The day has come: You've got an interview with a real-live human being who wants to meet with you. Congrats! But your work has only just begun. Right about now, you need some interview tips. Lucky for you, Natek has compiled the best tips to ace your interview.
Even the smartest and most qualified job seekers need to prepare for their job interview. Interview skills are learned, and there are no second chances to make a great first impression.
Through the interaction which takes place during your interview, the interviewer will be searching out your strong and weak points, evaluating your qualifications, skills, poise, intellectual qualities and attitudes. Knowing that you are qualified to fill a job is not enough. Show the company that you can do the job, and demonstrate why they should select you. Give examples of your previous work for other companies which utilize the same skills and qualities which this company is seeking. Give these examples completely and enthusiastically. No matter how good you are, or how great the demand is for your skills, you must sell yourself!
Natek's job is to open the door and arrange for your interview. The rest is mainly up to you. Know exactly what you can do for a company BEFORE you walk into an interview!
Process Of Interviewing
- Break the ice (small talk)
- Short synopsis of your career
- Describe each job briefly
- Break each job into responsibility/achievements
- Rehearse question/answer
- Practice listening skills
Interview Checklist
- Arrive early. If you have a time problem, call ahead of time and explain your predicament to the interviewer.
- If you're asked to fill out an application, do it neatly and completely. Leave salary "open" for later discussion.
- Offer a firm handshake. Greet the interviewer by their last name and be sure of the correct pronunciation. Walk, talk, act, and feel like the right person for the job.
- Wait until you are offered a chair before sitting. Sit straight in the chair and smile. Listen very carefully.
- Follow the interviewer's leads, but try to get the interviewer to describe the position and duties early in the interview so you can relate your abilities to the position from the start.
- Present your background and interests with accurate. informative detail - particularly as this information relates to the job. Be familiar with those important dates in your work history and education so your answers show your level of career commitment.
- Get your good points across to the interviewer in a brief, factual. sincere manner. Make the interviewer realize those benefits you can bring to the company.
- Avoid answering questions with only "yes" or "no" answers. Explain when possible. Tell only those things about yourself which relate to the position. Illustrate your abilities with examples. Instead of saying. "I am the best salesman," say "I placed first among 25 salespeople last year." Quote others. "I've been told that I have a creative approach to problem-solving." Show appreciation. "I was fortunate in being given increased responsibility." Give others credit. "Working under one of the nation's leading designers, I received excellent training."
- Avoid "over-answering" questions. The interviewer may steer the conversation into ticklish areas like politics or the economy. It is best to answer these questions honestly. Avoid saying more than is necessary.
- NEVER inquire about salary, benefits, vacations, bonuses, retirement or the like on the first interview. If they ask you what salary you expect, ask for "the best possible offer based on my experience and qualifications." The most frequent obstacle to getting an offer is an excessive salary demand. If they insist on a figure. try to determine the range the company has in mind. Then respond with "I think we're talking about the same ballpark." Remember, if your "firm" minimum is too high, you may disqualify yourself. Conversely, your willingness to accept ANYTHING may lead to a much lower offer or NO OFFER at all! Asking for the best possible offer should produce the desired result. And remember to look at the opportunities the position offers you five or ten years from now - not just how much money you'll be earning today.
- Avoid making any derogatory or negative comments about your past employers.
- Conduct yourself as if you are determined to get the job. Never close the door on an opportunity. It is better to be in a position where you can choose from a number of jobs instead of just one!
- ASK FOR THE JOB! Expressing your desire automatically tells the company that you WANT to work for them. If appropriate, ask for the next interview.
- If the position is offered, and it meets your own criteria for your career move, ACCEPT IT! If you need time to think it over, ask for it tactfully and courteously - and don't take a moment longer. If you don't think you want the job, DON'T REJECT IT OUTRIGHT until you've communicated your feeling to your Natek Consultant! Often, the consultant can negotiate on your behalf.
- If no offer is made, don't be discouraged or let your disappointment show. The interviewer may be testing your reactions - or merely waiting until other candidates have been seen, or other decisions-makers have been consulted.
- Thank the interviewer for the time and consideration extended to you. Offer a firm handshake to let them know you believe in yourself. If you've done your homework and answered the questions about why you're interested in the company, and what you can do for them, then you've done all you can.
- Acknowledge the interview with a brief personal letter immediately following. Show your enthusiasm, interest and appreciation in your letter.
We recommend the STAR Interview method
STAR stands for: Situation, Task, Action and Result.
This method will help you prepare clear and concise responses using life examples. This method also helps you create an easy to follow story with a clear conflict & resolution.
Hiring managers ask behavioral interview questions to determine whether you are the right fit for a position. By using the STAR strategy, you can make sure you’re fully addressing the interviewer’s question while also demonstrating how you were able to overcome previous challenges and be successful.
Here’s a break down of what each part of the technique means:
Situation
Set the stage for the story by sharing context around the situation or challenge you faced. In most cases, it’s best to describe relevant work situations but depending on the amount of directly transferable experience you have, it might also be appropriate to discuss academic projects or volunteer work. It’s also imperative to talk about a specific instance rather than your general responsibilities.
You should spend the least amount of time on this part of your answer as interviewers are more concerned with the actions you took and results you got. Share the right amount of relevant detail by identifying the 2-3 most important pieces of information necessary to give the interviewer enough context about the situation.
Example: “In my last role as lead design engineer, there was a point in time when my team was short-staffed and facing a significant backlog of work. The account managers were setting unrealistic deadlines, which was causing stress for my team and affecting morale.”
Task
Describe your responsibility or role in the situation or challenge. In other words, discuss the goal or task set out for you. This section requires a minimal amount of time similar to the situation component. Again, consider just 1-2 points that best illustrate the task you needed to complete.
Example: “As a team leader, it was my role not only to ensure my team met our deadlines but also to communicate bandwidth to other departments and keep my team motivated.”
Action
Explain the specific actions you took to handle the situation or overcome the challenge. This part of your answer requires the most in depth description as this is what largely indicates your fitness for a role. Identify and discuss a few of the most impactful steps you took to find success.
Often, workplace challenges are addressed by a team; however, it’s a common pitfall to use the word “we” to describe how you achieved your goals during an interview. In any case, it’s important to focus on what you did in the situation. It can be helpful to remember that the employer’s intention is to hire you for the role rather than your team, so you should use the word “I” to highlight your particular contributions.
Example: “I set up a formal creative request process including project timeline estimates to set better expectations. I scheduled weekly meetings with account managers to discuss my team’s bandwidth and share progress updates. I also kept my team informed of the new processes, so they could have some peace of mind knowing the issues were being addressed.”
Result
What was the outcome you reached through your actions? This is also an important part of your response to focus on. You should spend only slightly less time discussing the results than your actions. Decide what the 2-3 most impressive results were and talk about these.
Quantify your success or provide concrete examples of the effects of your efforts if possible. In addition, discuss what you learned, how you grew and why you’re a stronger employee because of the experience.
Example: “By providing more transparency into my team’s processes and setting better expectations with the account managers, we were able to re-prioritize the design team’s to-do list and complete everything in our backlog. I took these learnings, continued to apply this structure and as a result, in the following quarter, we shortened our average project timeline by two days. I also learned just how important it is to communicate clearly across teams.”
Preparing for an interview with the STAR method
While you won’t know the interview questions ahead of time, most behavioral interviews will focus on various work-related challenges that demonstrate critical thinking and problem solving, and situations that showcase leadership skills, conflict resolution and performance under pressure. Here’s some additional background on behavioral questions and a few tips to help you leverage the STAR method when answering them.
Defining behavioral interview questions
Interviewers ask behavioral interview questions to learn how you have behaved in previous work situations. In your answers, employers are looking for examples of your past actions that may be predictors of how you’ll act when you face these situations again. These questions are more open-ended than a “yes-or-no” question and usually ask you to share stories or examples from your previous jobs.
STAR interview question examples
-Share an example of a time when you faced a difficult problem at work. How did you solve this problem?
-Have you ever had to make an unpopular decision? How did you handle it?
-Describe a time when you were under a lot of pressure at work. How did you react?
-Tell me about a mistake you’ve made. How did you handle it?
-Explain a situation where you used data or logic to make a recommendation.
-Tell me about a time when you disagreed with your boss. How did you resolve it?
-Describe a time when you had to deliver bad news. How did you do it?
-Tell me about a time you worked with other departments to complete a project.
-Share an example of a time when you failed. What did you learn from the experience?
-Tell me about a time when you set and achieved a specific goal.
-Describe a time when you had a conflict with a colleague. How did you handle it?
-Have you ever had to motivate others? How did you do it?
-Tell me about the last time your workday ended before you were able to get everything done.
Steps to prepare
Talk with us at Natek we have valuable insight about all of our positions we work on! In addition, review the job description and required skills and consider what sorts of challenges might arise or what obstacles you may have to navigate in the position. As a recruiter it's our job to know this information in depth, significantly beyond any job description. We partner with you to develop the critical talking points to address during your interview in accordance to the position and your individual experience.
You should also review common behavioral interview questions similar to the list above. While the phrasing of these questions may vary from interview to interview, the general intent of the question typically remains the same so it can be helpful to prepare your answers with that in mind. For example, the interviewer might ask about “a time you were under pressure,” or they might ask about “how you handle stress.” Either way, their goal is to understand how you deal with tense situations.
Write down the various situations you’ve handled in your professional history that would display the sorts of strengths you’ll need to succeed in the role and that address some of the most common behavioral interview questions. Prepare each example using the STAR framework. Practice talking through your answers out loud to make sure each story is as concise and coherent as possible. This will also help you feel more confident and natural when delivering the answers in an interview.
If you’re new to the workforce and don’t have a long professional history to draw from, consider examples from internships, volunteer work or group projects you completed for school. In some cases, employers may ask you to share a non-work-related example, so consider challenges or obstacles you’ve overcome in your personal life, too.
No matter what stories you decide to share, make sure you define a situation, task, action and result, and showcase skills and abilities most relevant to the job.
Example
Describe a time when you were under a lot of pressure at work. How did you react?
Situation: “In my previous job as an account executive, one of my co-workers quit immediately after signing the biggest client our firm had ever taken on.
Task: Although I was already managing a full load of accounts, I was assigned this new client as well. I knew the stakes were high and if we lost this deal, then we wouldn’t hit our quarterly goal.
Action: I first took some measures to destress. Then I carefully evaluated and restructured my task list to make sure I could manage all my duties. Because of this, I was able to make myself completely available to the client and I also sacrificed some evenings and weekends to take calls until the project was delivered.
Result: The client was so impressed with my dedication, they immediately signed an annual contract that netted our company $5 million.”