Job Interview: Why
Only 3 Questions Really Matter
Even
for the most fearless amongst us, job interviews can be nerve
wracking. In order to give us the best chance of success we tend to
prepare for many of the difficult questions we anticipate, questions
like:
- Why should we hire you?
- What can you do for us that other candidates can’t?
- What are your key strengths and weaknesses?
Of
course, you can never predict how an interview will go and what
questions you will get. You might get an interviewer who fires one
tough question at you after the other, or one that turns the
interview into a more comfortable, natural two-way conversation.
Preparing, therefore is difficult. In most cases we practice the
answers to a long list of possible questions. The problem is that
this can leave you over-prepared and as a consequence your
pre-conceived answers can come across a bit robotic.
From
my experience, there are really only 3 questions you have to prepare
for and you can link most of the interview questions back to these
three. Preparing for these three questions also means you can answer
most questions more naturally, simply by referring mentally back to
your preparations for these three questions.
Basically,
any interviewer wants to establish 3 key things:
- Have you got the skills, expertise and experience to perform the job?
- Are you enthusiastic and interested in the job and the company?
- Will you fit into the team, culture and company?
However,
during the job interview, the interviewer might use many different
questions and angles to get to the answers. If the interviewer
doesn’t get what he or she wants from one question, they might ask
them in different ways. Or they might probe from different angles to
test for consistency in your answers.
Here
is what’s behind these 3 questions:
1.
Have you got the skills, expertise and experience to perform the job?
Think
about the key skills you might need for the job you have applied for
and assess your own level of expertise and experience in that
context. It makes sense to identify the more specific or technical
skills that your potential employer might expect as well as some more
generic skills such as being a good communicator, having good IT
skills, being a team player, etc. Once you have prepared for this
question it will help you answer many different interview questions
without getting sidetracked into talking about things that are not
relevant. Remember that you want to demonstrate that you are aware of
the key skills, expertise and experience required to do the job and
that you have what it takes to perform it. Always go back to the key
skills, expertise and experience when answering scary (and sometimes
silly) questions like:
- Tell me about yourself?
- What are your greatest strengths / weaknesses?
- What can you do for us that other candidates can’t?
- Why do you think you are right for this job?
- What do you think the main challenges will be?
- Etc.
2.
Are you enthusiastic and interested in the job and the company?
Any
potential employer wants to know that you are interested in the
company and excited about the prospect of working there. You
therefore want to demonstrate that you have researched the company,
understand its strategy, current performance, structure, market
position and products and that you can’t wait to join them. For
most, you will have done your homework before you even applied for
the job, but if you haven’t then check out the ‘about us’
section on their website and search for the latest strategy
documents, annual reports, key statistics as well as the company
history. Show that you know them and demonstrate your enthusiasm for
the job and company. Here you might also want to think about your
ambitions and how they fit into the company you have applied for. You
can then use the insights for answering questions such as:
- What do you know about our company?
- What do you think our company is aiming to achieve?
- What do you know about our products and services?
- Why do you want to work for this company?
- Why do you think this job is right for you?
- What motivates you?
- Etc.
3.
Will you fit into the team, culture and company?
This
final key question is about your personality and your style and how
you as a person fit into the team and culture of the company.
Companies have different cultures, which translate into different
ways of behaving and working. It is important to make sure you fit in
and don’t feel like a fish out of water. In fact, it is important
for the company as well as for you. Again, hopefully you will have
done some research prior to applying for the job. Sometimes, it can
be tricky to find detailed knowledge about the company culture, in
which case you simply talk about your assumptions and why you feel
you fit in. One relatively new website that offers a glance inside
companies is Glassdoor. The site is still in its infancy but provides
a growing amount of data and information about what it is like to
work for different companies. You want to map the culture of the
company or the team you are planning to join and compare this to your
personality traits, style and behaviors. Again, once you have done
this you can use it to answer questions such as:
- How would you describe your work style?
- How would you describe yourself?
- How would your colleagues describe you?
- What makes you fit into our company?
- What makes you a good team member?
- If you were an animal, what animal would you be?
- Etc.
Of
course, any interview is a two-way process. In the same way the
interviewer wants to find out that you are right for the company, you
need to assess whether the company is right for you. Each of the
questions can be turned around so that you can assess:
- By joining this company, will I make best use of my skills and expertise and will they help me to grow them further?
- Is the company excited about having me work for them and will they give me the necessary support?
- Is the company culture the right fit for me so that I can flourish and be myself?
If
you ask relevant questions from your point of view then this will
make the interview more balanced and create a more natural
conversation.
Bernard Marr Best-Selling Author, Keynote Speaker and Consultant in Strategy, Performance Management,
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20140331030822-64875646-job-interview-why-only-3-questions-really-matter?trk=eml-mktg-inf-m-top14-1210-p5
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