As a former HR director and current global recruiter, I’m constantly grilled on how prospective job candidates can conquer interview questions. If you want to impress your interviewer, you must demonstrate knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes required for the specific position.
In some ways, no matter how successful you are in answering your interview questions, your behavior and attitude will be assessed first. Why? Because, no matter how skilled you are, you must be able to get along with your co-workers. Be friendly and show some personality when interviewing.
This goes without saying, but, before you go on any interview, practice your answers. You only have one shot and you need to demonstrate that you have the knowledge, skills, abilities and attitude to take on the position.
Here are the areas you will be evaluated on in your interview;
How is your Communication? – use the appropriate amount of communication without being redundant or too brief. Communicate clearly and accurately.
How is your Interpersonal Effectiveness? Do you display a sincere interest? Many times an interviewer will converse about an event or issue at work, completely irrelevant to your position; they want to see how you are going to react; they are evaluating you on your empathy, sensitivity to issues and your active listening skills. While HR personnel rarely use this tactic, many upper level managers have begun to see its effectiveness.
Organizational and Job Knowledge – Do you display knowledge that goes beyond what your position calls for? Are you aware of the current trends, programs, concerns, restrictions, and statistics? Out of 100 potential candidates, one of them will wow the interviewer by having superior job knowledge. The “call-back” group of interviewees will demonstrate awareness of issues that affect that company and/or community.
How is your Judgment in situations? You know those “tell me about a time,” and “how did you handle that,” interview questions? You are being evaluated on how well you reacted appropriately. Were you aware of the impact of actions then and in the future; and the impact on yourself and others?
Do you plan and organize in an effective manner? Every company is looking for a multi-task, multi-skilled individual. You have to show how well you established priorities and accomplished the tasks though appropriate use of resources. An important element to ascertain is to show that you are able to coordinate with other individuals, groups and organizations.
Do you have initiative? Are you a self-motivated individual who looks for opportunities and acts on them? Do you go beyond basic responses to fully engage in the issue?
I am often asked if I can tell if people are faking when answering interview questions about construction recruitment agencies because they have different criteria for the interview in which they select the number of people and takes their interview via the video call and if they clears that then the company call them. There will always be people who can fake any assessment, if they are prepared. Job candidates can make the most of their interview by knowing how to answer the interview questions. But that only gets you half the way to success. Real skills cannot be faked, because either you can do them or you cannot.
If you review the areas I provided above and then mold the perfect answer, you should always land in the top call-back list.
The most successful candidates will be able to express themselves effectively, and have a depth of understanding about the skills, knowledge and abilities that are vital for the job.
