car. Obviously, some households have more than one car but there are
lots of people who travel only on public transport. So of the 7 million households, I’d say there were about 3.5 million cars in Australia. Now, your estimates may have a significant margin of error attached to them. But as long as they are sensible and not completely ridiculous you can demonstrate your ability to break a problem down and make rapid
mental calculations.
Why are supermarket own-brand cans of baked beans cheaper than the
leading make of branded baked beans?
No technical knowledge about food production is actually needed to answer the question as it is trying to ascertain the candidate’s ability to make sensible assumptions and to break down an apparently complicated problem. In such a situation, the interviewer is looking for your ability to: _ Apply logic to break a complex problem into a number of more easily
solved component problems. _ Gather and analyse information. _ Make suggestions while thinking on your feet. If the question involves multiple points and sub-questions, ask
whether the interviewer would mind you jotting down some of the key points on a sheet of paper to act as a reminder. A candidate’s answer might go as follows: Well, I assume that own-brand baked beans are cheaper because they cost less to produce. So why don’t we break down the cost of different cans of beans into their constituent parts. Thinking about the constituent parts, there is the basic cost of the beans themselves. Perhaps the branded company can buy beans more cheaply, because they buy in bigger quantities and can get
them in bulk. The branded-beans company would also probably be able to buy tin cans more cheaply, again because they buy in greater quantities. However, those two facts would suggest that the branded beans should be cheaper, so that’s not the answer. Another part of the cost is the distribution of the tins of beans but I can’t see why there would be a significant difference in cost there either. Aha – I’ve got it. Supermarkets never advertise their baked
beans on the television, whereas the branded company has to spend much more on marketing and advertising. So that’s why supermarkets can sell their beans more cheaply.
And there is the answer. Remember that succeeding at case study interviews is about breaking down a problem, and then making some quick estimates and mental calculations.
You are in a room with three light switches, each of which controls one of
three light bulbs in an adjacent room. You must determine which switch
controls which bulb. But I’m afraid you may flick only two switches and
may enter the adjacent room only once. How would you go about
determining which switch controls which bulb?
Some interviewers like to pose riddles, quandaries, or brainteasers to test candidates’ ability to ‘think out of the box’. These are unlikely to have a right or wrong answer. In fact there may be many possible solutions. The only tip here is to let your imagination run wild. I’d flick one switch on, wait for ten minutes and flick it back off. Then I’d turn one of the other light switches on before going in the room. By feeling which light bulb is still warm, I could identify
which one I flicked on for ten minutes. I’d knock a hole in the wall so that I could see which switch controls which bulb. I’d phone a friend and ask them to stand next door to see which
bulb comes on. I’d take off my belt and place the shiny metal buckle strategically so that I could see in its reflection which switch works each bulb. Don’t discount any answer. What’s more important is to come up with a creative solution and not to sit in silence looking confused.
DEFLECTING NEGATIVE QUESTIONS WITH A POSITIVE APPROACH
In the bad old days of interviewing, quite a few interviewers used to think that giving candidates a hard time and deliberately putting them under stress was a good idea. By doing so, they hoped to expose personality flaws in weaker candidates. Luckily, most interviewers now know better, although there may still be one or two interviewers who haven’t heard
that stress interviews are out. If you are faced with an aggressive interviewer, you must keep your composure. Responding with anger will only escalate the situation. Remember that you want to be offered a job, so you need to hide your irritation. Be calm, take your time, and focus on answering the question. Some questions start by making a negative statement about you, and invite you to fight your way uphill to impress the interviewer. Because
these questions can be convoluted, you should take a few seconds to ensure that you have understood the question properly before responding.
I don’t understand why you think you are the right person for this job
You might want to ask the interviewer why he or she thinks so: ‘Can I ask why you think that?’ or ‘Could you be a bit more specific please? What exactly are your doubts?’
Then try to make a short statement about why you think you are the right person for the job.
I’m disappointed that you think that. I think that I am the right person for the job for three reasons. Firstly, I have a track record of delivering exceptional customer service, which is something that my last boss will attest to. Secondly, I’ve been told by various colleagues that I have a better understanding of this particular technology than some of the people who work for the company that invented the technology. And finally, I’m incredibly determined and I can give you a couple of examples of how I’ve persisted to deliver results for the team.
Why do you think that you are better than the other candidates?
The question asserts that you think you are better than the other candidates and you need to correct that assertion. Use this question as an opportunity to summarise again what you believe are your key strengths. I haven’t met the other candidates, so I can talk only about myself. What I hope I have done is to impress you with my track record of results. In particular, I think I have three main strengths, which are…
Do you like regular hours and routine working patterns?
Be sure to tell the interviewer what you think they need to hear. Tailor your response to what you know about the organisation. Is it the sort of organisation where the work may be very repetitive and predictable or incredibly varied?
Yes, I like to get comfortable with a job so that I can do it well. No, I like to have new challenges and variety that will keep me from getting bored but also improve my skill set. And that’s why I am interested in this job.
Do you mind paperwork and other bureaucratic practices?
The interviewer might be trying to hint that the job will involve a lot of administrative work. Good research about the demands of the job will help you to decide on the right answer to give. I don’t mind it. I realise that doing things properly and having a good paper trail are important parts of the job.
Have you ever broken rules to get a job done?
Be careful here, as there is a critical difference between breaking a rule once to achieve a benefit to the organisation and breaking rules on multiple occasions because you find rules restrictive. When answering, explain that you broke a rule only because there was an opportunity or challenge to which you had to react quickly and the organisation would have lost out if you had not broken the rules. I have broken the rules but only because the rule was stopping me from achieving what I knew my boss wanted. I had been asked to get quotes from three companies on the costs of printing a brochure that we needed for the end of the week. I am supposed to get her to sign off expenditure over £1000, but she had been
called into a meeting. The cheapest quote came in at about £1200 but I gave them the go-ahead anyway, because otherwise we would not have had the brochures done by the end of the week.
All of us have personality defects – what is yours?
A personality defect is a very strong term and it would be prudent to avoid admitting to having any. However, you should not try to imply that you are perfect, so go on to talk about one of your minor weaknesses. I wouldn’t say that I have anything as strong as a personality
defect. However, I do have areas that I know I could improve on.
For example...
You don’t have much experience of X – how will you cope in this job?
The ‘X’ could represent just about any skill. The interviewer may have spotted from your CV that you don’t have much experience with a particular system, tool, method of working, software package, etc. that this organisation uses. Your response must reassure the interviewer that you at least have similar experience and that you learn fast. I’ve used several other similar design programmes. When I first joined my current company, I hadn’t had any experience of the Design 200 software but I found that it was sufficiently similar to other packages that I was able to get up to speed with it very quickly. I had to work a bit harder and for slightly longer hours than the rest of the team for a few weeks, but the fact that I’d not used the programme before certainly didn’t impact upon my work performance.
Do you take work home with you in the evenings or at weekends?
This is a question that tries to trap you into admitting that you are ineffective during the day and need to catch up in the evenings and at weekends. I very rarely find the need to. I prefer to get it all done in the office because you have everything that you need to hand and you can bounce ideas off colleagues.
Why did you not achieve more in your last job?
The interviewer may be trying to provoke you into reacting emotionally. Try to talk about what you did achieve rather than focusing on what you did not achieve. I don’t see achievement as solely measured by promotion up the hierarchy. It has been more important to me to be given challenging work and to be learning new skills. However, I am now ready to move on because I do feel that I could be given more responsibility as well as new challenges.
Quite frankly, I don’t think you have enough experience of…
If the interviewer expresses a concern about a skill or experience that you do actually have but he or she just does not know about, you should give an example to make it clear to the interviewer that you do possess it. However, if you do not have the required skill or experience, you would need to emphasise your willingness and ability to learn. Give an example of a related skill that you picked up very quickly.It’s true that I haven’t much experience of running workshops.But when I joined my current company, I had never given a
performance appraisal either. But I asked personnel to send me on a course and I did some reading and talking to other team leaders about it. By the end of the year, I got an award for being one of the top 10 per cent of team leaders in the company. So I do learn quickly.
How do you think your experience has prepared you to take on more
responsibility?
A good response should talk about the opportunities you have already had in your current or previous jobs to take on more responsibility. I’ve actually already had some experience of managing a restaurant. When a shift manager was sometimes unable to come to work, I was usually the one who assumed responsibility for the team. So I’d be the point of contact if customers had any complaints. I’d be the one who would order more stock, take the
cash bags to the bank, and lock up the premises last thing at night. Over the last six months alone, I’ve probably spent at least a dozen days taking on the full range of managerial responsibilities
.
Aren’t you over qualified (or have too much experience) for this job?
The employer may be worried that you might get bored of the job and move on quickly. If you agree that you are overqualified, you could try explaining that you are looking for a better work-life balance. There may have been too much travel or the hours were too long in your previous or current job. Perhaps you have family or other personal commitments that mean you want to have some stability in your working life for a few years. Or you could try arguing that you want to join a smaller company where you can feel that you have a greater impact on what goes on. Whatever you say, make sure you can state your case convincingly to
explain how you will still be committed to the job, that you’re not burnt out and looking for an opportunity to slacken off entirely. I realise on paper that this may look like a step down from being a manager to one of the team. But I’ve come to the conclusion that I prefer the day-to-day business of graphic design to having to manage a team. I get much more enjoyment out of doing it than managing others who are doing it and that’s why I’m currently looking for jobs only as a designer rather than a design manager.
Have you ever been fired?
The best answer would be to say, ‘No’. However, if you cannot, then you will need to have good reasons why it happened. Finish by reassuring the interviewer that it was a one-time situation that will never again occur. I had a major difference of opinion with my boss. I felt that some of his practices were misleading. For example, when customers rang in with complaints, he encouraged us to lie to cover up why we hadn’t got the right products to them on time. We clashed on quite a few occasions and eventually my boss asked me to leave.
However, I’ve worked for four other bosses in my career so far and I could ask any of those other bosses for a reference and they would tell you how good I am in a team. I joined the company because I thought I would be working on lots of big, strategic projects. However, when I joined, I discovered that the job actually involved a lot of dealing with the detail and
administration. I really should have resigned but unfortunately I let it affect my motivation. As a consequence, I was asked to leave. However, I learnt my lesson and now am much more careful to understand the demands of the jobs I apply for. This job, for instance, is exactly the kind of job that would play to my strengths because it would allow me to concentrate on those broad, big picture issues.
What keeps you up at night?
In reality, most people have a combination of both personal and professional worries. However, you may want to downplay the extent to which you agonise over work-related issues. I don’t think anything keeps me up at night, to be honest. I have concerns, obviously, but for the most part I feel that I am in control of my life. At work, I want to do a good job and feel that people respect me for my work. But I wouldn’t say that these trouble me overly.
How would you rate me as an interviewer?
It would be dangerous to express your honest opinion if the interviewer is boring you or asking the wrong sorts of questions. Be diplomatic and constructive if you want to make any small criticisms. I’d rate you as a good interviewer because you’ve asked me some
fairly challenging questions that have made me work hard and really think about the answers. But at the same time you have also given me a chance to talk about my skills and experience. So yes, all round it’s been a good performance on your part.
OPENING UP CLOSED QUESTIONS
Technically, you could get away with answering only ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to closed questions. However, you will give the interviewer a much clearer picture of your skills and fit with the organisation if you continue by giving an example to explain your ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answer.
Do you ever have any doubts about your ability to do the job?
Insecurity is a deeply unattractive trait in potential employees. Who wants to work with someone who needs constant reassurance? However, be careful not to sound arrogant in your response. Of course there are moments when I feel tired and frustrated. But I
can honestly say that for 99 per cent of the time, I get a real kick out of the variety, the pace, and having challenging deadlines. Keeping busy and learning new things is how I know I’m still alive.
.
Do you regard it as a weakness to lose your temper?
A ‘Yes’ could imply that no one should ever lose his or her temper. But a ‘No’ could imply that you lose your temper regularly. I can’t think of an occasion when I have personally lost my temper at work. However, I recognise that we’re all only human: it could happen to me in the future. So I try to be patient and understanding of the reasons why someone else may be angry. Consider as an alternative explaining that you sometimes feel frustrated but somehow manage to bite your tongue or otherwise calm yourself to avoid taking it out on people at work.
When was the last time you felt frustrated at work?
Try to avoid saying that you feel frustrated by other people. Perhaps talk about how some system or process at work stops you from achieving organisational goals more effectively.
I don’t really get frustrated by much. Although I do sometimes think that if we didn’t have to submit all budget applications through head office, we could save a lot of time. Having said that, I appreciate that head office wants to make sure that we are not overspending. But it is slightly frustrating that we can’t meet customers’ requests a little more quickly. However, if an interviewer insists on an example of when you last felt frustrated by another person, give a response that shows you might have felt slightly frustrated, but in no way let it affect your working relationship or your ability to do the job. I have a colleague who speaks and laughs incredibly loudly. Sometimes when we’re on the telephone with customers, I know that the customer can hear her. I don’t want the customer to think that we’re being unprofessional so I’m constantly telling my colleague to quieten down, politely of course. Various colleagues and I have mentioned it to her probably several dozen times, but she soon forgets to be quiet and becomes loud again.
Do you mind travelling much?
If you do mind having to travel, I would recommend that you keep your mouth shut until you have been offered the job and have the opportunity to negotiate exactly how much you will have to travel. But simply answering ‘No’ is not enough. It is part of the job and I am used to it. I find that I can catch up with my reading on trains. One of the reasons I’m looking to join you is the prospect of international travel. I want to experience different cultures and
learn about the different ways in which business is conducted elsewhere, so I’m really looking forward to travelling quite a bit.
Good morning. Would you like a hot drink before we start?
Not a trick question. If you would like to, then do accept a drink, as you may be talking for a few hours and need to moisten your mouth and throat. But rather than have your interviewer ask you whether you would like a drink, whether you would like milk, and how many sugars you take, simply answer the question fully in one go. For example: White coffee, two sugars, please Just a glass of water – from a tap would be fine for me, thank you.
NAVIGATING THE MINEFIELD OF ILLEGAL QUESTIONS
Legal guidelines in the last few years have specifically prohibited certain questions that have no relevance to a candidate’s ability to do the job. In theory, interviewers should not ask you about your age, ethnicity, marital status, children or childcare arrangements, birth place, your parents’ or partner’s occupation, your sexuality, membership of a trade union,
hobbies and interests outside of work, or religious beliefs. However, interviewers rarely ask illegal questions deliberately. They are more likely to be acting out of ignorance. Your choice of answer depends on how much you want the job. You may legally be entitled to refuse to
answer the question, but you could possibly embarrass the interviewer and reduce your chances of getting the job. Would you really want to try to prove discrimination in a court of law?
Consider how much you want the job. How you deal with illegal interview questions is ultimately up to you. But if you really want the job, you may want to swallow your pride and answer the question anyway.
Are you married?
Of course you want to say, ‘None of your bloody business!’ But remember that the interviewer probably doesn’t realise that he or she is asking an illegal question.
Yes, I’m married. But my other half and I have completely independent careers so please don’t think that my marital status would in any way affect my ability to do the job.
No, I’m not married. But when or if I ever get married, I can guarantee that it won’t affect my work as my career is incredibly important to me.
What happens when you decide to have children?
Interviewers sometimes assume (incorrectly) that all women want to have children and that children would automatically have an adverse effect on their motivation or ability to work.
Actually, I have no plans of having children. I don’t see myself needing children to be fulfilled.
I don’t plan on having children for at least five more years, because I have certain career goals that I would like to achieve before I’m 35. I have no current plans to have children. In any case, I wouldn’t want a family to slow my career down. I’ve decided that I want to be a partner in a firm within five years.
Are you pregnant at the moment?
While you do not legally have to disclose the answer to this question, you may want to answer truthfully anyway. An employer could make your life very difficult for you if you lied when you knew that you were expecting a child. I hope you don’t mind, but I’d rather not answer that question. Please don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m afraid I don’t quite
see the relevance to my ability to do the job. Yes, I am pregnant. But I hope you will be able to treat me as just another candidate and allow me to demonstrate precisely why I have the right skills for this job.
Does your husband/wife/family mind you being away from home?
The fact that you are married should not affect your willingness to travel. However, avoid getting into a lengthy debate about it and just answer the question in a positive fashion.
I have always travelled extensively as part of my work – in fact I enjoy it – so my marital status really shouldn’t be a cause for concern for you. I’m not married, so this isn’t a problem.
What hobbies and interests do you have outside of work?
In theory, an interviewer should not ask you about what you do outside of your work. The legal guidelines say that it shouldn’t matter whether you spend all of your leisure time slouched in front of the television or working with charities. The only thing that should matter is your ability to do the job. However, if you do want to answer the question, try to pick activities that imply you are the kind of person this organisation would want to hire. For example, if the role requires lots of team working, then talking about solitary pursuits such as playing the guitar or going on country walks by yourself could give the wrong impression.
Avoid talking about your family excessively as this may give the interviewer the impression that you may not be willing to work long hours when necessary. Mentioning activities to do with your faith or religion has unfortunately also been known to turn some interviewers off.
Quite a few of my colleagues at work are also my friends outside of work. So we like to have the occasional drink/meal out/game of football together. I’m a keen photographer. I find that looking for interesting photos to take gives me a fresh outlook on life, something that probably helps me to stay more open-minded about opportunities at work too.
Do you play any competitive sports?
Some interviewers believe that candidates who play team sports are also more likely to be good team players in the workplace. But even if you do not play a team sport, it is still better to talk about some form of exercise that you engage in than nothing at all. Some interviewers worry that people who enjoy sitting around doing nothing in their leisure time might also sit around doing nothing in their work time too. I play five-a-side football at the weekends. I find that it helps me to think about the strengths and weaknesses of different people and it helps me to be a better team player. I don’t play any competitive sports, but I do go jogging at least
twice a week. I find that regular exercise gives me more energy in my life and my work.
Do you have any problems with relocating?
If relocation is necessary for the job, you should hopefully already have picked this up in your research. However, if the question comes as a complete shock to you in the interview, try to respond in a way that allows you to play for time. I didn’t realise that relocation would be required for this job, but I have to say that I am very keen to join the company from what I
have seen and heard about it so far. So, depending on the right package, relocation would not be a problem.
This job requires you to work on a Saturday/Sunday – does that cause any
conflict with your religion?
Hopefully you will already have ascertained from your research before the interview that you might have to work on certain days. So if you decided to press ahead with the interview, you should be able to simply say: Not at all.
Does your religion mean you will need to take more holidays than other
employees?
If you must take certain religious holidays, explain that you will take these as part of your annual leave entitlement. No. There will be times of the year that I might ideally like to take
off. But I’ll follow the company’s guidelines on the matter and apply for time off just like any other employee.
Do you mind if I ask what your partner does for a living?
Perhaps the interviewer wants to know whether your partner has a demanding job that might cause problems with childcare. Or perhaps the interviewer is alluding to your sexuality. In either case, this is an illegal question although you may still wish to answer it, albeit in a tangential fashion. My partner has a demanding career in the airline industry. But I am my own person so what I hope to impress upon you is my ability to do the job on my own merits.
Remember that illegal questions are more often asked out of ignorance on the interviewer’s part than a deliberate desire to cause offence. In deciding how you will respond to the question, ask yourself, How badly do I want the job?
IN SUMMARY
# Remember that there are many untrained, unskilled interviewers who can ask questions that bear little relation to the job. However, put up with their sometimes strange questions by smiling and trying to turn them to your advantage.
# Aim to give short examples that showcase one of your skills or a personal quality in every answer you give.
# Control your emotions or any anger you may feel when you are asked an illegal question. In the vast majority of cases, the interviewer is asking the question out of ignorance, so you must tread carefully in order not to make them feel uncomfortable.
# Responding positively to negative questions
# How to open up closed questions
# Dealing with illegal questions with finesse
Skilled interviewers know that they must put candidates at their ease and get them to talk about how they have used their skills and experience in the past. Unfortunately, many interviewers have never been trained and, because they don’t know any better, may end up asking some fairly crazy questions.
HANDLING QUESTIONS DESIGNED TO EXPLORE HOW YOU THINK
Some questions can’t possibly tell the interviewer anything about your ability to do the job, but obviously the interviewer thinks that it is a good question. You have no choice really but to have a shot at responding briefly to the question, then trying to turn the question to your advantage to show off some skill.
What was the last book you read?
Few interviewers will expect you to have read a business book. Just be ready to discuss the plot or contents of a book that you have read. Ideally, the book should have improved you in at least some small way. If you can, try to show how the book has benefits for your working life. I read a book that talks about the plight of the servant classes in turn-of-the-century China. It’s a very humbling description of the effects of poverty and injustice.
I’m reading a book at the moment on emotional intelligence, which is about how people can build more successful relationships with other people. I’m learning quite a lot about understanding other people’s perspectives and improving my listening skills with
colleagues. Don’t be caught lying. If you are going to say that you have read a key business book, then be ready to answer technical questions about the content of the webpage.
Who in your life has inspired you?
As with many of these questions, the person you name is perhaps less important than the reasons you give for identifying that person. My tutor at university had a really big part to play in my personal development. I’d never been switched on to my studies at school, but my tutor helped me to understand that I was good at something. She gave me a lot of encouragement about my academic work and helped me to volunteer for more activities
within the department, which really helped me to grow in confidence. She was a great influence and we still exchange Christmas cards and the occasional email.
What was the last news story that caught your eye?
Interviewers sometimes like to know that candidates keep up to date with current affairs. Whatever story you choose to mention, try to relate it to the job you are being interviewed for. I was just reading about the big banking merger which will create a new financial services giant with over 140,000 employees. I can imagine that will be a big opportunity for an IT contracting business such as yours. Make it a habit to buy a quality newspaper or read up on the newspaper’s website, and scan the top handful of stories on the day of any interview.
What was the last film you saw?
It does not matter what the last film you saw was. Just be prepared to talk briefly about the plot and why you saw it. I saw ‘Action Movie 4’, which was a big budget adventure movie.
I watch all sorts of things from independent French films to romantic comedies, but on this occasion I wanted something escapist to watch.
See this pencil I’m holding? Sell it to me
This is a common question and rarely asked of salespeople. You could be asked to sell just about anything that the interviewer has within reach, from a lamp to the chairs you are both sitting on. The interviewer is trying to put you on the spot, testing how you respond to the sorts of unexpected pressures that can crop up at work, as well as your ability to communicate and sell ideas. Think of the interviewer as a potential customer for the object that you are being asked to sell, and follow the following three steps:
1. Ask the interviewer about his or her needs and exposure to objects of this sort. For example, if you were selling a chair: How would you rate the chairs around your house or in the office? Do you need to sit at a desk for many hours of the day?
2.Talk about key features of the object. For example, a chair may be comfortable. A pen may be filled with red ink.
3. Discuss some of the key benefits of the object. A comfortable chair could help the interviewer to work for longer without getting backache. A red ink pen could help him to correct documents more easily without confusing the corrections with the original text.
If you were an animal, what would you be?
The interviewer has probably read a ‘pop psychology’ book claiming that candidates can be rated based on the types of animals they would describe themselves as. This is a silly question as there is no link between job performance and types of animals. Unfortunately, you need to play along with this amateur Freud. Select a suitably noble animal such as a lion, eagle, wolf, etc. and go on to relate how its characteristics relate to your ability to do the job. Resist the temptation to choose an animal with comical or sinister qualities such as
a sloth or a snake. I’d be an elephant because I can cope with a heavy workload. I’d be a Labrador because I pick up skills quickly and I’m good around other people There are endless variations on this question. I have also heard an interviewer ask ‘If you were a type of vehicle, what would you be?’ Again, think about certain cars that are known for their reliability, or speed, etc.
Tell me a story
Ideally, you should tell a story about your career, including examples of the skills that the interviewer is looking for. Perhaps first ask, ‘Can I tell you the story of my career?’ However, if the interviewer insists that you tell a story about something outside of work, try to tell a story about something that you have achieved, whether it is learning a musical instrument or designing an extension for your house. I decided five years ago that I was getting a bit out of shape so I decided to get fit. I joined a local gym and started an exercise programme. I was very unfit to begin with and I used to ache after coming back from my routines, but I was determined to stick with it. I made sure that I’d go at least once every weekend and once
during the week and possibly twice if I could manage it. After about six months, I’d lost a bit of weight and discovered that I had a lot more energy. I’ve kept up the exercising ever since.
Alternatively, try to tell the interviewer the story of how you triumphed against adversity in some way, perhaps while you were growing up. Make sure the story has a happy ending.
If you could meet anyone living or dead, who would it be and why?
Pick someone who has characteristics or skills that would be desirable in the job you are applying for, such as a notable business leader. However, resist citing the really well known business gurus such as Tom Peters or Warren Bennis, as that could make you sound clichéd. Politicians can also be risky choices if you do not know the political leanings of your
interviewer. Also steer clear of poets, humanitarians, or artists, unless you can argue that they have traits that you would use for this particular job. I would like to meet Sir Peter Alexander, who was the chief executive of Matazar, the European retailer. The firm grew from 5 shops to 80 shops and saw sales grow by over 1000 per cent in 6 years. I’d love to
pick his brains about his vision for the retail industry.
Who do you admire and why?
Think about the skills or competencies that the interviewing organization is looking for. Perhaps you could talk about a tutor or previous boss who was a good role model for one of those skills. Giving an example of a manager that you have worked for will also give the interviewer the impression that you are respectful of those who are senior to you.
My previous manager was a really good role model. She was on the fast track to partnership at the firm, but almost invariably managed to squeeze her workload into a 9am to 6pm day. She was very focused on her work during the day, which allowed her to have a good work-life balance too. I’d like to believe I’ve learnt some of her tricks for managing her workload and getting more
done during the day.
What kind of manager would you like to work for?
Your answer depends on what you know about the organisation. So make sure you do some research on how you are likely to be managed. For example, if you think that the organisation is driven by strict rules and procedures, you might say: I would like to have a manager who will give me clear instructions and expect me to be able to deliver good results.
If the organisation is known for its creativity and giving employees a great deal of autonomy, a candidate might say: I’d like to work for manager who will listen to my ideas and give
me the authority and responsibility to do a good job.
How many cars are there in Australia?
Management consultancies and investment banks, in particular, like to ask questions that may require you to ‘guesstimate’ an answer. Typical questions might ask you to estimate the size of a market. For example, ‘How many mobile phones are there in China?’ or ‘How many litres of orange juice are consumed in France each year?’ On the face of it, these would seem impossible to answer, as you are not going to have the facts to hand. However, the interviewer is actually interested in two key skills:
1. Your capacity to make estimates, apply rules of thumb, and extrapolate from information that you do possess when no definitive data is available.
2.How quickly you can make mental calculations. The interviewer is not expecting you to have the actual answers. They are more interested in hearing your thought processes on tackling the question. So one critical tip, which the interviewers often forget to mention, is to talk aloud as you work out the answer to the problem. Start by breaking down the question into the facts that you would need to estimate. For example, in order to estimate the answer, you need to know how many people are in Australia. Then you would need to work
out the ratio of people to cars in the country. A candidate’s answer might go along the lines of the following: I have no idea of the exact population of Australia. I know that it is
a huge country, but it is much less densely populated than most European countries. I know that the population of the UK is less than 60 million people, so perhaps Australia has 20 million inhabitants give or take a few million? Now, not everyone has a car. People may live in family units, so even though there may be 20 million people living in Australia, we
probably have only about 7 million households, because on average maybe three people live in each household. Not every household has a car though, so let’s say that only one in two households has a car. Obviously, some households have more than one car but there are
lots of people who travel only on public transport. So of the 7 million households, I’d say there were about 3.5 million cars in Australia. Now, your estimates may have a significant margin of error attached to them. But as long as they are sensible and not completely ridiculous you can demonstrate your ability to break a problem down and make rapid
mental calculations.
Why are supermarket own-brand cans of baked beans cheaper than the
leading make of branded baked beans?
No technical knowledge about food production is actually needed to answer the question as it is trying to ascertain the candidate’s ability to make sensible assumptions and to break down an apparently complicated problem. In such a situation, the interviewer is looking for your ability to: _ Apply logic to break a complex problem into a number of more easily
solved component problems. _ Gather and analyse information. _ Make suggestions while thinking on your feet. If the question involves multiple points and sub-questions, ask
whether the interviewer would mind you jotting down some of the key points on a sheet of paper to act as a reminder. A candidate’s answer might go as follows: Well, I assume that own-brand baked beans are cheaper because they cost less to produce. So why don’t we break down the cost of different cans of beans into their constituent parts. Thinking about the constituent parts, there is the basic cost of the beans themselves. Perhaps the branded company can buy beans more cheaply, because they buy in bigger quantities and can get
them in bulk. The branded-beans company would also probably be able to buy tin cans more cheaply, again because they buy in greater quantities. However, those two facts would suggest that the branded beans should be cheaper, so that’s not the answer. Another part of the cost is the distribution of the tins of beans but I can’t see why there would be a significant difference in cost there either. Aha – I’ve got it. Supermarkets never advertise their baked
beans on the television, whereas the branded company has to spend much more on marketing and advertising. So that’s why supermarkets can sell their beans more cheaply.
And there is the answer. Remember that succeeding at case study interviews is about breaking down a problem, and then making some quick estimates and mental calculations.
You are in a room with three light switches, each of which controls one of
three light bulbs in an adjacent room. You must determine which switch
controls which bulb. But I’m afraid you may flick only two switches and
may enter the adjacent room only once. How would you go about
determining which switch controls which bulb?
Some interviewers like to pose riddles, quandaries, or brainteasers to test candidates’ ability to ‘think out of the box’. These are unlikely to have a right or wrong answer. In fact there may be many possible solutions. The only tip here is to let your imagination run wild. I’d flick one switch on, wait for ten minutes and flick it back off. Then I’d turn one of the other light switches on before going in the room. By feeling which light bulb is still warm, I could identify
which one I flicked on for ten minutes. I’d knock a hole in the wall so that I could see which switch controls which bulb. I’d phone a friend and ask them to stand next door to see which
bulb comes on. I’d take off my belt and place the shiny metal buckle strategically so that I could see in its reflection which switch works each bulb. Don’t discount any answer. What’s more important is to come up with a creative solution and not to sit in silence looking confused.
DEFLECTING NEGATIVE QUESTIONS WITH A POSITIVE APPROACH
In the bad old days of interviewing, quite a few interviewers used to think that giving candidates a hard time and deliberately putting them under stress was a good idea. By doing so, they hoped to expose personality flaws in weaker candidates. Luckily, most interviewers now know better, although there may still be one or two interviewers who haven’t heard
that stress interviews are out. If you are faced with an aggressive interviewer, you must keep your composure. Responding with anger will only escalate the situation. Remember that you want to be offered a job, so you need to hide your irritation. Be calm, take your time, and focus on answering the question. Some questions start by making a negative statement about you, and invite you to fight your way uphill to impress the interviewer. Because
these questions can be convoluted, you should take a few seconds to ensure that you have understood the question properly before responding.
I don’t understand why you think you are the right person for this job
You might want to ask the interviewer why he or she thinks so: ‘Can I ask why you think that?’ or ‘Could you be a bit more specific please? What exactly are your doubts?’
Then try to make a short statement about why you think you are the right person for the job.
I’m disappointed that you think that. I think that I am the right person for the job for three reasons. Firstly, I have a track record of delivering exceptional customer service, which is something that my last boss will attest to. Secondly, I’ve been told by various colleagues that I have a better understanding of this particular technology than some of the people who work for the company that invented the technology. And finally, I’m incredibly determined and I can give you a couple of examples of how I’ve persisted to deliver results for the team.
Why do you think that you are better than the other candidates?
The question asserts that you think you are better than the other candidates and you need to correct that assertion. Use this question as an opportunity to summarise again what you believe are your key strengths. I haven’t met the other candidates, so I can talk only about myself. What I hope I have done is to impress you with my track record of results. In particular, I think I have three main strengths, which are…
Do you like regular hours and routine working patterns?
Be sure to tell the interviewer what you think they need to hear. Tailor your response to what you know about the organisation. Is it the sort of organisation where the work may be very repetitive and predictable or incredibly varied?
Yes, I like to get comfortable with a job so that I can do it well. No, I like to have new challenges and variety that will keep me from getting bored but also improve my skill set. And that’s why I am interested in this job.
Do you mind paperwork and other bureaucratic practices?
The interviewer might be trying to hint that the job will involve a lot of administrative work. Good research about the demands of the job will help you to decide on the right answer to give. I don’t mind it. I realise that doing things properly and having a good paper trail are important parts of the job.
Have you ever broken rules to get a job done?
Be careful here, as there is a critical difference between breaking a rule once to achieve a benefit to the organisation and breaking rules on multiple occasions because you find rules restrictive. When answering, explain that you broke a rule only because there was an opportunity or challenge to which you had to react quickly and the organisation would have lost out if you had not broken the rules. I have broken the rules but only because the rule was stopping me from achieving what I knew my boss wanted. I had been asked to get quotes from three companies on the costs of printing a brochure that we needed for the end of the week. I am supposed to get her to sign off expenditure over £1000, but she had been
called into a meeting. The cheapest quote came in at about £1200 but I gave them the go-ahead anyway, because otherwise we would not have had the brochures done by the end of the week.
All of us have personality defects – what is yours?
A personality defect is a very strong term and it would be prudent to avoid admitting to having any. However, you should not try to imply that you are perfect, so go on to talk about one of your minor weaknesses. I wouldn’t say that I have anything as strong as a personality
defect. However, I do have areas that I know I could improve on.
For example...
You don’t have much experience of X – how will you cope in this job?
The ‘X’ could represent just about any skill. The interviewer may have spotted from your CV that you don’t have much experience with a particular system, tool, method of working, software package, etc. that this organisation uses. Your response must reassure the interviewer that you at least have similar experience and that you learn fast. I’ve used several other similar design programmes. When I first joined my current company, I hadn’t had any experience of the Design 200 software but I found that it was sufficiently similar to other packages that I was able to get up to speed with it very quickly. I had to work a bit harder and for slightly longer hours than the rest of the team for a few weeks, but the fact that I’d not used the programme before certainly didn’t impact upon my work performance.
Do you take work home with you in the evenings or at weekends?
This is a question that tries to trap you into admitting that you are ineffective during the day and need to catch up in the evenings and at weekends. I very rarely find the need to. I prefer to get it all done in the office because you have everything that you need to hand and you can bounce ideas off colleagues.
Why did you not achieve more in your last job?
The interviewer may be trying to provoke you into reacting emotionally. Try to talk about what you did achieve rather than focusing on what you did not achieve. I don’t see achievement as solely measured by promotion up the hierarchy. It has been more important to me to be given challenging work and to be learning new skills. However, I am now ready to move on because I do feel that I could be given more responsibility as well as new challenges.
Quite frankly, I don’t think you have enough experience of…
If the interviewer expresses a concern about a skill or experience that you do actually have but he or she just does not know about, you should give an example to make it clear to the interviewer that you do possess it. However, if you do not have the required skill or experience, you would need to emphasise your willingness and ability to learn. Give an example of a related skill that you picked up very quickly.It’s true that I haven’t much experience of running workshops.But when I joined my current company, I had never given a
performance appraisal either. But I asked personnel to send me on a course and I did some reading and talking to other team leaders about it. By the end of the year, I got an award for being one of the top 10 per cent of team leaders in the company. So I do learn quickly.
How do you think your experience has prepared you to take on more
responsibility?
A good response should talk about the opportunities you have already had in your current or previous jobs to take on more responsibility. I’ve actually already had some experience of managing a restaurant. When a shift manager was sometimes unable to come to work, I was usually the one who assumed responsibility for the team. So I’d be the point of contact if customers had any complaints. I’d be the one who would order more stock, take the
cash bags to the bank, and lock up the premises last thing at night. Over the last six months alone, I’ve probably spent at least a dozen days taking on the full range of managerial responsibilities
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Aren’t you over qualified (or have too much experience) for this job?
The employer may be worried that you might get bored of the job and move on quickly. If you agree that you are overqualified, you could try explaining that you are looking for a better work-life balance. There may have been too much travel or the hours were too long in your previous or current job. Perhaps you have family or other personal commitments that mean you want to have some stability in your working life for a few years. Or you could try arguing that you want to join a smaller company where you can feel that you have a greater impact on what goes on. Whatever you say, make sure you can state your case convincingly to
explain how you will still be committed to the job, that you’re not burnt out and looking for an opportunity to slacken off entirely. I realise on paper that this may look like a step down from being a manager to one of the team. But I’ve come to the conclusion that I prefer the day-to-day business of graphic design to having to manage a team. I get much more enjoyment out of doing it than managing others who are doing it and that’s why I’m currently looking for jobs only as a designer rather than a design manager.
Have you ever been fired?
The best answer would be to say, ‘No’. However, if you cannot, then you will need to have good reasons why it happened. Finish by reassuring the interviewer that it was a one-time situation that will never again occur. I had a major difference of opinion with my boss. I felt that some of his practices were misleading. For example, when customers rang in with complaints, he encouraged us to lie to cover up why we hadn’t got the right products to them on time. We clashed on quite a few occasions and eventually my boss asked me to leave.
However, I’ve worked for four other bosses in my career so far and I could ask any of those other bosses for a reference and they would tell you how good I am in a team. I joined the company because I thought I would be working on lots of big, strategic projects. However, when I joined, I discovered that the job actually involved a lot of dealing with the detail and
administration. I really should have resigned but unfortunately I let it affect my motivation. As a consequence, I was asked to leave. However, I learnt my lesson and now am much more careful to understand the demands of the jobs I apply for. This job, for instance, is exactly the kind of job that would play to my strengths because it would allow me to concentrate on those broad, big picture issues.
What keeps you up at night?
In reality, most people have a combination of both personal and professional worries. However, you may want to downplay the extent to which you agonise over work-related issues. I don’t think anything keeps me up at night, to be honest. I have concerns, obviously, but for the most part I feel that I am in control of my life. At work, I want to do a good job and feel that people respect me for my work. But I wouldn’t say that these trouble me overly.
How would you rate me as an interviewer?
It would be dangerous to express your honest opinion if the interviewer is boring you or asking the wrong sorts of questions. Be diplomatic and constructive if you want to make any small criticisms. I’d rate you as a good interviewer because you’ve asked me some
fairly challenging questions that have made me work hard and really think about the answers. But at the same time you have also given me a chance to talk about my skills and experience. So yes, all round it’s been a good performance on your part.
OPENING UP CLOSED QUESTIONS
Technically, you could get away with answering only ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to closed questions. However, you will give the interviewer a much clearer picture of your skills and fit with the organisation if you continue by giving an example to explain your ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answer.
Do you ever have any doubts about your ability to do the job?
Insecurity is a deeply unattractive trait in potential employees. Who wants to work with someone who needs constant reassurance? However, be careful not to sound arrogant in your response. Of course there are moments when I feel tired and frustrated. But I
can honestly say that for 99 per cent of the time, I get a real kick out of the variety, the pace, and having challenging deadlines. Keeping busy and learning new things is how I know I’m still alive.
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Do you regard it as a weakness to lose your temper?
A ‘Yes’ could imply that no one should ever lose his or her temper. But a ‘No’ could imply that you lose your temper regularly. I can’t think of an occasion when I have personally lost my temper at work. However, I recognise that we’re all only human: it could happen to me in the future. So I try to be patient and understanding of the reasons why someone else may be angry. Consider as an alternative explaining that you sometimes feel frustrated but somehow manage to bite your tongue or otherwise calm yourself to avoid taking it out on people at work.
When was the last time you felt frustrated at work?
Try to avoid saying that you feel frustrated by other people. Perhaps talk about how some system or process at work stops you from achieving organisational goals more effectively.
I don’t really get frustrated by much. Although I do sometimes think that if we didn’t have to submit all budget applications through head office, we could save a lot of time. Having said that, I appreciate that head office wants to make sure that we are not overspending. But it is slightly frustrating that we can’t meet customers’ requests a little more quickly. However, if an interviewer insists on an example of when you last felt frustrated by another person, give a response that shows you might have felt slightly frustrated, but in no way let it affect your working relationship or your ability to do the job. I have a colleague who speaks and laughs incredibly loudly. Sometimes when we’re on the telephone with customers, I know that the customer can hear her. I don’t want the customer to think that we’re being unprofessional so I’m constantly telling my colleague to quieten down, politely of course. Various colleagues and I have mentioned it to her probably several dozen times, but she soon forgets to be quiet and becomes loud again.
Do you mind travelling much?
If you do mind having to travel, I would recommend that you keep your mouth shut until you have been offered the job and have the opportunity to negotiate exactly how much you will have to travel. But simply answering ‘No’ is not enough. It is part of the job and I am used to it. I find that I can catch up with my reading on trains. One of the reasons I’m looking to join you is the prospect of international travel. I want to experience different cultures and
learn about the different ways in which business is conducted elsewhere, so I’m really looking forward to travelling quite a bit.
Good morning. Would you like a hot drink before we start?
Not a trick question. If you would like to, then do accept a drink, as you may be talking for a few hours and need to moisten your mouth and throat. But rather than have your interviewer ask you whether you would like a drink, whether you would like milk, and how many sugars you take, simply answer the question fully in one go. For example: White coffee, two sugars, please Just a glass of water – from a tap would be fine for me, thank you.
NAVIGATING THE MINEFIELD OF ILLEGAL QUESTIONS
Legal guidelines in the last few years have specifically prohibited certain questions that have no relevance to a candidate’s ability to do the job. In theory, interviewers should not ask you about your age, ethnicity, marital status, children or childcare arrangements, birth place, your parents’ or partner’s occupation, your sexuality, membership of a trade union,
hobbies and interests outside of work, or religious beliefs. However, interviewers rarely ask illegal questions deliberately. They are more likely to be acting out of ignorance. Your choice of answer depends on how much you want the job. You may legally be entitled to refuse to
answer the question, but you could possibly embarrass the interviewer and reduce your chances of getting the job. Would you really want to try to prove discrimination in a court of law?
Consider how much you want the job. How you deal with illegal interview questions is ultimately up to you. But if you really want the job, you may want to swallow your pride and answer the question anyway.
Are you married?
Of course you want to say, ‘None of your bloody business!’ But remember that the interviewer probably doesn’t realise that he or she is asking an illegal question.
Yes, I’m married. But my other half and I have completely independent careers so please don’t think that my marital status would in any way affect my ability to do the job.
No, I’m not married. But when or if I ever get married, I can guarantee that it won’t affect my work as my career is incredibly important to me.
What happens when you decide to have children?
Interviewers sometimes assume (incorrectly) that all women want to have children and that children would automatically have an adverse effect on their motivation or ability to work.
Actually, I have no plans of having children. I don’t see myself needing children to be fulfilled.
I don’t plan on having children for at least five more years, because I have certain career goals that I would like to achieve before I’m 35. I have no current plans to have children. In any case, I wouldn’t want a family to slow my career down. I’ve decided that I want to be a partner in a firm within five years.
Are you pregnant at the moment?
While you do not legally have to disclose the answer to this question, you may want to answer truthfully anyway. An employer could make your life very difficult for you if you lied when you knew that you were expecting a child. I hope you don’t mind, but I’d rather not answer that question. Please don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m afraid I don’t quite
see the relevance to my ability to do the job. Yes, I am pregnant. But I hope you will be able to treat me as just another candidate and allow me to demonstrate precisely why I have the right skills for this job.
Does your husband/wife/family mind you being away from home?
The fact that you are married should not affect your willingness to travel. However, avoid getting into a lengthy debate about it and just answer the question in a positive fashion.
I have always travelled extensively as part of my work – in fact I enjoy it – so my marital status really shouldn’t be a cause for concern for you. I’m not married, so this isn’t a problem.
What hobbies and interests do you have outside of work?
In theory, an interviewer should not ask you about what you do outside of your work. The legal guidelines say that it shouldn’t matter whether you spend all of your leisure time slouched in front of the television or working with charities. The only thing that should matter is your ability to do the job. However, if you do want to answer the question, try to pick activities that imply you are the kind of person this organisation would want to hire. For example, if the role requires lots of team working, then talking about solitary pursuits such as playing the guitar or going on country walks by yourself could give the wrong impression.
Avoid talking about your family excessively as this may give the interviewer the impression that you may not be willing to work long hours when necessary. Mentioning activities to do with your faith or religion has unfortunately also been known to turn some interviewers off.
Quite a few of my colleagues at work are also my friends outside of work. So we like to have the occasional drink/meal out/game of football together. I’m a keen photographer. I find that looking for interesting photos to take gives me a fresh outlook on life, something that probably helps me to stay more open-minded about opportunities at work too.
Do you play any competitive sports?
Some interviewers believe that candidates who play team sports are also more likely to be good team players in the workplace. But even if you do not play a team sport, it is still better to talk about some form of exercise that you engage in than nothing at all. Some interviewers worry that people who enjoy sitting around doing nothing in their leisure time might also sit around doing nothing in their work time too. I play five-a-side football at the weekends. I find that it helps me to think about the strengths and weaknesses of different people and it helps me to be a better team player. I don’t play any competitive sports, but I do go jogging at least
twice a week. I find that regular exercise gives me more energy in my life and my work.
Do you have any problems with relocating?
If relocation is necessary for the job, you should hopefully already have picked this up in your research. However, if the question comes as a complete shock to you in the interview, try to respond in a way that allows you to play for time. I didn’t realise that relocation would be required for this job, but I have to say that I am very keen to join the company from what I
have seen and heard about it so far. So, depending on the right package, relocation would not be a problem.
This job requires you to work on a Saturday/Sunday – does that cause any
conflict with your religion?
Hopefully you will already have ascertained from your research before the interview that you might have to work on certain days. So if you decided to press ahead with the interview, you should be able to simply say: Not at all.
Does your religion mean you will need to take more holidays than other
employees?
If you must take certain religious holidays, explain that you will take these as part of your annual leave entitlement. No. There will be times of the year that I might ideally like to take
off. But I’ll follow the company’s guidelines on the matter and apply for time off just like any other employee.
Do you mind if I ask what your partner does for a living?
Perhaps the interviewer wants to know whether your partner has a demanding job that might cause problems with childcare. Or perhaps the interviewer is alluding to your sexuality. In either case, this is an illegal question although you may still wish to answer it, albeit in a tangential fashion. My partner has a demanding career in the airline industry. But I am my own person so what I hope to impress upon you is my ability to do the job on my own merits.
Remember that illegal questions are more often asked out of ignorance on the interviewer’s part than a deliberate desire to cause offence. In deciding how you will respond to the question, ask yourself, How badly do I want the job?
IN SUMMARY
# Remember that there are many untrained, unskilled interviewers who can ask questions that bear little relation to the job. However, put up with their sometimes strange questions by smiling and trying to turn them to your advantage.
# Aim to give short examples that showcase one of your skills or a personal quality in every answer you give.
# Control your emotions or any anger you may feel when you are asked an illegal question. In the vast majority of cases, the interviewer is asking the question out of ignorance, so you must tread carefully in order not to make them feel uncomfortable.
Talking about your personal qualities during Interview
# Talking in general terms about yourself
# Demonstrating your ability to get work done
# Dealing with hypothetical questions
You can’t blame interviewers for asking lots of questions. There’s a lot at stake for them. They want to make sure they can hire someone who is right for the job, who will be able to do the job well and help both the team and the broader organisation to succeed. They don’t want to end up hiring someone who will turn out to be a slacker, a bungling idiot, or a
clever rocket scientist with no people skills.
This page deals with the many questions that interviewers may ask you about your skills, your personality, and your motivations. As you read this chapter, remember to keep making notes as to how you would answer each question.
DESCRIBING YOURSELF IN POSITIVE TERMS
Responding to questions that ask you to rate yourself or to evaluate yourself as others see you need to be handled with some subtlety. When talking about what you bring to an employer, there is a fine line between confidence and arrogance, so tread carefully. Similarly, when talking about your negative points and weaknesses, very little separates being sufficiently honest with being foolishly candid.
What is your greatest strength?
From your analysis of the job advert, you should by now have identified the key skills that are required for this particular role. So answering the question should be easy. If you can, talk about how one of your strengths is one of the key skills they are looking for. Remember to offer a brief example of how you have used your strength at work in order to hammer your point home. I’m good at keeping calm when others are getting stressed. For example, a customer rang our team saying that an order had got lost along the way. Some of my colleagues were getting panicky about what to do so I called a meeting and we brainstormed ideas. We decided to hire a pick-up van that afternoon to drive a replacement batch of our product to the customer ourselves. I think that my greatest strength is my ability to take in complex company financial information, build a spreadsheet to analyse its profitability, and make a decision very quickly as to whether the company would be a good venture or not. Recently I did that for an Eastern European business that my boss was thinking about buying
and I completed the financial valuation of it in a single weekend.
What is your greatest weakness?
If you are asked about your strengths, you will be asked about your weaknesses or development needs. However, candidates who are unable to come up with any weaknesses at all are often viewed with suspicion. Are you claiming to be superhumanly perfect? Rather than say you have no weaknesses, which interviewers are more likely to interpret as arrogance on your part, choose a couple of minor weaknesses that are unrelated to your ability to do the job. For example, if your job is only to implement other people’s ideas, you could say that you aren’t very good at coming up with your own ideas. I know that I can get frustrated very quickly when people don’t make decisions. However, now that I am aware of it, I try to remember that colleagues may need time to think something through before giving me an answer.
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I like to be quite autonomous in my work. Years ago, I had a very controlling boss who wanted to sit down with me and tell me exactly how to do every little task. But that’s not happened in my last few jobs and from what I understand of this role, I’m going to be working quite independently, so I know it’s not going to be a problem here either. But don’t try to turn your weaknesses into strengths. Two examples that seem to come up are ‘One of my weaknesses is that I’m a bit of a perfectionist. I tend to spend longer than necessary making sure that things are perfect’ and ‘you might say I don’t suffer fools gladly. I can’t tolerate poor quality or lack of effort from other people’. These sounds too rehearsed and imply that the candidate lacks any self-awareness. If you mention any weaknesses that could affect your ability to do the job, be ready to describe what actions you are taking to improve or develop yourself.
What is your greatest area for development?
There are many euphemisms for weaknesses. So be ready to answer the same question under different guises.
What are your development needs with respect to this role?
What is your greatest area of under-strength?
What are your three biggest strengths and three biggest weaknesses?
This is just a variation on the basic strengths and weaknesses questions. It pays to plan to have at least three or four strengths up your sleeve and a similar number of weaknesses, in case the interviewer insists on a certain number.
How would your colleagues/team/boss describe you?
Although you may be tempted to present a rounded picture of how your colleagues see you, you should try to get away with treating this question as if you had been asked, ‘What would your colleagues say are your strengths?’ There is no benefit in mentioning weaknesses unless the interviewer specifically asks for them. Simply talk about two or three of the key skills that are required of the job.
For example, a gym instructor being interviewed for a job at a health club might say. I think my colleagues would say that I am very client-focused. I don’t just stand around, waiting for members of the gym to come and ask me questions. I move around the gym, observing how they are getting on, chatting and offering advice. In fact, when the members of the gym were asked to rate the five instructors in the gym, I got a 4.5 rating out of 5. If you can, try to back up your claims with any objective evidence that you may have on how colleagues have described you, such as from an appraisal or from a 360-degree feedback report.
What would your friends say your biggest fault is?
The trick here is to pick a weakness that applies only to your personal life and could never interfere with your work life. I suppose they might say that I’m a bit of an impulse shopper.
I really like technology and gadgets. I like to understand how they work so I end up buying toys for myself that I don’t really need.
How would your rate yourself as…?
You could be asked to rate yourself as a team player, a researcher, a leader, or just about anything else. Obviously you need to start by saying that you are a very good team player, researcher, leader, etc. Don’t let modesty get in the way of making a good impression on the interviewer. But the secret is to then back up your assertion with a short example that
demonstrates that you are as good as you say.
Be careful not to make extravagant claims about yourself unless you have evidence to support it, such as having won an award, being specifically praised by a colleague, or having received the biggest bonus amongst your peer group. I’d say that I was one of the best technicians in our company. For example, we get a set of ratings in our annual appraisal. I was the only technician to get awarded the top ranking in four out of the six skill categories and the second best ranking in the remaining two. I’d rate myself as a good leader because I work hard at developing the capability of the people who work for me. Just a few months
ago, one of my team was promoted. She used to be very shy but I spent a lot of time coaching her and building her confidence in meetings, and now she’s going to work in our New York office.
What unique skills would you bring to our company?
A tricky question, as the interviewer is effectively asking you what you have that the other candidates do not have. If you know that you have some technical skills that very few candidates have, this is your opportunity to talk about them. However, if you are not sure that you have any skills that are unique to you, you could try a different approach.
Talk about the fact that you possess a combination of skills and determination that, taken together, are unique. I’m good with technology, but I think what makes me different is
that I’m also a people-person. I’m not the kind of person who likes to sit in a room and just work on technical problems all day. I like to get out in front of customers and understand their problems and see how I can solve them.
TALKING ABOUT YOUR ABILITY TO GET WORK DONE
At the end of the day, an interviewer is most interested in whether you can deliver results. Can you complete projects, deal with daily tasks, work with other people and on your own?
For example, teams are supposed to create something that is greater than the sum of their parts. But can you show the interviewer that you are able to navigate the minefield of disagreements, politics and outright arguments that happen in most teams? On the other hand, although employers appreciate the ability to work with other people, it goes without saying that you also need to demonstrate that you are able to work on your own without continual guidance and reassurance.
Would you say that you have good influencing skills?
Of course say, ‘Yes.’ However, it is very difficult to convince an interviewer of your influencing skills if you speak about them only in abstract terms. So continue by providing an example of how you influenced someone as proof of your skill. Yes. For example there was a situation a few months ago when the head of my department said that we didn’t have enough money to upgrade our systems. I took it upon myself to write a business case about the benefits of the upgrade and I organised a meeting with the department head. He was initially quite sceptical, but when I explained it to him, he understood that the new system was
actually going to save us quite a lot of time and make us money in a period of only 18 months.
Are you a good team player?
Of course you’re a great team player, but give an example to demonstrate how you helped the team to achieve its goals. Yes, I’m a good team player because I try to create a good working atmosphere. For example, there was an occasion when two of the team, weren’t getting on. The situation was getting worse and worse and they were barely on speaking terms. Eventually I spoke to each of them individually and arranged for the three of us to go
out together for lunch. I encouraged the two of them to talk through their issues and they now at least understand each other’s perspectives and can be civil enough to work together. I try to be a good team player by checking on the workloads of other people and ensuring that everyone’s happy. Recently I noticed that one of my colleagues, was a lot quieter than usual. I took her aside and found out that her uncle had just died. She had just found out on the telephone and she was really upset. I suggested that she ask our boss for the rest of the day off and I offered to finish the few phone calls that she was supposed to be handling for the rest of the day.
What role do you tend to play within a team?
Before you answer this question, try to think about the kind of role that you might need to assume if you were to be taken on by the employer. Don’t try to tell every employer that you tend to be the leader if they are looking only for followers. I tend to be the one who gets things done. I enjoy working with people who can come up with ideas. But when they come up with new ideas all the time, it’s up to me to turn those ideas into reality. I’m good at following through, delivering what I promise to do, and having good attention to detail. Otherwise our team would have lots of great ideas but no implementation of them. I think I probably have the best analytical skills of the team. So when we come up with a new idea, I often find myself being the one who goes away to research it and come up with a costing.
Try to relate the role you tend to play within a team to the role that you think the employer may need you to play within their team.
What kind of people do you get on best with?
The interviewer may be trying to decide whether you will fit in with the existing team. Avoid ruling yourself out of the running by being too specific about the kinds of people you get on with. That’s a tough question because I’m the kind of person who gets on with everyone. One of my best friends at work is an ex-policeman who is about 20 years older than me and we work really well together. He’s a good friend outside of work too. Another of my close friends at work is a young single mother with two kids and we always have a laugh while we get on with our work.
What kind of people do you tend not to get on with?
Try to understand the culture of the organisation that you are joining. The answer you should give if you are applying for a job at a local library may be different from the one you give for an application to a large aggressive investment bank. I get a bit frustrated when I’m dealing with people who say ‘I don’t know’ all of the time. I like to work with bright, energetic people
who have suggestions to make and aren’t afraid to speak their mind. I’m less likely to become close personal friends with people who are loud, overconfident, arrogant and abrasive. But even though I have occasionally encountered people like that, I bite my tongue. I realise that I’m in a support role and I need to offer my professional services to anyone who needs my help. It just means I’m unlikely to bond with them on a personal level.
How good are you at handling conflict?
Give an example of how you have handled a tricky situation with tact and diplomacy.
I’m good at defusing conflict. For instance, when I took on my current role, I had to go meet a customer who was very angry about a problem that she had experienced with the customer
service manager who had handled her account before I joined the business. I met with her, let her vent her frustrations on me until she calmed down and then I established exactly what she wanted me to do about the situation. That was six months ago and now
she’s incredibly happy with the service we provide and has increased the size of her orders by nearly 50 per cent. I try to avoid conflict if I can. But a couple of months ago, one of
my colleagues John, thought I was ignoring him because I was simply too busy to return his phone calls. Another colleague told me about the problem so I took John out for a coffee and we talked it through. I apologised for not appearing to want to help with the report that he wanted me to do for him and explained that I’d been spending a lot of time at our other location. It was a good conversation though and we patched things up.
Do you enjoy speaking in front of other people?
The job you are applying for may not require that you stand up and give formal presentations in front of hundreds of people. But many jobs may require you to give short talks or informal updates to members of your team or department. Yes, I quite like speaking my mind in front of others. I got a lot of practice at college because we used to give 10-minute presentations to the other people in our class on our thoughts about the essay topic of the week.
How do you respond to personal criticism?
You need to show the interviewer that you can take constructive criticism without taking offence or reacting defensively to it. As long as the criticism is fair and constructive, I try to listen to it, thank them for their candid feedback, and modify my future behaviour accordingly.
Can you describe a situation in which you were criticised?
This is a natural follow-up to the previous question. Avoid giving an example that involves lateness, absenteeism or aggressive behaviour, as these can signal to the interviewer that you are a troublesome employee. Better examples are to do with skills, such as presentation or computing skills, that you may have lacked at one point in your career, but which you
have since worked on and had some success in improving. I never thought it was terribly important to understand budgets and how the business made money. But my boss suggested that I sit down with the finance manager regularly, which was really
instrumental at helping me to navigate a profit and loss account. It was hard at first but I now have a good grasp of how different costs can affect our profit margins.
How will you cope working with people from different backgrounds to yours?
You may have heard a lot of employers talk about the need for people to respect diversity in cultural, ethnic, gender, and other differences. So variations on this question could ask you how you work with people from ‘very different educational backgrounds’, ‘different cultures’, or ‘different countries’. Whatever form the question takes, the best way to answer this
is to provide an example to show that you can work with people who are very different from yourself. If you can, try also to emphasise that you not only had a good working relationship but also became good friends. Use whatever example you have. Even if you have not worked with people from different countries or cultures, perhaps your boss was much younger than you, a colleague was a single parent with a very different view on life from yours, or you worked alongside a team of scientists, actuaries, or lecturers who were
all much more highly qualified than you were. When I transferred to our head office, I found myself working with a lot of the sales and marketing people. I have to say that I thought they didn’t really respect the people who worked in the field and didn’t take my views seriously. But I worked hard to earn their respect and invested a lot of time meeting with them on a
one-to-one basis. It probably took me a good six months, but now I’m pleased to say that they treat me as an equal.
How do you respond to authority?
If an interviewer is asking you this question, it might be because the organisation is quite hierarchical: each employee knows their level and there might be rules on how you deal with people who are more senior than yourself. I have no problem at all with authority. I like to know what my reporting line is and I realise that a big part of my job is satisfying
the demands that my line manager will make of me. If I were to be offered this job, I would really appreciate sitting down with my manager to establish how he or she likes to be communicated with, and how I should deal with problems should I encounter them.
What was the greatest failing of your boss?
Speaking ill of your previous boss could reflect badly on you so resist the temptation to talk at length about his or her faults. Try deflecting the question by emphasising the good qualities of your boss.
I can’t say that there is much wrong with my boss. She has a lot
of experience and has coached me in many ways, especially in my
ability to present confidently in front of large groups of people.
If an interviewer pursues the matter and asks for a weakness, be
sure to finish off your response by talking about how you
compensated for their weakness.
I wouldn’t say that this is a major fault; it’s more of a minor quibble. My current boss can be quite forgetful. Often, you can tell him something and he can forget it even in the same day. So I have learned not to rely on him to remember times and dates of meetings. Instead, I always send him an email and send a copy to his secretary, so that she can politely manage his schedule. Then reinforce the fact that you had a good relationship with your boss
by finishing ith another positive statement. ‘But this relatively minor weakness was far outweighed by the fact that she gave me a lot of responsibility’ or ‘But I don’t want to blow this weakness out of proportion, as he also taught me a lot about project management and
writing press releases’.
Do you prefer to work on your own or with other people?
You do not want to give the impression that you are capable of one but not the other. However, the ‘right’ answer depends on the nature of the job. Before the interview, you should have established whether you would be spending most of your time working on your own or in a team with other people. As such, your answer should depend very much on the
situation. I’m quite willing to work on my own when necessary. Once I understand a task, I can soldier on until it is done. However, I prefer to work with a team as I like to bounce ideas off other people and it makes the work more stimulating.. I’m happy to work with other people when I need to. I think I listen to what other people have to say and can make a contribution to group discussions too. However, I am applying for this job because
I enjoy working by myself. I like having the freedom to think about a problem and come up with solutions on my own.
Would you say that you are reliable?
Of course you should say that you are reliable. However, you need to be able to give a response that makes you stand out from the other candidates. Employers worry about lateness, absenteeism from work, and forgetfulness. As a consequence, punctuality, dependability and a willingness to work overtime to meet deadlines are valued traits.
There used to be five of us running the helpdesk. We were supposed to open at 9.00am for queries, but we also provided early cover from 7.30am. I’m proud to say that in the two-and-a-half years I worked there, I didn’t miss any of my early shifts. I always either turned up or managed to swap my shift with someone else beforehand.
Can you work under pressure?
Before answering this question, you need to decide how much pressure you think the job entails. For example, a journalist for a daily newspaper, a financial trader, or an air traffic controller might respond by saying: I positively thrive on pressure. I couldn’t do a job where I had to sit and watch the clock ticking by every day. I like to know that each day is going to be very different, with its own set of decisions to make and problems to solve. However, if you are applying for a job where you would expect there to be more order in your day and less moment-to-moment pressure, you might want to talk a bit about how you plan and organise in order to avoid last minute crunches. I sit down and look at my workload at the start of each week in order to work out which tasks I need to do on which days. I use a Gantt chart to keep up to date with projects that I am working on However, when things do occasionally go wrong, I resolve myself to the fact that it might be a late night in the office.
How do you unwind and deal with stress?
This differs from the previous question, because it is asking you how you deal with the tension that can result from tight deadlines and tough days at work. However, bear in mind that what is socially acceptable in one organisation may be deemed inappropriate by another firm. For example, an aggressive sales team might snigger at candidates who profess to meditating or enjoying quiet reading. Of course such attitudes are not fair, but I’m afraid that interviewers can be prejudiced as much as anyone. This is where your research into the culture and prevailing attitudes of the company will help you. Avoid talking about relaxing by having a glass of wine. An uptight interviewer may view this in a negative light. I don’t really get stressed. But I do like to go out with the rest of the team. They’re great people and our culture has always been about working hard and playing hard together. I play squash at least once or twice a week, which really helps me to unwind and get ready for another day at work.
How do you cope with disappointment?
Show that you can recover from setbacks, dust yourself off, and carry on regardless. Interviewers want to hire people who are persistent and possess tenacity and determination. I don’t take anything personally. My view is that you have to knock on 100 doors to find the one that will open. For instance, when my boss didn’t like an idea of mine that related to the way we send out invoices, I kept going back to the drawing board to refine my ideas and to ask other people across the organisation for help in tweaking them. I went back to my boss three times before she agreed to try my new invoicing method. If I get offered the job, I’m
sure she’ll mention what a success that was in the reference she gives me.
How do you deal with failure?
Again, in answering this question, try to show that you have a positive approach to your work. I don’t really think in terms of failure. I think that failing to achieve something the first time around shows that only your approach was wrong. So I see failure as useful feedback for how something should work.
Do you pay attention to detail?
This is a slightly silly question as you are hardly likely to say, ‘No’. Think about the kind of situations where you are likely to need to pay close attention to detail if you were to be offered the job. Try to construct an example of how you used your skill with detail in a similar situation in the past. We send out a lot of letters to customers and it’s common practice
to proofread them before they go out. I probably get asked more often than most to proofread the work of other people because I’m known for having good spelling and grammar. I can seem to spot a mistake a mile away!
How much experience do you have of managing budgets?
Given that most organisations are looking to keep costs low, this is an opportunity for you to shine if you have had such experience. In your response, talk about the biggest budget that you have managed and be specific about how you handled it. I was the budget holder for our department. We had a cost budget of £95,000 per annum. I allowed my team to spend at their discretion up to a £150 limit. But for anything over that, they had to come to see me. If they wanted approval for anything over £1,000, I insisted that they write a business case to justify the spend.
How are you with new technology?
If you are applying for a technical job, then be prepared to talk about the technical wizardry that you can extract from your systems: special functions you can use, macros that you have written, speed dials that you have devised, or shortcuts that you regularly employ.
However, most employers are more interested in basic computer literacy. In particular, employers worry that older candidates may struggle with even the basics of using a computer or other systems such as voicemail. I can deal fairly easily with most of the essential functions of the XYZ package. Just last week I created a database of our clients’
details which I used to send out a mail merge document. I learn quickly. For example, I had never built a spreadsheet until I joined my last company and now I can build simple financial
models to keep track of our monthly sales against budget. If you have experience of particular software programmes that might be important in the role you’re applying for, be ready to talk about the sorts of tasks that you can do with them too.
How is your absenteeism / attendance record?
You will have to be honest here, as this is something that many employers check when they ask for references. If you have had a problem, then give a good reason to explain why it occurred at the time and why it will not happen again. I did have to take several months off, due to a back injury while doing DIY about two years ago. But I got back to full health over a
year ago and I have not had any problems since and it’s something that my references will confirm too.
How is your time keeping?
No employer wants to hire someone who is going to turn up late for work and meetings all of the time. I’m someone who is very careful about time. I hate being late so I always find myself leaving a lot of time to get to meetings and so on. I invariably find myself arriving a lot earlier than I need to.
Ours is a long-hours culture – is that a problem for you?
This may be a trick question. What they call long hours might not be what you consider to be long (or vice versa). This is the kind of trick that you should be prepared for by researching and reading up on the company. However, if you’re not sure what constitutes long hours in the mind of the interviewer, ask the question,’What exactly do you call long hours?’ Then tailor your answer accordingly. I understand that this is a demanding job that I am applying for But I really do thrive on the challenge of this sort of work, so I am willing to put in whatever hours it takes to get the work done. If you have worked similarly long hours in the past, you should definitely cite this experience as well.
# Demonstrating your ability to get work done
# Dealing with hypothetical questions
You can’t blame interviewers for asking lots of questions. There’s a lot at stake for them. They want to make sure they can hire someone who is right for the job, who will be able to do the job well and help both the team and the broader organisation to succeed. They don’t want to end up hiring someone who will turn out to be a slacker, a bungling idiot, or a
clever rocket scientist with no people skills.
This page deals with the many questions that interviewers may ask you about your skills, your personality, and your motivations. As you read this chapter, remember to keep making notes as to how you would answer each question.
DESCRIBING YOURSELF IN POSITIVE TERMS
Responding to questions that ask you to rate yourself or to evaluate yourself as others see you need to be handled with some subtlety. When talking about what you bring to an employer, there is a fine line between confidence and arrogance, so tread carefully. Similarly, when talking about your negative points and weaknesses, very little separates being sufficiently honest with being foolishly candid.
What is your greatest strength?
From your analysis of the job advert, you should by now have identified the key skills that are required for this particular role. So answering the question should be easy. If you can, talk about how one of your strengths is one of the key skills they are looking for. Remember to offer a brief example of how you have used your strength at work in order to hammer your point home. I’m good at keeping calm when others are getting stressed. For example, a customer rang our team saying that an order had got lost along the way. Some of my colleagues were getting panicky about what to do so I called a meeting and we brainstormed ideas. We decided to hire a pick-up van that afternoon to drive a replacement batch of our product to the customer ourselves. I think that my greatest strength is my ability to take in complex company financial information, build a spreadsheet to analyse its profitability, and make a decision very quickly as to whether the company would be a good venture or not. Recently I did that for an Eastern European business that my boss was thinking about buying
and I completed the financial valuation of it in a single weekend.
What is your greatest weakness?
If you are asked about your strengths, you will be asked about your weaknesses or development needs. However, candidates who are unable to come up with any weaknesses at all are often viewed with suspicion. Are you claiming to be superhumanly perfect? Rather than say you have no weaknesses, which interviewers are more likely to interpret as arrogance on your part, choose a couple of minor weaknesses that are unrelated to your ability to do the job. For example, if your job is only to implement other people’s ideas, you could say that you aren’t very good at coming up with your own ideas. I know that I can get frustrated very quickly when people don’t make decisions. However, now that I am aware of it, I try to remember that colleagues may need time to think something through before giving me an answer.
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I like to be quite autonomous in my work. Years ago, I had a very controlling boss who wanted to sit down with me and tell me exactly how to do every little task. But that’s not happened in my last few jobs and from what I understand of this role, I’m going to be working quite independently, so I know it’s not going to be a problem here either. But don’t try to turn your weaknesses into strengths. Two examples that seem to come up are ‘One of my weaknesses is that I’m a bit of a perfectionist. I tend to spend longer than necessary making sure that things are perfect’ and ‘you might say I don’t suffer fools gladly. I can’t tolerate poor quality or lack of effort from other people’. These sounds too rehearsed and imply that the candidate lacks any self-awareness. If you mention any weaknesses that could affect your ability to do the job, be ready to describe what actions you are taking to improve or develop yourself.
What is your greatest area for development?
There are many euphemisms for weaknesses. So be ready to answer the same question under different guises.
What are your development needs with respect to this role?
What is your greatest area of under-strength?
What are your three biggest strengths and three biggest weaknesses?
This is just a variation on the basic strengths and weaknesses questions. It pays to plan to have at least three or four strengths up your sleeve and a similar number of weaknesses, in case the interviewer insists on a certain number.
How would your colleagues/team/boss describe you?
Although you may be tempted to present a rounded picture of how your colleagues see you, you should try to get away with treating this question as if you had been asked, ‘What would your colleagues say are your strengths?’ There is no benefit in mentioning weaknesses unless the interviewer specifically asks for them. Simply talk about two or three of the key skills that are required of the job.
For example, a gym instructor being interviewed for a job at a health club might say. I think my colleagues would say that I am very client-focused. I don’t just stand around, waiting for members of the gym to come and ask me questions. I move around the gym, observing how they are getting on, chatting and offering advice. In fact, when the members of the gym were asked to rate the five instructors in the gym, I got a 4.5 rating out of 5. If you can, try to back up your claims with any objective evidence that you may have on how colleagues have described you, such as from an appraisal or from a 360-degree feedback report.
What would your friends say your biggest fault is?
The trick here is to pick a weakness that applies only to your personal life and could never interfere with your work life. I suppose they might say that I’m a bit of an impulse shopper.
I really like technology and gadgets. I like to understand how they work so I end up buying toys for myself that I don’t really need.
How would your rate yourself as…?
You could be asked to rate yourself as a team player, a researcher, a leader, or just about anything else. Obviously you need to start by saying that you are a very good team player, researcher, leader, etc. Don’t let modesty get in the way of making a good impression on the interviewer. But the secret is to then back up your assertion with a short example that
demonstrates that you are as good as you say.
Be careful not to make extravagant claims about yourself unless you have evidence to support it, such as having won an award, being specifically praised by a colleague, or having received the biggest bonus amongst your peer group. I’d say that I was one of the best technicians in our company. For example, we get a set of ratings in our annual appraisal. I was the only technician to get awarded the top ranking in four out of the six skill categories and the second best ranking in the remaining two. I’d rate myself as a good leader because I work hard at developing the capability of the people who work for me. Just a few months
ago, one of my team was promoted. She used to be very shy but I spent a lot of time coaching her and building her confidence in meetings, and now she’s going to work in our New York office.
What unique skills would you bring to our company?
A tricky question, as the interviewer is effectively asking you what you have that the other candidates do not have. If you know that you have some technical skills that very few candidates have, this is your opportunity to talk about them. However, if you are not sure that you have any skills that are unique to you, you could try a different approach.
Talk about the fact that you possess a combination of skills and determination that, taken together, are unique. I’m good with technology, but I think what makes me different is
that I’m also a people-person. I’m not the kind of person who likes to sit in a room and just work on technical problems all day. I like to get out in front of customers and understand their problems and see how I can solve them.
TALKING ABOUT YOUR ABILITY TO GET WORK DONE
At the end of the day, an interviewer is most interested in whether you can deliver results. Can you complete projects, deal with daily tasks, work with other people and on your own?
For example, teams are supposed to create something that is greater than the sum of their parts. But can you show the interviewer that you are able to navigate the minefield of disagreements, politics and outright arguments that happen in most teams? On the other hand, although employers appreciate the ability to work with other people, it goes without saying that you also need to demonstrate that you are able to work on your own without continual guidance and reassurance.
Would you say that you have good influencing skills?
Of course say, ‘Yes.’ However, it is very difficult to convince an interviewer of your influencing skills if you speak about them only in abstract terms. So continue by providing an example of how you influenced someone as proof of your skill. Yes. For example there was a situation a few months ago when the head of my department said that we didn’t have enough money to upgrade our systems. I took it upon myself to write a business case about the benefits of the upgrade and I organised a meeting with the department head. He was initially quite sceptical, but when I explained it to him, he understood that the new system was
actually going to save us quite a lot of time and make us money in a period of only 18 months.
Are you a good team player?
Of course you’re a great team player, but give an example to demonstrate how you helped the team to achieve its goals. Yes, I’m a good team player because I try to create a good working atmosphere. For example, there was an occasion when two of the team, weren’t getting on. The situation was getting worse and worse and they were barely on speaking terms. Eventually I spoke to each of them individually and arranged for the three of us to go
out together for lunch. I encouraged the two of them to talk through their issues and they now at least understand each other’s perspectives and can be civil enough to work together. I try to be a good team player by checking on the workloads of other people and ensuring that everyone’s happy. Recently I noticed that one of my colleagues, was a lot quieter than usual. I took her aside and found out that her uncle had just died. She had just found out on the telephone and she was really upset. I suggested that she ask our boss for the rest of the day off and I offered to finish the few phone calls that she was supposed to be handling for the rest of the day.
What role do you tend to play within a team?
Before you answer this question, try to think about the kind of role that you might need to assume if you were to be taken on by the employer. Don’t try to tell every employer that you tend to be the leader if they are looking only for followers. I tend to be the one who gets things done. I enjoy working with people who can come up with ideas. But when they come up with new ideas all the time, it’s up to me to turn those ideas into reality. I’m good at following through, delivering what I promise to do, and having good attention to detail. Otherwise our team would have lots of great ideas but no implementation of them. I think I probably have the best analytical skills of the team. So when we come up with a new idea, I often find myself being the one who goes away to research it and come up with a costing.
Try to relate the role you tend to play within a team to the role that you think the employer may need you to play within their team.
What kind of people do you get on best with?
The interviewer may be trying to decide whether you will fit in with the existing team. Avoid ruling yourself out of the running by being too specific about the kinds of people you get on with. That’s a tough question because I’m the kind of person who gets on with everyone. One of my best friends at work is an ex-policeman who is about 20 years older than me and we work really well together. He’s a good friend outside of work too. Another of my close friends at work is a young single mother with two kids and we always have a laugh while we get on with our work.
What kind of people do you tend not to get on with?
Try to understand the culture of the organisation that you are joining. The answer you should give if you are applying for a job at a local library may be different from the one you give for an application to a large aggressive investment bank. I get a bit frustrated when I’m dealing with people who say ‘I don’t know’ all of the time. I like to work with bright, energetic people
who have suggestions to make and aren’t afraid to speak their mind. I’m less likely to become close personal friends with people who are loud, overconfident, arrogant and abrasive. But even though I have occasionally encountered people like that, I bite my tongue. I realise that I’m in a support role and I need to offer my professional services to anyone who needs my help. It just means I’m unlikely to bond with them on a personal level.
How good are you at handling conflict?
Give an example of how you have handled a tricky situation with tact and diplomacy.
I’m good at defusing conflict. For instance, when I took on my current role, I had to go meet a customer who was very angry about a problem that she had experienced with the customer
service manager who had handled her account before I joined the business. I met with her, let her vent her frustrations on me until she calmed down and then I established exactly what she wanted me to do about the situation. That was six months ago and now
she’s incredibly happy with the service we provide and has increased the size of her orders by nearly 50 per cent. I try to avoid conflict if I can. But a couple of months ago, one of
my colleagues John, thought I was ignoring him because I was simply too busy to return his phone calls. Another colleague told me about the problem so I took John out for a coffee and we talked it through. I apologised for not appearing to want to help with the report that he wanted me to do for him and explained that I’d been spending a lot of time at our other location. It was a good conversation though and we patched things up.
Do you enjoy speaking in front of other people?
The job you are applying for may not require that you stand up and give formal presentations in front of hundreds of people. But many jobs may require you to give short talks or informal updates to members of your team or department. Yes, I quite like speaking my mind in front of others. I got a lot of practice at college because we used to give 10-minute presentations to the other people in our class on our thoughts about the essay topic of the week.
How do you respond to personal criticism?
You need to show the interviewer that you can take constructive criticism without taking offence or reacting defensively to it. As long as the criticism is fair and constructive, I try to listen to it, thank them for their candid feedback, and modify my future behaviour accordingly.
Can you describe a situation in which you were criticised?
This is a natural follow-up to the previous question. Avoid giving an example that involves lateness, absenteeism or aggressive behaviour, as these can signal to the interviewer that you are a troublesome employee. Better examples are to do with skills, such as presentation or computing skills, that you may have lacked at one point in your career, but which you
have since worked on and had some success in improving. I never thought it was terribly important to understand budgets and how the business made money. But my boss suggested that I sit down with the finance manager regularly, which was really
instrumental at helping me to navigate a profit and loss account. It was hard at first but I now have a good grasp of how different costs can affect our profit margins.
How will you cope working with people from different backgrounds to yours?
You may have heard a lot of employers talk about the need for people to respect diversity in cultural, ethnic, gender, and other differences. So variations on this question could ask you how you work with people from ‘very different educational backgrounds’, ‘different cultures’, or ‘different countries’. Whatever form the question takes, the best way to answer this
is to provide an example to show that you can work with people who are very different from yourself. If you can, try also to emphasise that you not only had a good working relationship but also became good friends. Use whatever example you have. Even if you have not worked with people from different countries or cultures, perhaps your boss was much younger than you, a colleague was a single parent with a very different view on life from yours, or you worked alongside a team of scientists, actuaries, or lecturers who were
all much more highly qualified than you were. When I transferred to our head office, I found myself working with a lot of the sales and marketing people. I have to say that I thought they didn’t really respect the people who worked in the field and didn’t take my views seriously. But I worked hard to earn their respect and invested a lot of time meeting with them on a
one-to-one basis. It probably took me a good six months, but now I’m pleased to say that they treat me as an equal.
How do you respond to authority?
If an interviewer is asking you this question, it might be because the organisation is quite hierarchical: each employee knows their level and there might be rules on how you deal with people who are more senior than yourself. I have no problem at all with authority. I like to know what my reporting line is and I realise that a big part of my job is satisfying
the demands that my line manager will make of me. If I were to be offered this job, I would really appreciate sitting down with my manager to establish how he or she likes to be communicated with, and how I should deal with problems should I encounter them.
What was the greatest failing of your boss?
Speaking ill of your previous boss could reflect badly on you so resist the temptation to talk at length about his or her faults. Try deflecting the question by emphasising the good qualities of your boss.
I can’t say that there is much wrong with my boss. She has a lot
of experience and has coached me in many ways, especially in my
ability to present confidently in front of large groups of people.
If an interviewer pursues the matter and asks for a weakness, be
sure to finish off your response by talking about how you
compensated for their weakness.
I wouldn’t say that this is a major fault; it’s more of a minor quibble. My current boss can be quite forgetful. Often, you can tell him something and he can forget it even in the same day. So I have learned not to rely on him to remember times and dates of meetings. Instead, I always send him an email and send a copy to his secretary, so that she can politely manage his schedule. Then reinforce the fact that you had a good relationship with your boss
by finishing ith another positive statement. ‘But this relatively minor weakness was far outweighed by the fact that she gave me a lot of responsibility’ or ‘But I don’t want to blow this weakness out of proportion, as he also taught me a lot about project management and
writing press releases’.
Do you prefer to work on your own or with other people?
You do not want to give the impression that you are capable of one but not the other. However, the ‘right’ answer depends on the nature of the job. Before the interview, you should have established whether you would be spending most of your time working on your own or in a team with other people. As such, your answer should depend very much on the
situation. I’m quite willing to work on my own when necessary. Once I understand a task, I can soldier on until it is done. However, I prefer to work with a team as I like to bounce ideas off other people and it makes the work more stimulating.. I’m happy to work with other people when I need to. I think I listen to what other people have to say and can make a contribution to group discussions too. However, I am applying for this job because
I enjoy working by myself. I like having the freedom to think about a problem and come up with solutions on my own.
Would you say that you are reliable?
Of course you should say that you are reliable. However, you need to be able to give a response that makes you stand out from the other candidates. Employers worry about lateness, absenteeism from work, and forgetfulness. As a consequence, punctuality, dependability and a willingness to work overtime to meet deadlines are valued traits.
There used to be five of us running the helpdesk. We were supposed to open at 9.00am for queries, but we also provided early cover from 7.30am. I’m proud to say that in the two-and-a-half years I worked there, I didn’t miss any of my early shifts. I always either turned up or managed to swap my shift with someone else beforehand.
Can you work under pressure?
Before answering this question, you need to decide how much pressure you think the job entails. For example, a journalist for a daily newspaper, a financial trader, or an air traffic controller might respond by saying: I positively thrive on pressure. I couldn’t do a job where I had to sit and watch the clock ticking by every day. I like to know that each day is going to be very different, with its own set of decisions to make and problems to solve. However, if you are applying for a job where you would expect there to be more order in your day and less moment-to-moment pressure, you might want to talk a bit about how you plan and organise in order to avoid last minute crunches. I sit down and look at my workload at the start of each week in order to work out which tasks I need to do on which days. I use a Gantt chart to keep up to date with projects that I am working on However, when things do occasionally go wrong, I resolve myself to the fact that it might be a late night in the office.
How do you unwind and deal with stress?
This differs from the previous question, because it is asking you how you deal with the tension that can result from tight deadlines and tough days at work. However, bear in mind that what is socially acceptable in one organisation may be deemed inappropriate by another firm. For example, an aggressive sales team might snigger at candidates who profess to meditating or enjoying quiet reading. Of course such attitudes are not fair, but I’m afraid that interviewers can be prejudiced as much as anyone. This is where your research into the culture and prevailing attitudes of the company will help you. Avoid talking about relaxing by having a glass of wine. An uptight interviewer may view this in a negative light. I don’t really get stressed. But I do like to go out with the rest of the team. They’re great people and our culture has always been about working hard and playing hard together. I play squash at least once or twice a week, which really helps me to unwind and get ready for another day at work.
How do you cope with disappointment?
Show that you can recover from setbacks, dust yourself off, and carry on regardless. Interviewers want to hire people who are persistent and possess tenacity and determination. I don’t take anything personally. My view is that you have to knock on 100 doors to find the one that will open. For instance, when my boss didn’t like an idea of mine that related to the way we send out invoices, I kept going back to the drawing board to refine my ideas and to ask other people across the organisation for help in tweaking them. I went back to my boss three times before she agreed to try my new invoicing method. If I get offered the job, I’m
sure she’ll mention what a success that was in the reference she gives me.
How do you deal with failure?
Again, in answering this question, try to show that you have a positive approach to your work. I don’t really think in terms of failure. I think that failing to achieve something the first time around shows that only your approach was wrong. So I see failure as useful feedback for how something should work.
Do you pay attention to detail?
This is a slightly silly question as you are hardly likely to say, ‘No’. Think about the kind of situations where you are likely to need to pay close attention to detail if you were to be offered the job. Try to construct an example of how you used your skill with detail in a similar situation in the past. We send out a lot of letters to customers and it’s common practice
to proofread them before they go out. I probably get asked more often than most to proofread the work of other people because I’m known for having good spelling and grammar. I can seem to spot a mistake a mile away!
How much experience do you have of managing budgets?
Given that most organisations are looking to keep costs low, this is an opportunity for you to shine if you have had such experience. In your response, talk about the biggest budget that you have managed and be specific about how you handled it. I was the budget holder for our department. We had a cost budget of £95,000 per annum. I allowed my team to spend at their discretion up to a £150 limit. But for anything over that, they had to come to see me. If they wanted approval for anything over £1,000, I insisted that they write a business case to justify the spend.
How are you with new technology?
If you are applying for a technical job, then be prepared to talk about the technical wizardry that you can extract from your systems: special functions you can use, macros that you have written, speed dials that you have devised, or shortcuts that you regularly employ.
However, most employers are more interested in basic computer literacy. In particular, employers worry that older candidates may struggle with even the basics of using a computer or other systems such as voicemail. I can deal fairly easily with most of the essential functions of the XYZ package. Just last week I created a database of our clients’
details which I used to send out a mail merge document. I learn quickly. For example, I had never built a spreadsheet until I joined my last company and now I can build simple financial
models to keep track of our monthly sales against budget. If you have experience of particular software programmes that might be important in the role you’re applying for, be ready to talk about the sorts of tasks that you can do with them too.
How is your absenteeism / attendance record?
You will have to be honest here, as this is something that many employers check when they ask for references. If you have had a problem, then give a good reason to explain why it occurred at the time and why it will not happen again. I did have to take several months off, due to a back injury while doing DIY about two years ago. But I got back to full health over a
year ago and I have not had any problems since and it’s something that my references will confirm too.
How is your time keeping?
No employer wants to hire someone who is going to turn up late for work and meetings all of the time. I’m someone who is very careful about time. I hate being late so I always find myself leaving a lot of time to get to meetings and so on. I invariably find myself arriving a lot earlier than I need to.
Ours is a long-hours culture – is that a problem for you?
This may be a trick question. What they call long hours might not be what you consider to be long (or vice versa). This is the kind of trick that you should be prepared for by researching and reading up on the company. However, if you’re not sure what constitutes long hours in the mind of the interviewer, ask the question,’What exactly do you call long hours?’ Then tailor your answer accordingly. I understand that this is a demanding job that I am applying for But I really do thrive on the challenge of this sort of work, so I am willing to put in whatever hours it takes to get the work done. If you have worked similarly long hours in the past, you should definitely cite this experience as well.
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