To think I still have a chance?

[Eylaaa]

Had an interview for the job of my dreams. They asked me seven questions, I answered quite well to the first four, they seemed impressed. They then asked questions about the role and two of the questions I couldn't answer because I didn't know. The role specified that experience wasn't necessary although could be preferred. Am I being unreasonable to assume I may still have a chance?

Of course not until you've heard the outcome, your first answers may have made the interviewers see your potential for the role. It's dependent on what they want from a successful candidate and also who else was interviewed and how they handled it. Good luck!

I work in recruitment and very much take the view that if someone gets a question wrong - it serves to highlight a training need that that is there rather than dismissing them as a possibility.

Also - so much of the hiring process is not just about getting the questions right or wrong from a technical perspective.

I look at as a pizza divided up into slices. One slice is obviously skulls based but they others are just as important. Team fit, values, goals, availability, salary expectations, ability to learn and attitude.

The next person after you might have answered all the questions correctly but if they didn't score well in the other areas then my decision would go with the person that has a training need- as long as they had the right foundation in the skills that were required.

Good luck!

*skills based not skulls based obviously! That would be odd.

I guess it depends in part whether there is a reasonable expectation that you could have researched the answers to questions you didn’t know? Also how good you are at thinking on your feet and providing a credible response even though you don’t know the “proper” answer.

I mean sometimes interview questions are deliberately set to test your critical thinking skills rather than your actual knowledge.

If you respond saying something like: “I don’t know the role enough to know the answer bur in this situation I would apply my previous experience in x” it will sound better than saying: “I don’t know.”

I certainly don’t think you are being unreasonable to assume you are in with a chance.

You never know… I was once offered a role as they were impressed on how I coped/responded when something went down the hill during the interview.

Depends what the questions were and what your response was to not knowing the answer, to be honest. If you sat there staring blankly going "uuuuuuuuh" then said "I don't know" that's normally not going to look good, but I'm assuming you didn't do that!

When I was in recruitment someone not knowing an answer to a role related question rather than a "behaviours" related question wasn't necessarily an immediate black mark. But if it's something they could have easily researched beforehand I'd wonder why they didn't bother, especially if it's "a dream role" as you put it. But if it's something very specific to the role that you wouldn't know without relevant training, no it wouldn't concern me too much.

Thank you so much for your answers! I'm keeping my fingers crossed. They said they will notify me next Wednesday if I am the selected candidate.