What might they ask in a job interview?

[thatmustbenigelwiththebrie]

I've got a job interview next week and am starting to prepare - so far I have prepped "why do you want the job" and then I'm stuck!

The application was very long and I feel like I answered and gave examples of "a time I've overcome a challenge" etc in there.

If anyone could give me some ideas about what sort of general questions are asked at interviews (I've been in my current job for 10 years so very out of practice) that would be great.

Something you've done you are proud of
A time when you excelled / performed beyond your role
An idea you've implemented
Dealing with conflict
Time you've had to overcome tight timescales/work under pressure
A mistake youve made

Think of stories/events that can be adjusted to cover multiple questions

A time when you communication skills made a difference
How you organise your work and deal with competing priorities
If the roles involved managing staff , they will ask a question about that.
They may ask a question about the website to see if you have read it.

Do Not I repeat NOT use the same examples as you gave on the application form. Yes the panel will have read it.

The good news is that their recruitment system is competency based so you won’t be asked off the wall questions like “ if you were an animal, what would you be ? “.

Oh and BTW the question ISNT “why I want this job”.

It’s “ why you should hire me “ and your answer should make reference to the person spec .

Oh good ones! thank you so much.

In my last interview I was asked to give examples of:

a time I made a bad decision at work;
a time I went above and beyond;
how I made a change that had positive outcomes;
a time I had to overcome conflict.

Try to think about what they're looking for in the ideal candidate and shoehorn some key phrases in.

*Oh and BTW the question ISNT “why I want this job”.

It’s “ why you should hire me “ and your answer should make reference to the person spec *

I hadn't even thought of that, that's excellent - I will do that. So far I've blabbed on about how it's the right hours but I guess that's not going to cut it.

Also make sure you know stuff about the company and role so you can weave it in to your answer

Ie “I once had a situation whereby I XYZ, I managed it and resolved it by ABC. This taught me DEF. I think that would be useful in this situation because I understand you might have GHI and so I would draw on that experience.... etc etc”

It is more about meeting their needs as an organisation than your needs as an individual. So prepare for questions like what will you contribute to this role, what strengths will you bring, how does your previous experience make you the best candidate etc.

I’m doing interviews at the moment so this is fresh in my mind! I’ve been asked why I want the job, how it fits with my career/where I see myself in 5 years time, what I would hope to achieve in the first year and how I resolved a challenge in managing people.

But mostly they’ve been competency-type questions based around the job spec so I’d recommend going through that and thinking of specific examples you can give, or parallels if you haven’t actually quite done it yet.

Good luck!

Look again at the application, the job advert and any specific things they say they are looking for, and think of how you can show you can do those things.

So where we are, they like it if you can give very specific examples to prove you can do whatever you're saying you can do. If they want you to be good with excell, for example, and you said 'yes I use excell every day' that would be half marks, but if you say 'yes I use excell every day to run the blah blah blah report' that would be full marks.

Does that make sense?

This is all so useful, thank you everyone. Much appreciated.

What interests you about the role - we use this one as a 'soft' question at the start. The ones who show a real enthusiasm for the thing that is the main purpose of the role are the ones we're interested in.

If you've had more than one job doing something similar previously emphasise all your experience and try to highlight examples from more than one work place.

There should be a chance at the end to ask questions - make sure you have some good questions about the company and it's direction rather than 'how much holiday do I get'. And when it comes to towards the end tell them how much you want the job "Thanks so much for interviewing me today. I am very interested in this role and I think that my previous experience of x and y makes me the right candidate for the role".

So where we are, they like it if you can give very specific examples to prove you can do whatever you're saying you can do. If they want you to be good with excell, for example, and you said 'yes I use excell every day' that would be half marks, but if you say 'yes I use excell every day to run the blah blah blah report' that would be full marks

This is an excellent point . So many candidates say “ well I did it at college and I’m sure I can pick it up, I’m very good at computers you know “.

Which, for the avoidance of doubt, gets zero.

Op they care NOTHING about whether you like the hours or it’s on a direct bus route. They want to hear

“What drew me to this role is that it I involves ABC and I have have 5 years experience of these in my current role and while I worked at Smith and Smith. I’m interested in developing my expertise doing DEF and using my skills/ qualifications in GHI etc. “

Then add more information that shows that you have read and memorised the person spec in fine detail and their website.

Do NOT use the phrase “ I’m the best candidate for the job” or “you should hire me because ...” unless it’s a sector where arrogance and pushiness is highly thought of.

“What interests you about the role - we use this one as a 'soft' question at the start. The ones who show a real enthusiasm for the thing that is the main purpose of the role are the ones we're interested in”

We do this too and I’ve had some RIDICULOUS answers. One person wittered on about how her life was in a really bad place and she was off work with depression and her dog was sick and then she saw our advert and it was like a special sign and although she had never been interested in our sector and thought it was probably a but dull, now she had read more and thought it would be fun.

Thank you all, some excellent pointers.

Morven I hope she realised that was a terrible response to the question!

No she was clueless. Of course we still had to go through the rest of the interview as scripted. What a waste of time.

She was also quite bolshie when she didn’t get the job. Asked for feedback, to which we gave the standard HR approved version, then asked for more details.

An opening question which can really throw you if you haven’t prepared is ‘tell me about yourself’ or ‘talk me through your CV.’

Think about challenges and opportunities within the industry, and also competitors - who are they, what are they doing differently, how does this company compare? If you can weave any of this into your answers it can help you to stand out from others. It’ll also give you some ideas as to questions to ask the panel at the end of the interview (make sure you have 2-3 good questions!).

Don’t say ‘we’ say ‘I’. They want to know what you did not everyone else. Even if you were just part of the team that did the task you know all about it anyway so big yourself up.

I remember sitting in on an interview of a student at a university/teaching hospital. She told us about 10 times her Father was blah blah blah - a consultant. We were not impressed by her!!

Looking back on the interviews I have had, the one thing that I would do differently would be to find out as much as I can about the organisation offering the job.

Especially how successful they are and how they see their level of success in the future. Much better to join a company when they are in a growth spurt, than when they are stagnating.

If you are stuck for a question to ask as the end, you can always ask how they would describe the company or organisations current success and how they see that going in the future.

Good luck.