Sep 29, 2006

Questions about interview? Part 1 of 2

You should pass an interview with the employer. It is the most important stage of getting a desirable post which results have crucial importance.

What will you be asked?

How to make the best impression and to win over your competitors?

What you should speak about and ask?

How is it necessary to be dressed, to brush the hair and be decorated?

How to find an individual approach to the employer and to make him like you?

How to find a way out from inconvenient situations?

What criteria of the estimation of the candidate plays the main role?

How to finish conversation correctly and to say goodbye?

You will get answers to these and other important questions in this article.

Let's consider the first.

The structured interview

Interviews are carried out in a free form and as structured interview with standardized questions.

The purpose of the interview is the estimation of your professionally important business and personal qualities.

Foreign experts in the field of selection of the staff for many years of work have formulated and have selected more than 400 questions of the structured interview. However in practice an interview includes, as a rule, no more than 15 - 20 basic questions and 10-20 additional.

The basic questions and desirable answers:

Question 1. Tell a little about itself.

Mistake - formal and dry statement of your biography, more or less similar at different candidates, excessive excitement or the underlined indifference, confusion in simple facts, stresses on insignificant details, verbosity.

It is necessary to lay out the advantages before other candidates similar to you at once (experience of successful work, special achievements in the professional area, natural abilities etc.), emphasizing the desire and full readiness to get this position. Speak quietly, confidently, briefly and precisely.

Question 2. How do you see your life: what complexities you see in it and how you cope with them?

Mistake - gloomy perception of the reality: complaints to destiny, bad luck, injustice and constant unsoluble problems, accusation of all of other people and external circumstances.

It is necessary to express life positively: life without problems does not exist, difficulties are surmountable, the destiny and career of the person is in his hands, people are benevolent and ready to cooperation, failures will mobilize forces.

Question 3.What attracts you in this position?

Mistake - standard phrases: "This interesting job attracts me... Prospects of growth... Good salary ".

It is better to give concrete reasons that only this post will allow you to realize your abilities, knowledge and experience.

Question 4. Why do you consider yourself worthy to hold this position? What are your advantages over other candidates?

Mistake - weak arguments of your advantages, the indication of formal biographical particulars.

It is necessary to show your "trumps" without false modesty if you have not made it till now.

really acceptable for you.

How to pass the interview

If you have faced with a problem of employment, sooner or later you will have to get on an interview and as a consequence to pass it. It is natural, that in a situation when your material and professional future is put on the card, it is necessary to be self-assured, to be confident about your advantages and abilities. To feel yourself in this way, it is necessary to be prepared for the interview beforehand.

The impression which you will make on your potential employer, depends, certainly, on your professional suitability and qualification. But the worker conducting the interview (recruiter, the personnel manager) is a human too, and the first impression which you will make on him, will depend, basically, on your appearance, behaviour and a manner of dialogue. The principle “to meet a person according to his clothes” has not lost its importance and today, - as it was before, the first, that is evident at a meeting with a new person is his appearance. Our perception is arranged rather originally: first of all we mark all lacks and discrepancies to standards, ideal, - everything, that irritates us, is evident. In order to make a pleasant impression on the interviewer, it is necessary to look harmoniously to the conditions, time and place (not to come to the meeting with the employer in a sports suit or in an evening dress. Certainly, clothes are not obliged to be strictly official (a suit, a tie, a silk hat), but it should be tidy and convenient in order to be self-assured and not to think constantly of how you look - ridiculously or silly. Look after your footwear be in full order, - many people make their opinion about a stranger on the basis of what display of the world they receive looking at the shoes (boots). The hair-dress and cosmetics have important value: the make-up should not be defiant and shouldn’t remind the war paint of the leader of the Indian tribe before the war, quite enough natural quiet pastel tones. And it is not so necessary to erect the tower of Babel - it is simply possible to wash your head and to lay the hair with a hair drier. The special attention should be turned to such unpleasant trifles as the condition of nails and skin. Hands should always be clean and well-groomed, and the face - fresh and clean (without characteristic fat shine and bags under eyes). Never come to the appointment with the potential employer having a hang-over or being "tipsy" even if the dope of confidence is necessary for you. Imagine, what smell will come from you when you will convince him of the professional suitability and irresistibility and as it will look from the side... Refuse your favourite chewing gum. In general, try to look and behave simultaneously modestly and with advantage.

After you have made a reliable impression on your interviewer, the most important is not to disappoint him in his expectations concerning your mental abilities. The first part of your meeting - the most important, - questions, are set to you. At this stage your destiny is considered so it is necessary to remember some elementary rules of behaviour and dialogue which will help you not to blunder.

To become a pleasant interlocutor, it is necessary to be open and quiet: try to sit directly, not crossing and not twisting your arms, try to look in the face, smile more in a sincere, good-natured way. It is necessary to reply to the questions particularly and in a developed way, so the interviewer does not have to extract the information from you by pincers, and at the same time - not to spread the idea across the tree and to appreciate time. It is the best way not to tell lies - experts with wide experience of work, will feel at once, where you have immodestly exaggerated your own opportunities and abilities, and the general impression from the conversation with you will be hopelessly spoiled. Try not to use slangy expressions, filler words and other, superfluous word during a business meeting. Do not try to suppress the interlocutor by the power of your intelligence - it is pleasant if you show off your intelligence and try to compensate the subordinated position by demonstrating the intellectual superiority. When you explain the reasons of your leaving from the last place of work try to avoid too rough _expression of negative emotions and insults in address of colleagues and supervisors. In general, if it is possible do not speak badly about people and do not criticize in order not to earn a label of a grumbler or a boor.

When the right to ask question passes to you, necessarily take advantage of it - the person who is not showing interest in a potential work, looks, at least, a little bit strange. It is very important to find out at this stage not only a level of wage and duration of a working day, but also actually the contents of the job offered. It is also necessary to receive the information on forthcoming duties, terms of the contract, about activity of the firm, connections with other organizations, about the employees policy, social security of workers etc. But at the same time, do not be too meticulous, - if everything is all right, you will have lots of opportunities to specify the details. Most likely, you will not hear the unequivocal answer concerning your nominee at once, and it is not necessary for you to hurry up with the decision, it is the better to ask for some time to think and to agree upon phone call. But even if this interview appears unsuccessful, you will not suit for any reasons, the main thing is not to despair and remember, everything happens in life, and it is far from being your last interview and with each following you will only become cleverer and more skillful.