Interview Strategies (Part 1 of 5)

Edwin Miraflor - Tuesday, May 18, 2010

This is a multipart series on Interview Strategies. Many of us, no matter how much practice we have, need a refresher on interviews. Like many things in life, it's quite simple if you know what you're doing.

My Objectives are to teach you the following-

To identify the types and purposes of different kinds of interviews
To anticipate questions asked in interviews and practice your responses
To identify non-verbal behavior that helps or hinders effective communication
To identify questions you should ask in an interview
What to do after the interview

Interviewing as a Sales Process

One of the best ways to think of an interview is to see it as an opportunity to "sell" the prospective employer on the benefits you can bring to the organization. Good selling is NOT forcing something on another.

Good, consultative selling is:

the process of uncovering and clarifying needs,
communicating and demonstrating how you can satisfy those needs, and
making it easy for the prospect to make a buying decision.

Consider interviewing in the same way. In order to do this, you must be able to see yourself as a product.

All products, including you as a candidate for a job, have features. They are the defining characteristics that make them what they are - engine size, table height, kind of weed, experience, education, horsepower, and other factors. While these features may be interesting, what is more important is that the salesperson knows what the customer needs to solve the problems at hand. Features can then be turned into benefits. The heart of any successful interview, therefore, is asking appropriate questions to discover what kind of problems the "buyer," who has the open position is having, and what the implications of those problems are. Then you begin to "sell" the benefits of your employment.

In a job search, the "features" are your skills, knowledge and experience. They may qualify the product (you) but they won't make the sale (get the job offer). The "benefits" are your accomplishments, the results you have been able to produce (productivity, profitability), and the solutions you can provide. All are keyed to the interviewer's needs as you have been able to elicit them during the interview.

Take the time to write on a piece of paper:

What are three of your "features"?
What does each feature do for a prospective employer?

The Three Purposes of an Interview

Interviewers are looking to answer three questions during the interview process:

CAN you do the job?

WILL you do the job?

Do you FIT in?

In interviews where "CAN you do the job?" is important you will be asked questions about:

Your skills
Knowledge
Experience and accomplishments
Learning potential
Handling the physical aspects of the job

In interviews where "WILL you do the job"? is important you will be asked questions about:

Your interest in the position, company, industry
Your work ethic
Your energy level
Outside influences that may affect your willingness or availability

In interviews where "Do you FIT in?" the interviewer will try to assess:

Likeability
Chemistry
Communication
Values
Style of work and management
General interests
Dress and appearance

A strong sense of a solid "FIT" for you within an organization develops more readily when you concentrate your focus on the needs and challenges of the position and company. You orchestrate this focus by asking individual insightful questions, which speak to needs/challenges. Some examples of this type of question are as follows:

What are the major challenges this position presents over the next six months? The next five years?
Six months from now, how will you know you have hired the right person?
How do the goals of this position fit into the overall mission of the organization?
What kinds of things are going very well in the department/function right now?
What kinds of things need to be changed?
What is the highest priority for the individual in this position?
What are the major responsibilities of this position?
Tell me about some of the people this position interacts with on a frequent basis?

Once you uncover the needs/challenges for the position, you can tailor your responses and comments during the interview to illustrate your ability to solve the company's specific problems and to achieve the results required for success in the position.

It is important to note that it is never a good idea to ask questions about compensation and benefits during the interview process. You can respond if questioned on these issues; however, it is much more effective to ask questions regarding benefits, etc. after you have an offer.

The Sequence of Interviews

There are seven broad categories of interviews you may encounter during your interview process. Sometimes a person is hired after only one interview; others may return to a company multiple times, even for five or more interviews. Here is what you might expect:

1. Screening - Conducted by the phone or in person, with the company's HR department or the Hiring Manager. Some kinds of phone screening require you to respond to basic questions. Most will want to find out if you have the minimum qualifications for the job (CAN), and may touch on WILL and FIT issues.

Your objective: To survive it and continue with the interview process.

2. Qualifying - Primarily concentrates on WILL types of questions, although FIT and CAN are in second and third priority.

3. Technical - This usually occurs after basic Qualifying questions are satisfied. These questions are to determine your knowledge base and depth (CAN).

4. Approval - The focus is on WILL and FIT concerns. Once you get to this point in the interview process, you know that they're very interested in you.

5. Fit - They've now determined that you Qualify for the job on a Technical level and there's an overall consensus (Approval) that they are interested in you. They bring in peers or potential employees that will report to you. Questions center around FIT issues at this point.

6. Psychological or Personality Evaluation Tests - I don't hear about this too much anymore, in fact, I believe it's being conducted after offer and acceptance and being used as a management tool or insight on how to best manage and motivate you.

7. Blessing - This is usually done by the CEO or President of the company. This is an opportunity for this person to meet you and give his or her approval.

Types of Interview Formats

One-On-One

One interviewer and you. The most common format.

Round Robin

A series of interviews where you move from person to person. A number of interviewers offer a number of different impressions.

Panel

Most often when interviewed by peers. Your job is to:

When responding, look at the person who asked the question.
If someone is hostile or rude to you, treat him or her with special respect. Ask questions to prompt him or her to interact with you.
If with peers, be prepared to take control if no one else does. If the interviewer is with a panel of superiors, don't take control even if needed.

Stress

A rare situation designed to supposedly "see how you react under stress and think on your feet." Interviewers may act sarcastic, angry, confrontational and challenging. Your job is to:

Stay calm, breathe deeply and slowly, and maintain eye contact.
Recognize the artificially created scenario for what it is, without taking it personally.
Stay on the positive side of issues presented, without getting angry or hostile.

Situational

Questions are about real or hypothetical situations, and you are asked how you would react or deal with them.

Behavioral

Questions focus on specific examples of your past performance as indicators of your future performance. Interviewer may take many notes. The "Challenge-Action-Result" response format is perfect for these kinds of questions. This is one of the best interview strategies for getting quality information for a hiring decision. Much more on this technique below.

Telephone

This is an interview where you only have your verbal and vocal communications to rely on.

Relax, take a few deep breaths and proceed.
If you are surprised by a call at an inopportune time or at a location with no privacy, try to reschedule the conversation at the interviewer's convenience.
No eating, drinking, smoking, or gum chewing while talking. Make sure there is no background noise.
Speak with appropriate enthusiasm and energy. Stand up straight or walk while you talk. Your voice will sound much more positive if you smile. You will feel better too.
Let the interviewer guide the agenda.
This is a great opportunity to take notes.

Directed

Interviewer maintains tight control of the interview and has specific questions to ask. This is done to maintain a high degree of consistency in the content and format of each interviewer when there may be many people conducting interviews with many candidates.

Non-Directed

These may range from a "go with the flow" style of an inexperienced or unorganized interviewer. The interviewer will ask broad and general questions. This is not an effective method, but used more often than I will admit (:

Behavioral Interviews

This method is so widely used and effective that I created an expanded description to explain in greater depth.

Behavioral based interviewing is an assessment technique that focuses on what candidates have done in the past, not on what they say they might do in the future. Big difference. This allows hiring managers to assess applicants/candidates more fairly and objectively that other methods. The premise is that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior.

Before a behavioral interview, hiring managers and human resources professionals identify specific competencies needed to succeed in the position. Those include technical skills and performance skills. From these competencies, the interviewers develop a list of questions, which are designed to elicit descriptions of skills candidates have used in the past. Each candidate is asked the same questions, in order to ensure uniformity. This process allows candidates to be judged on what they've done, not on their personalities.

To succeed in a behavioral interview, you must be able to relate stories that link your experiences and skills to the potential position and employer. Begin by learning as much as you can about the company. Pay close attention to the organization's core values, since some questions will likely relate to them. Next, focus on the job and ask key competencies the employer wants. Also, ask the hiring manger which abilities will be assessed in the interview. The next step is to tap your memory for detailed stories involving work and other critical experiences that you can use when answering questions about job competencies or the company's values.

The STAR approach is helpful in developing framework for this. First, think about a Situation or Task that you faced. Next, describe the Action that you took. Conclude your story by describing the Result you achieved. If possible, make it quantifiable.