INTERVIEW SPECIAL ...The Secret Meanings Behind Four Of The Most Common Interview Questions

The Secret Meanings Behind Four Of The Most Common Interview Questions

These common questions may feel clichéd, but there’s a reason why recruiters keep asking them.

Some interview questions lead to eye rolls by just thinking about them: “Where do you see yourself in five years?” “What’s your biggest weakness?” When you’re preparing for a job interview, it can be hard to know how to avoid giving trite answers to these equally trite questions. But one solution is simply to know what hiring managers and recruiters are actually trying to learn by asking them in the first place. 

So Fast Company hit up a few experts to find out.

“TELL ME A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF”

Hidden Meaning: “I’m throwing you a softball and letting you get comfortable.”

Matt Hughes, head of talent at the career marketplace Hired, has simple advice for this one: Don’t overthink it–it’s just an ice breaker. Sometimes, he says, a hiring manager might be “trying to better understand what motivates a candidate to succeed in their personal lives and how that will translate into being part of the company’s mission,” but it’s often not even that purposeful. As LinkedIn’s VP of Global Talent Acquisition Brendan Browne puts it, this is an “okay warm-up question at best.”

“Getting people comfortable is key,” Browne explains, pointing out that “companies that try to create a tense situation or [use] an intense questioning style” aren’t likely to get a good read on a candidate’s skills and temperament. Knowing that, many employers try to put job seekers at ease. So save your best anecdotes for later in the interview when you’ll actually need them. This question is just about setting the tone.

“WHAT ATTRACTED YOU TO THIS POSITION?”

Hidden Meaning: ” Do you really understand what this job entails, and do you really want to do it?”

“Sometimes people will say, ‘Well, I saw this listed in the job description, and it is exactly what I’m doing now,’ and then proceed to talk about how much they don’t enjoy that position and want to do something else,” says Joy Solorzano, HR manager at the advertising platform Intermarkets. So she asks this question in order to make sure a candidate will be as enthusiastic about the job as they claim they’d be.

“I also want to ensure that the candidate is looking at the role in its entirety, versus just honing in on one area of interest,” Solorzano adds. “Say one position has a video production component, but the majority of the role is focused on writing. If the candidate is drawn to the video component, but I know that might only be a few hours a week, I don’t want them to be sold on the idea of doing something in a role, only to find out that it isn’t a primary responsibility.”

Browne sees it as “a solid question about motivation . . . If someone says, ‘Hey look, I could work for a lot of different companies or a lot of different jobs, but here’s why I think I could do a great job in this role at this company,'” that’s a good sign they’ve thought things through.”

“There’s nothing worse than responding with a canned, surface-level response,” adds Hughes. “The hiring manager wants to hear specifics: What spoke to them about the role? Why do they want to be part of what we are doing?”

“WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN FIVE YEARS?”

Hidden Meaning: “What are your career aspirations and are they realistic?”

This can be one of the more annoying interview questions candidates face, but there are actually many good ways to answer it once you know what a hiring manager or recruiter might be looking to find out.

It “sounds cliché,” Browne says, “but the heart of the question is good,” and it’s going to come up eventually once somebody’s brought inside a company: What do you want to do with your life? Browne suggests focusing less on the five-year window than on that core question of motivation. “As a manager, if someone has clarity, it’s a heck of a lot more helpful and useful for me helping them. Then I can engage in a way that’s very specific”–for instance, by giving a direct report projects and opportunities that square with their longer-term goals and passions.

Solorzano sees this differently. “First, I want to measure if they have reasonable expectations,” she says. “If they are starting in an entry-level role and want to be a vice president in five years, that may mean they’re incredibly driven, or it may mean they have unrealistic expectations. We’d need to explore that a little more.”

“Career pathing isn’t dead,” Hughes says. “This question helps start the conversation around a candidate’s career aspirations that they can later fuse into an individualized career plan.” Like Browne, Hughes likes the way this question nudges job seekers to think about specifics. “If a candidate doesn’t come prepared to speak on this topic in an interview, they aren’t doing any favors for their professional development.” In fact, this type of conversation gives candidates a great chance to ask about growth opportunities in the role.

“CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT A RECENT FAILURE?”

Hidden Meaning: “How honest and self-aware are you?”

“I’m looking to learn more about a candidate’s attitude and mind-set here,” Solorzano explains. “What were the lessons learned? Did this ever happen again? If you could go back and change something, what would you do?”

She prefers hearing about a firsthand experience, of course, but when a candidate struggles to think of one, Solorzano says, “I always give them an outlet. If you can’t think of anything from work, how about school? Sports? Anything? If they’ve prepared in advance, they should be able to come up with something. If they aren’t pulling from personal experience, at least you might hear some of their problem-solving skills.”

But for Browne, not having a compelling–and recent–narrative for the common “failure” question is a red flag. One candidate his team recently interviewed “literally had to go back many years” to find an experience to draw on. That made the LinkedIn recruiter think, “What’s up with that?” Brown recalls. “We followed up with the candidate and said, ‘To be very honest, when we asked you that question, you had to go back a long way. Can you tell me more about that?'”

In addition to understanding how a candidate handles failure, Browne adds, this question also helps hiring managers assess “how open and honest and self-aware they are. One guarantee” for everybody, he adds, “is we’re going to screw things up.”

·          

BY RICH BELLIS

https://www.fastcompany.com/40467864/the-secret-meanings-behind-four-of-the-most-common-interview-questions

INNOVATION SPECIAL ...The World’s Most Innovative Countries, 2018

The World’s Most Innovative Countries, 2018

Solving the energy/environment equation requires a significant innovation push.

With a predicted 10 billion people by 2040, our planet will need up to 30 percent more energy than today. While we need to generate more energy, we also need to do it in a way that will not damage the long-term environmental balances of the planet. Countries around the world have unique approaches to this challenge, based on their own economic, social and political realities.

That is why the relationship between energy and the environment features prominently in the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Goal 7 is “Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.” International cooperation is necessary to facilitate access to clean energy research and promote investment in clean energy technology. Goal 9 refers to innovation and industry.

This year’s Global Innovation Index (GII) report, “Energizing the World with Innovation”, a collaboration between INSEAD, Cornell University and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), examines how the leaders in global innovation bring education, R&D and business together to solve challenges, such as how to power the future.

Encouraging signs emerge from all parts of the world, showing how innovative policies and systems can address the challenge. For example, Costa Rica (54) has been edging towards complete independence from fossil fuels for several years. Reliance on renewable energy sources – hydro, geothermal and wind – already provided 98 percent of the country’s electricity in 2016. It combines natural sources (e.g. volcanoes) and smart grids, including micro-grids using solar energy as a back-up source of electricity.

In 2016, the GII had already sounded a warning about diminishing budgets. Over the past year, the private sector has bounced back (global business R&D budgets have increased by more than 4 percent), but this has not been matched by the public sector.

When public authorities accept the responsibility to drive significant investment policies towards innovation, we see remarkable results, as in China (17). China’s embrace of energy innovation has translated into a blend of Chinese and European technology creating “clean nuclear energy” in Guangdong: The world’s first Evolutionary Pressurised Reactor (EPR) should connect to the electricity grid this month. Other countries are concurrently working on the EPR, but after years of work, China – with a public policy commitment – is the first to bring this safer nuclear energy technology to the operational stage.

Energy innovation

In this year’s GII, we note that the transition to a green economy could lead to an increase of around 18 million jobs worldwide. Yet, the energy/environment conundrum we live with today can only be solved with significant innovation. Such innovation is necessary in all four components of the energy ecosystem: generation, transmission, storage and consumption.

Energy generation or production needs to move continually towards greener fuels and techniques, specifically becoming more reliant on renewable energies. The transmission of energy sources could be more efficient, especially as oil and gas reserves continue to diminish. For example, efficient access to electricity over long distances is still patchy in many parts of the world. Storage capabilities will be an important focus of innovation, as the availability of high-powered batteries will continue to revolutionise transportation (see Tesla/SolarCity). Storage will also help to reduce troughs and peaks along the production curves required to face energy demands. Changes in consumption behaviours (e.g. individual consumers should understand smart grids) will have an important role to play too.

This year’s rankings

Such innovation must be facilitated and encouraged. This requires governments to come up with incentives and regulations that stimulate energy innovation. The leaders in our index demonstrate the effect of such crucial attributes.

This is the first time in the history of the GII that the same countries are in the Top 10 for two years running. 

Switzerland (1) remains on top for the 8^th year in a row, with considerably improved R&D expenditures continuing to feed its dominance. 

The Netherlands (2) excels in business sophistication and online creativity.

The GII measures a country’s innovation performance based both on its innovation inputs (such as regulatory environment, higher education, R&D and infrastructure) and its innovation outputs (such as online creativity and knowledge creation). Small countries perform well in the GII and may seem overrepresented. Although small countries can make changes to spur and advance innovation more quickly due to spatial factors like distance, there is no small-country bias. Yet, the more diversified a country’s economy is, especially a high-income economy, the more innovative it is in our rankings.

Singapore (5) remains the only Asian country at the top of the rankings, moving up two slots; it scores well across the GII’s pillars, especially in political stability and safety, market capitalisation and high-tech exports. It is also home to the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS), a research institute focused on contributing to global sustainable development and the solarisation of Singapore.

The United States (6) moves down two slots, losing ground across several pillars, including infrastructure. European countries once again dominate the top of the rankings. Six out of the Top 10 countries in this year’s GII come from the European Union. The EU is clearly an important force for innovation, especially in education, R&D expenditures, intellectual property filings and high-tech manufacturing output.

Top 25 movers and entrants

All the countries in the Top 25 of the GII are high-income economies – except for China, an upper-middle income economy. China’s steady climb through the rankings can serve as a model to other middle-income economies, with improvements in patents, publications and R&D expenditures.

Other impressive movers this year include Israel (11) which moves up six places. When it comes to business sophistication, Israel was better than all other countries, even Switzerland.

Regional differences

Northern America and Europe fare best amongst regions in the GII. In the Latin America and Caribbean region, potential exists – see Costa Rica – but as a region, it has not improved in the way we would expect. On the bright side, Mexico (56) has moved up through the ranks consistently over the years and Colombia (63) is identified, along with Costa Rica, as an innovation achiever this year.

Last in the list of regions, sub-Saharan Africa has some strong individual performers. Six out of our list of 20 innovation achievers (those countries that outperform on innovation in relation to their development) are from this region. Kenya (78), Rwanda (99), Madagascar (106), Malawi (114) and Mozambique (115) have been on this list at least three times in the past eight years.

The case for optimism

This year’s GII, although optimistic on some fronts, reminds us that continued investments in energy innovation are necessary for global economic growth and mandatory to address environmental challenges. Policy incentives must be considered to spur the wider acceptance of existing innovations. If the public or private sector finds solutions to the difficult problem of balancing global needs for energy and the fragility of our environments, consumers and businesses must have an easy access to them. Innovation requires ecosystems that only policymakers can facilitate. Energy innovation is hence crucial to make our planet not only healthier but also more peaceful and less unequal.

Bruno Lanvin, Executive Director for Global Indices at INSEAD and co-editor of the Global Innovation Index report 

TO SEE THE EXHIBITS AND TO

Read more go to https://knowledge.insead.edu/entrepreneurship/the-worlds-most-innovative-countries-2018-9666?utm_source=INSEAD+Knowledge&utm_campaign=53fefe70b7-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_07_12_03_47&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e079141ebb-53fefe70b7-249840429#UruhBPeFkOt2LqLc.99

FOODIE SPECIAL .....Explore a Food Trail

Explore a Food Trail

The smartest way to understand the very essence of a culture is by way of its local food

For the love of authentic epicurian bliss, travelling to new destinations can indeed turn a new leaf for you. Food Trails that unveil a signature appeal of the littleknown cultural eating habits of a country can be great fun and often turn out to be revelatory and informative. No wonder, ‘Culinary Trails’ is a trend that’s promising large tourism-based interest from visitors.

Unique celebratory preparations with local produce is a mark of selfsustaining economy. It is a healthier and exploratory way of forging new bonds. Flip through amazing food spreads in our edition today and make some plans to travel...

TRY HANGI, REWENA, KINA AND LOCAL BREWS

Region: New Zealand

There is much on the food platter in New Zealand, thanks to its historical influences. Evident being the native Maori culture. The meals are a fabulous amalgamation of New American cuisine, Southeast Asian, East Asian, and South Asian culinary traditions. You can sign up signature itineraries that take you with a guide to a location near a geothermal geyser for great views and there you could dine with a native family as they share their cultural influx and food. The list of must-try Maori foods includes the Hangi, which is prepared in an earthen oven with boiled pork, potatoes, kumara and dumplings. Also distinctive is ‘Rewena’ (Maori bread), which is made with fermented potatoes. Kina is a delicacy made of sea urchin with a hard spiky outer shell and thin fleshy edible insides.

While restaurants are a big attraction for travellers here with many vegetarian options, a local family may invite you over a dinner. It is considered the main meal of the day. It is at this time that family members gather and enjoy their evening together.

TNN

CAREER SPECIAL ......Why mentoring matters

Why mentoring matters

Career satisfaction is paramount in the long run. Follow these tips to guide employees who don’t know what their career goals are

Tell me about your career goals. How often have you said this to a person you’re managing or mentoring, only to get a blank stare in return? Perhaps the person confides that they don’t know what their goals should be, or even whether there are opportunities to advance in your company. How do you begin to provide support?

Consider the etymology of the word “career”. It comes from the 16th-century word for “road”. When we envision a career, we imagine a direct path with a final destination. And not long ago, this concept was useful. Career growth meant attaining incremental increases in prestige and compensation. You could look at the past and use it as a gauge of the future — taking the steps that others took to get to where they got.

This vision of career growth no longer matches reality. We no longer need to be good at predicting the future; we now have to succeed when the future is unpredictable. We have to abandon the career myth and create a new framework for personal and professional growth.

Let’s return to the employee who needs direction and feels stuck and confused about their career. If you can’t point them toward a reassuring career ladder, what can you do to support their growth and increase their impact on the company? 

Here are some of the steps to help employees move beyond the career myth:

Dispel the career myth

First, tell employees that it is fine and even preferable not to have a concrete career path in mind. Being overly attached to a specific path can turn into a career trap — blinding us to nonlinear opportunities for growth. Instead, focus on conversations between managers and employees. Rather than job titles, employees discuss experiences, responsibilities, and lifestyle changes they might want.

Focus on transferable skills

Train managers to help their direct reports develop transferable skills, not climb a ladder. These are skills that increase employability because they can be applied to a variety of roles and situations now and in the future (for example, communication, self-management, writing, public speaking). Rather than investing in one path, tell employees, they should diversify their career capital. To provide some direction, tell your managers to advertise the skills that are most wanted on the team.

Encourage small experiments

The growing complexity and unpredictability of work means we need to run many small experiments to discover what suits us best. To fuel a spirit of experimentation, launch opportunities for employees across the world to get training in areas they are curious to explore.

Create milestones

One of the perks of an old-school career is the title progression that delineates advancement. As organisations become flatter, and growth nonlinear, we have to put extra effort into making milestones that mark progress. One way you can do this is by creating badges that demarcate growth. For example, when managers receive training, they receive a certificate. To get their next badge, they must complete an advanced program. A badge system can demarcate skills, knowledge, and achievements — creating a portfolio of accomplishments rather than a traditional résumé. Next, develop a more visible recognition platform so that employees can celebrate their accomplishments and share their knowledge.

—The New York Times

BUSINESS SPECIAL.... Requiem For The Nano

Requiem For The Nano

What exactly went wrong with the world’s cheapest car.

Launched as the world’s cheapest car in 2008 and with production lines dwindling in 2018, Tata Nano counts as one of the most enigmatic rise and fall in Indian marketing. It was launched amidst much fanfare, and then got stuck in a morass of its own making, from which it never managed to return. According to media reports, what began as one of the most ambitious auto projects of modern India will only be manufactured on demand. Brand Equity gets a clutch of CXOs from across industries to share their first ‘Nano’ memory as well as their take on the the ‘big’ mistake.

Sunil Kataria

CEO - India & SAARC, Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL)

First impression

My first thought, when it was launched was: this is truly a BHAG (Bold Hairy Audacious Goal) moment and hence very inspiring. When the Nano car finally arrived after all the struggles, it was indeed a sense of pride that an Indian company has achieved such a breakthrough.

What went wrong

The ownership of a car in India is an aspirational life event and an indicator of social success and status. Hence the looks and the imagery of the car are critical. Nano got slotted as the ‘cheapest car’ and this imagery of ‘cheap’ didn’t connect to the pride of owning a car. Secondly, Indian consumers have a penchant for ‘value for money’. They want the key features but at a certain value. This is where Nano missed the consumer aspiration.

Satyaki Ghosh

CEO - Domestic Textiles & Thai Acrylic Fibre, Aditya Birla Group

First impression

My first memory of Nano is of an absolutely ‘wow’ feeling. The movement of the two-wheeler guy to a four-wheeler seemed obvious and a winner of an idea So much so that it should work very well not just in India but even in the other developing countries since it was essentially about a large chunk of commuters upgrading.

What went wrong

The positioning. In India, a consumer wants to pay less for his car but wishes to appear as having paid more. In Nano’s case it was the reverse. While the car was pegged as a ₹1 lakh, it was soon selling at ₹1.4 lakh onwards – with an upgraded model even touching ₹1.8 lakh. Very soon it lost the ‘one lakh rupee car’ charm and started being a lesser Maruti. It became a major psychological blunder. The other issues like a few cars catching fire or the launch momentum getting lost in factory shifting, while important, did not turn out to be life-threatening.

Ajay Kakar

CMO, Aditya Birla Capital

First impression

When I first heard of the Nano, I visualised the ‘smart’ car I had seen overseas. And visualised a Nano on every corner of every street. An aspiration for mass India, that the Nano will make a reality.

What went wrong

“Who was this product for? What was the positioning of the car? What was the proposition? Will the actual car deliver on these parameters?” These were questions that were possibly not asked, or answered, before taking the car to the market.

Uma Talreja

Chief Digital Officer, Raymond

First impression

The Nano made a first impression on me as a social strategy for upliftment of masses that can’t afford cars, targeted at a segment that was using bikes that were considered unsafe for families. It had the Tata halo effect of doing good for society. My first thought then was about how our public transport fails people, and private industries are trying to solve the problem.

What went wrong

As a car, it just failed to establish itself as an upgrade from the norm. It became a price point rather than a great car at great value. It also missed addressing user segments with clear propositions: families that sought good times with safety, students that wanted something cool but at great value. It became a ₹1 lakh car instead of cool set of wheels.

Nidhi Hola

Sr. Director – Marketing, GoDaddy India

Tata Nano generated great publicity for being the ‘world’s most affordable car’ and created a lot of initial interest. Sadly, it did not pick up the desired momentum with the targeted customer base in India. Brands today, irrespective of their size, should strive to create a seamless bond between the brand, the culture, content – while keeping in mind the customer’s context. Without the customer’s context, even a great product can fail.

By Amit Bapna

ETBE18JUL18

INTERVIEW SPECIAL..... Never say these 6 things in a job interview

Never say these 6 things in a job interview

These phrases might seem harmless, but interviewers say they can raise some red flags.

For most employers, profanity and showing up late are grounds for instant disqualification in an interview. But there are also more subtle ways to raise a red flag in a hiring manager’s mind. Some common phrases that you think might be harmless, or even helpful, can, in fact, make employers question whether you’re really the right person for the job.

If you want to wow your interviewer, make sure to avoid the following six phrases. While you may have the best intentions, you don’t want the person you’re interviewing with to get the wrong impression.

1. “I COULDN’T STAND MY LAST COMPANY”

You may have worked at a genuinely bad company, but whining about it or trash talking them will not earn you points with an interviewer.

“When asked about a former boss or colleagues, never disparage them,” says Roy Cohen, career coach and author of The Wall Street Professional’s Survival Guide. Doing so “will raise questions about whether that is how you will view the interviewer if, at some point, you don’t get your way.”

After all, if you talk smack about your current company, who’s to say you won’t do the same at this company? Rather than talking about what you dislike about your employer, talk about how excited you are about the company you’re interviewing with, whether it’s the culture, mission, or work that gets you excited.

2. “I’LL DO ANYTHING”

You might think that offering to take on any challenge the company can throw at you would be a good thing, but truthfully, it sounds a little desperate. Remember, interviews aren’t just for showing that you want the job, but also proving that you’re the right person for the job. In other words, you shouldn’t just be willing to do something–you should be knowledgeable and passionate about what you do.

“Tell your interviewer what you are most comfortable doing or what your background is in, or even things you haven’t done before but are interested in doing,” recommends DW Bobst, CEO of Trend HR. “No one wants to hire the short-term person who is just going to leave. Make sure you leave your interviewer with the impression that you are in it for the long haul.”

3. “I’M A SELF-MOTIVATED, QUICK LEARNER WITH LEADERSHIP SKILLS”

These are all good things in theory, but throwing out a bunch of buzzwords like this without any evidence to back them up is hollow.

“It signals a lack of authenticity and reliance on superficial sound bites. Interviewers tune you out–they’ve heard it all before. What does it even mean?” asks Laura MacLeod, leadership coach and creator of From The Inside Out Project®. “If you want to use this, you’ll have to elaborate [with] specific examples of problem solving, collaboration, managing conflict. Express it and explain it rather than just name it.”

For example, if you want to show off your leadership skills, talk about how you stepped up for a group project. Provide as much detail as you can about what you did, how you did it, and why it made a difference.

4. “NO, I DON’T KNOW HOW TO DO THAT”

Odds are, you won’t already be familiar with every single task of a given job. And that’s okay–most of the time, recruiters and hiring managers won’t expect you to know everything, especially if you’re at a more junior level. But there’s a right way and wrong way to express that you don’t know how to do something. Saying “no” flat-out makes it sound like you’re not only completely clueless, but also unwilling to learn.

“Instead, answer the question with a qualifying response. For example, if asked whether you have worked with a software that you [have] no experience with, you should talk about the similar software that you do have knowledge about and how they relate to the software in question,” says Patrick Lynch, president for the southeast region of talent and transition firm CMP.

You can also give an example of a time you learned a different tool or technology quickly to make it clear that you’ll be able to get up to speed in no time.

5. “SO WHAT EXACTLY DOES YOUR COMPANY DO?”

When an interviewer asks if you have any questions for them, it’s an opportunity for you to demonstrate how well-informed you are–not a chance to ask questions that you could have easily figured out on your own with just a few minutes of research.

“This question is a dead giveaway that you didn’t do any homework on the company or their products,” says Elizabeth Becker, client partner and career expert at recruiting firm PROTECH. “Instead, use questions as a way to demonstrate you did some homework.”

For example, you might do some research on a company and discover that they primarily target small to medium businesses (SMBs). In that case, you might want to say something like, “I found it interesting that your software is targeted to the SMB space–do you have any plans to launch enterprise solutions as well?” Becker suggests.

6. “I WANT A JOB THAT PAYS X”

Salary and benefits are important, and often play a large role in whether or not you decide to accept a company’s offer. But bringing up details of the salary or perks you want unprompted and early in the interview process is a bit presumptuous.

When you don’t know exactly what a company will pay for a position, play it safe at first. “Give the impression that you are flexible on compensation rather than make demands,” Bobst says. If you make it to the final interview rounds, they will let you know what the job will pay.

Conversely, they may ask you what your salary expectations are. In that case, don’t just throw out a number–figure out what you really deserve.

“If you don’t know what pay you are qualified for, you should consider the amount of experience [you] have and what industry [you] are interested in working in and do a little research,” Bobst suggests.

BY EMILY MOORE—GLASSDOOR https://www.fastcompany.com/90201358/never-say-these-6-things-in-a-job-interview?utm_source=postup&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Fast%20Company%20Daily&position=6&partner=newsletter&campaign_date=07142018