Advice for University support staff interview

[Teeturtle]

I have an interview coming up for a position in a University. It is a support role not an academic role, however the role reports to a member of academic staff and I will be interviewed by that person plus two other professors / doctors.

I have always worked in the private sector in business. I am generally fairly confident going into interviews, but I have never had an interview in the education sector or for any public sector type of employer.

Is there anything I should try to prepare for in terms of the structure of the interview? For example is it likely to follow a very rigid structure, be competency based, a more general discussion of my CVvor could it be just about any format?

Any tips to help me prepare would be gratefully received.

I’ve worked in a uni for years. The interviews are very formal, but this means you can prepare because they will ask questions based on the Person Specification, eg if it says you need to work to conflicting deadlines they are likely to ask when you have had to do this previously. It’s important to set out what the scenario was and what you specifically did when answering. Use I not We. It’s also good to show enthusiasm, as it can be easy just to answer these quite dry questions. For example if there’s some opening questions like why you want the job or what your motivation is you can make this clear. Also ensure you have thoroughly researched the department, and be ready with some memorable questions to ask them, for example what do they like about working there.

I think it’s a bit tricky being interviewed and managed by academic staff as they do not necessarily have any actual line management experience, normally in work someone has demonstrated these types of skills to get to their position but often here the person is there due to their academic background only, and they don’t need or want to pretend it’s anything different.

@TheCategoryIs

I’ve worked in a uni for years. The interviews are very formal, but this means you can prepare because they will ask questions based on the Person Specification, eg if it says you need to work to conflicting deadlines they are likely to ask when you have had to do this previously. It’s important to set out what the scenario was and what you specifically did when answering. Use I not We. It’s also good to show enthusiasm, as it can be easy just to answer these quite dry questions. For example if there’s some opening questions like why you want the job or what your motivation is you can make this clear. Also ensure you have thoroughly researched the department, and be ready with some memorable questions to ask them, for example what do they like about working there.

I think it’s a bit tricky being interviewed and managed by academic staff as they do not necessarily have any actual line management experience, normally in work someone has demonstrated these types of skills to get to their position but often here the person is there due to their academic background only, and they don’t need or want to pretend it’s anything different.

Well it means I can prepare if I can get hold of the person specification. 😊. As mentioned upthread, I don’t have it as there was a long gap between applying and them contacting me.

Noted on using I not We. I have a habit of saying we for my own contribution and this was even been mentioned to me once in a private sector interview.