Job interview questions/great answers (Part 1)

Will s/he fit?

During the interview recruiters will inevitably assess a candidate’s qualifications, intelligence, personality, and whether to drop the person. Whether the interview lasts 15 minutes or 3 hours, that decision will usually be final. There is no other practical way to do it, given the number of candidates and time pressures.

Reading resumes, cover letters, etc., and interviewing takes a lot of time - time recruiters usually don’t have to spare on marginal or unqualified (in their opinion) people.

Answer quality does not happen easily

Quality of answers to interviewer’s questions can make the difference. In this series we provide self-interest answers to common questions raised by recruiters. Whether you think our answers are wonderful, insightful, and just all-round brilliant, or not, is not the point. We give our approach based on lots of experience and you should consider as many approaches as practicable.

You can ignore our answers (but be gentle - we are sensitive souls)

Feel free to modify or ignore what we suggest but at least craft your answers before the interview. The interview should not be entirely improvisational theater. Your scripted answers should be written and rehearsed. You are a principal player and your words and gestures - or lack of - will be combined into an overall ‘gut’ feel by the recruiter. That gut is given a lot of weight by employers.

Lose only for good reasons

You may not get the job offer but it should not be because you did not prepare your part well, or because you said too much, too little, or something stupid.

You are an unknown and unappreciated

Unless a candidate has been recommended by someone the recruiter knows, the only usual sources of information at the time of the interview are the resume/application form and possibly a cover letter. These documents will have served their main purpose if the interview gets scheduled. However, you will not get hired with these alone. You will be interviewed - maybe.

References?

References will normally be contacted only if the employer is about to make a job offer.

On to the questions (and answers)

Tell me about yourself

That's not really a question but it is an almost universal inquiry. You should have at least 2 versions -- one that lasts 2-3 minutes and one covering 4-5 minutes. To put that into perspective, most people speak at the rate of 120-140 words per minute. (Unless you are a member of Slow Talkers of the World).

A page of type includes about 400-450 words, obviously depending on size of type font. Rehearsal of your script - out loud - is important since you can think of the answer much faster (500-700 wpm) than you can speak.

The way you say things will be interpreted in addition to content. Verbal and non-verbal characteristics are part of an overall impression. If you are too loud, too soft, too monotone-ish, too much of anything, you will be interpreted badly. Since the interviewer only has the interview time to make a judgment, the things you say and do during that period are significant.

Screening for technical skills is relatively easy. The interviewer can ask specific questions or give some work-related tests to determine whether one has the requisite experience. The resume is a good source for hard information; personality assessments are not hard-fact based. We all judge people soon after meeting them, right or wrong. Recruiters do no less.

Once the interviewer feels you are technically competent, emphasis shifts to other important aspects of the job - judgments about personal attributes -- personality, intelligence, demeanor, organizational fit, etc.

How important is job security to you?

Possible answer:

Of course, I would like to have job security. But I know there can be no guarantees. The company might merge with someone else, get acquired, go out of business, relocate, markets can change, or budgets can be cut, or jobs can change. My best security in a job is to do exceptional work and keep up to date. As long as I do the job I know I can do, any employer will want to keep me.

Do you get bored doing repetitious tasks in your job?

Possible answer:

I don't normally get bored doing my job. The more I do a particular task the more it gives me insight about how it might be done better. I have always been too busy to get bored. For me boredom hits when there isn’t much to do. I like to keep busy. Of course there are details connected with any job that get boring. I still do them and do them well. My overall job responsibilities have always interested me.

More to come in next Q/A hub