Yesterday (09.07.14) I was invited to be on the expert panel for the Guardian Careers Q&A on all things related to interviews and how to succeed at various interview stages. You can find the detailed discussion on the Guardian website.

Below I have posted some of the most interesting questions asked by applicants with my answers to them.

Q: I have an interview in a week and would really like to know what I can do to stand out from other applicants? I always do some research on the company and the interviewers and make sure I’m prepared with examples for competency questions – but what can I do to make sure I’m the candidate the interview panel remembers, in a good way of course!

A: All that you have been doing is correct – I would also add that you could meet some of the people from your target company ahead of the interview to get a better idea of what the company is about from the inside and what projects they have been working on recently. Getting to know people from inside ahead of the actual interview date is critical for standing out from the crowd and giving yourself a competitive edge. Good luck!

Q: I am interested to know how to answer the question what are your weakest points best?

A: This is the question a lot of candidates find to be one of the most difficult ones due to its ambiguity. A lot of companies now have decided not to ask this question as to be honest, it doesn’t demonstrate much. But if asked, I would suggest to be absolutely sincere about your weaknesses. But of course, try to find one or two that are not directly related to the responsibilities of the specific post you are set to interview for. For instance, if you are interviewing for a position of a teacher, you wouldn’t use ‘fear of working with children’ as your weakness for instance. So be honest but prudent in your selection of weaknesses. For strengths, it is easy – we all know our strong points so just provide an example to illustrate them.

Q: What are the best things to make up without getting found out?

A: Not sure what you mean but whatever it is I would strongly suggest NOT to make up anything as sooner or later it will get found out (especially during the interview process). 

Q: I’m having a phone interview at 6pm. I feel confident but very nervous. Any tips? Never had a phone interview.

A: First of all – all the best of luck! The most important point here is to behave, get dressed and speak exactly like you would during a face-to-face interview. Your aim is to convey a confident image of yourself despite the underlying nerves. Have a notepad near you and take notes of the questions they ask so that you can refer to it in case you forget anything. Have your CV in front of you as during phone interviews they tend to ask general questions about your career history overall. Most importantly, convey you are a likable person and smile just as you would in a face-to-face interview situation.

Q: I said in a recent interview for a graduate scheme to a manager position that I was sometimes not prioritising what needed to be done, but that through my studies I had really learned how to organise my time. The interviewer was very abrupt and stated that I the was a very disorganised person who wanted to be organised? How can one counter such aggressive comments in an interview?

A: I would let it go – your aim is to ace that interview and progress to the next round. Interviewers sometimes test how you can react under stress and can make such comments to gauge your reaction. Don’t act defensive – just point out again softly and clearly that you believe you have greatly improved your organisational skills as evidenced by (and provide some additional examples). The key here is not to show you are hurt by their comments or get defensive. Keep your emotions in check and continue as if nothing has been said (I know it’s hard but at least on the surface).

Hope the answers above will help you prepare for your upcoming interviews and if you require in-depth interview or case study preparation (including the most difficult questions), please get in touch via dasha@careercoachingventures.com

Each week I am posting and replying to a career-related question. This week…

I find the question ‘where do you see yourself in five years’ to be one of the most difficult ones an interviewer can ask you.

When responding to this question, I would suggest to carefully prepare the answer ahead of the interview. This elusive question can pop up at either first stage, second stage, or both!  You will need to thoroughly understand a typical career path in the company you are applying for. For instance, if you are interviewing for a position of an analyst at an investment bank, you would need to understand the career progression trajectory and the time frame it may take you to move on to an associate position and beyond. This is critical as it will both demonstrate your in-depth understanding of your target company and industry and show your interviewer that you are here for the long haul.

I would suggest not to downplay the length of time and effort it will take you to master the job you are applying for. Empoyers like to see candidates with realistic expectations and assumptions of what the job they are interviewing for will entail. You will need to demonstrate motivation and enthusiasm to become the best you can be in your current job before setting out to conquer higher levels within the company.

And one of the most important pieces of advice I can give you is never ever to say that you are aiming for the position of your interviewer in five years’ time as it may threaten their position and prevent you from advancing to the next stage!

‘By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail’ (Benjamin Franklin)

Have you just submitted your application to the job of your dreams and now wait to hear if you are going to be invited for an interview? Or perhaps you have already received the long-awaited call confirming a date and time to meet with an employer. Then continue reading – this post is for you.

My first (and main) piece of advice is to prepare. Your preparation should start not a week or a few days before the interview itself, but at the point when you notice the job ad and decide that you are going to apply. It should start with in-depth research into the company, its size, the financials, recent managerial appointments, its competitors and any recent deals it has been part to. You could read relevant independent reports (for instance from Mintel and Euromonitor) relating to the industry in question. These reports often contain  detailed list of competitors and their market shares. Keep in mind that each industry has its own set of popular trade publications so you would need to identify and read those. LinkedIn is a useful source of information at the research stage – you can find the current and former employees of the company and possibly get in touch to book a quick ‘informational’ phone conversation. Start following the company on Twitter – this will help bring you up to speed with recent company news and relevant media coverage. I would encourage you to actively engage and comment on Twitter posts of interest to you.

The second piece of advice is closely linked to the research you will be conducting. During your research, you will invariably encounter things that you would like to clarify further, issues that you do not fully understand. I would suggest jotting these points down as you go along and by the end of your research process, you will have accumulated a sizable list of issues that you can convert into questions to discuss during your interview. This is a more time-effective way to prepare questions for your interviewer and it also helps you consolidate and organise your knowledge about the company and identify the gaps you would like to be filled during the interview itself. Interviewers look favourably on candidates who demonstrate extensive knowledge and curiosity about the company. Thorough research and well-thought-through questions will help you stand out – companies tend to prefer people who know small details about them to those with great achievements in the past but know nothing about the company or the department they are applying to now.

The third and the final piece of advice is to practise and role play the answers to the most difficult questions with a family member, a career coach, a friend, or just with yourself in front of the mirror. It will not only boost your confidence but will also make you pay attention to your body language (if somebody else is role playing with you, ask them to be as honest as possible in their feedback) but also how long it takes you to answer each question. The length of time per question is an important metric and you should be able to express yourself in a succinct and clear manner. I would suggest picking out the most challenging questions for your practice role plays. I would normally recommend selecting questions about your weak points and carefully preparing the answers for those. For instance, ‘please give me an example of the worst mistake you have made in your career’, ‘what is your greatest weakness’, ‘if I were to speak to your former boss, which thing would they mention as your weakest link?’ There is a myriad of similar questions you can find on the Internet so there is no excuse not to prepare answers for at least some of them.

In the words of Confucius, ‘Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure’. So the three keys to your success at interviews are preparation, intelligent questions and rehearsal!

I would be interested to hear what worked for you during your interviews and what you found to be the keys to your interview success. Please share your experiences here.

I have developed a technique, which you can use at different kinds of behavioural interviews. There are certain competencies an employer would like you to demonstrate during this kind of interview.

So this framework I have designed could help you remember the key things you would need to describe during your competency interviews along with providing examples of situations where you have exhibited all or some of these competencies.

I called the framework – SHINE to the TOP. I hope that by employing it during your interviews, you will ‘shine to the top’ of the shortlisted candidates for the next selection round! And it will give you an idea what examples you will need to prepare to shine!

So SHINE stands for:

S – Stress tolerance. It is crucial for you to provide examples from your work experience when you were put under pressure. It could either be a situation when you had only a limited amount of time to complete a certain task, or a client has suddenly decided to make a last-minute change in a project plan and that has put you and other colleagues under stress. Or possibly, you thought you have almost made that important sale but the client has pulled out from the deal at the last minute and you are now faced with a challenge and stress of how to explain it to the boss. Make sure you don’t merely provide examples of stressful situations but also the ways you have dealt with your stress, such as for instance, sitting down and writing out your plan on how to make up the money lost through a client pulling out – day by day or maybe even hour by hour.

H – Honesty. This really speaks for itself. It is crucial you find suitable examples to demonstrate your honesty and integrity in the workplace. If you are running out of the work-related examples, you could perhaps provide some from your personal life.

I – Initiative.  Initiative is something all employers would love their employers to demonstrate on a daily basis. So try to find examples where you can show how you have volunteered for something at your job. For instance, it may be that your boss wanted somebody to prepare a training course for the team and you felt you could do it well and volunteered. Or you have expressed your wish to go to a different office for a week to train people there or simply share experiences. Or to work at the weekend to polish that important presentation. Or you have decided to test the ground and apply for a management post advertised at your company (this would also demonstrate confidence and self-belief!)

N- Networking skill. Have you managed to up sell a product by networking with your current clients? Have you attended an important conference and networked efficiently, which resulted in a few new clients coming on board? Or maybe you have networked within your current company between departments and established a regular inter-departmental meeting? These are just a few thoughts on some of the examples you may give to demonstrate your outstanding networking abilities.

E – Ethic (work ethic.)This is quite an elusive term and quite hard to define. I guess for me, good work ethic would mean coming to work on time, completing all the required tasks and serving a good example to the colleagues. But this could also include workplace integrity and honesty.  This competency is a hard one so you should think carefully about the examples that could be of relevance here.

And TOP stands for:

T – Team work. This all important team work! How many times have we heard about it at the job selection process or after we got the job. I believe it is relatively easy to find examples of successful team work but be warned – it is so easy to start talking about how your team has achieved this or that. Instead you would need to single out your particular contribution within that team. I would advise to use ‘I’ more often than ‘we’ when talking about the project you have completed in a team, or your leadership skills when leading a team towards a certain goal.

O – Organisational awareness. This is another difficult one. Here I would recommend collating two or three examples of when you had to speak on behalf of your company and promote its values and mission. It could be at an international conference, a trade show or an inspirational team building day with your colleagues or just simply as a manager inspiring your subordinates to achieve their monthly sales target for instance.

P – Problem solving. This is a relatively easy one in my opinion. Make sure you think of two to three occasions when you have solved a particular issue/problem or faced and overcome a challenge in a workplace. Some ideas may include, your subordinate has not attended his scheduled meeting with a client so you are faced with a potential disciplinary. What do you do? How do you tackle it? Or the project you have been leading is running late and is out of pocket – how do you deal with it? I would say this competency is one of the easiest to provide examples for since it is based purely on facts and outcomes.

Hope it was useful and you have enjoyed it. If you have any further questions on the framework or need some particular advice on how to prepare for an interview, don’t hesitate to get in touch at careercoaching.ccv@gmail.com.