Tips to succeed at a job interview or how to be part of an Elite company
By Nadia Sosa – Consultant at absoluteIT
You've taken the first step towards getting a new job and the interview time has arrived.
The role is a perfect match for your skills and experience, but there's still a long way to walk before you get it and a few questions you should ask yourself before going further.
A large portion of assessing if you and the company are good matching pieces of a puzzle relies on you and how much you know yourself. Do you like to work in a team environment or fly solo? What is the sort of environment you have achieved the most in? Where would you like to be in five years time? What do you enjoy most about your role? What makes you stand out from your peers? What would your current manager say makes you most valuable to their team?
In today's NZ market only a few and scarce companies advertise directly. Elite companies act like a very exclusive VIP club. Think of a classic RPG game like Fallout 2; you need to go past the gatekeepers in order to complete the first level (for those non-gamers out there, RPG stands for Role Playing Game). Agencies are designed to do all pre-qualifying work for these prospective employers, but remember they are also working for you!
Level 1: Get your weapons ready!
Prior to the interview, have you done your research on your future employer (what they do, who they are, core products, etc)?
Give some thought to your strengths/weaknesses (this will give you plenty of ammo to answer why you will be a great fit for the job, and it'll also show your interviewer that you know what you are talking about!)
Arrive on time – we suggest no earlier than 5 or 10 minutes, and definitely not late.
Level 2: At the interview
Switch off your mobile or put it in silent. Value your interviewer's time as well as he values yours.
Greet the interviewer with good eye contact and a good hand shake. Body language is a factual human science that many recruiters use and the first impression can rarely be changed.
Level 3: In the interview - the key is to volunteer information
Please assume that your interviewer has read your CV and that he will ask many of the things you’ve already described. Many of the questions asked around your roles are to assess your verbal communications skills and capacity to articulate your overall responsibilities. It also works as a technique to find inconsistencies in your history. Beware! Lies are easily uncovered.
When talking about your history, volunteer the information. No one enjoys pulling teeth out of anyone and after all, you want this job (don't you?). Be detailed (but not tedious) and communicate in a mix of technical and colloquial language; always making sure that you are easily understood. Your interviewer will be surely measuring your ability to communicate across all levels. Nowadays, it is not only the technical skills that will secure you a position but also your ability to engage with the business stakeholders who are often not technical at all.
Level 4: Ask questions!
If you've played any good RPG games (including Fallout 2) you know that any character in the game will give you the right information, if you know how to ask and if you ask at the precise time. The gatekeepers (AKA agencies), often have information which is not written on the job description. This information is often the most important one about a role. When you are hunting for a new job, you should want to know about the environment, personality types, processes and overall business objectives your prospective employer has.
Valued questions an interviewer will like to hear:
- Why is this position available?
- How is the team structured?
- Can you tell me more about the management style of the person I'll be reporting into?
- What is the company's culture like?
- How will the role be measured?
- What is the staff turnover of the company?
- What is this company’s interviewing process like?
Note: ask as many questions as you need without losing your ability to listen! Answering the interviewer's questions to the point is often as important as asking the right questions.
Level 5: Enquire about the agency’s process
Forty-five minutes into the interview you should have a clear idea if this is the company that you would like to work for. In today’s candidate driven market you are interviewing your interviewer as much as he is interviewing you.
What’s next? If you are not advised, find out the steps the agency will follow to secure you an interview. It’s important that you partner with them along the process and keep them up to date on the progress you are having with your other interviews (did I mention you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket?). After all, would you like to miss out on the company you really want to work with just because of misinformation?
By now, you should have most of the tools you need to seek for that job online, apply and be successful in every single interview.
Good luck!
Click here for a list of available roles through absoluteIT