The most comprehensive and up-to-date job interview guide available
What follows is the table of contents and the first couple of paragraphs from each chapter in the guide. Each chapter (in the guide) starts with the generalities of the topic and then works down toward the detail.
What you see below represents less than 1% of the total content. The really useful information in the guide will never appear on this sample page. See how much you can learn from the excerpts below.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1 - What the interviewer is looking for
Chapter 2 - Common types of interviews
Chapter 3 - Your interview objectives
Chapter 4 - Preparation - or how not to lose
Chapter 5 - Arriving for the interview
Chapter 6 - How to conduct yourself
Chapter 7 - What not to do - or how to blow it
Chapter 8 - 135 Common questions & answers
Chapter 9 - Questions to ask the interviewers
Chapter 10 - Asking for the job
Chapter 11 - Ending the interview
Chapter 12 - The Dance
Chapter 13 - Out of the ordinary
Chapter 14 - If it all goes wrong
- Chapter 1 - What the interviewer is looking for -
It's not easy being an interviewer
It is not easy to talk to a stranger for an hour or so and then to decide whether or not they are capable of doing a job that you require someone to do. Think about some of the roles that you have worked in recently. How would you have gone about talking to somebody with the aim of trying to assess whether or not they can do the job as well as you require?
An interviewer also has stresses, responsibilities and dangers in the position that they find themselves in. They have been given a task that requires completion. It needs to have been done quickly and well as well as in such a fashion that it provides a long-term solution for the organisation. Besides having a responsibility to meet the company's requirements, they are usually mindful of all the personalities involved. They do consider each individual's application in terms of what it is possible and suitable for that person within the organisation.
- Chapter 2 - Common types of interviews -
The behavioural interview
Increasing numbers of employers of using behaviour-based methods to screen job candidates. The idea behind behavioural interviewing is the belief that it is the most accurate predictor of future performance. It is based on the premise that past workplace performance is a very strong indicator of what is to be expected from an individual in the future. This form of interviewing is regarded as being able to provide a more objective set of facts that allow for more informed appointment decision.
Traditional interviews would ask questions of a general nature that would allow the candidate to say whatever they believed the interviewer wanted to hear. People would be in a position to make unsubstantiated claims about their abilities and performance. There would be virtually no way for the interviewer to verify anything candidate would say during an interview.
- Chapter 3 - Your interview objectives -
So what's it to you?
You have a responsibility to yourself to ensure that your working life is as satisfying and rewarding as it can be. Employment for employment's sake has a limited long-term future as an approach. You need to be able to assess every employment opportunity that you come across in terms of your own of needs and wants from your working and personal life.
Knowing what your priorities are is essential especially when you are on an active job search that entails your having to consider more than one job opportunity. You will need to be able to intelligently and easily compare each job offer that may ensue from an interview.
- Chapter 4 - Preparation - or how not to lose -
1. Research the employer
An interviewer will quickly know if you have bothered to research their organisation simply by the way that you act. There is no quicker way to turn a prospective employer off than by not reading any material that they may have provided to you prior to the interview. Researching an organisation is an important factor in an interviewer's evaluation of an applicant since it displays your level of interest and enthusiasm. To some interviewers this is almost as important as your ability to do the job.
Your research of an organisation is a valuable way of showing that you understand the purpose of the interview. It also establishes a common foundation of knowledge from which questions can be asked and to which information can be added. You both feel you're working off common ground.
- Chapter 5 - Arriving for the interview -
Before you meet your first interviewer
Before arriving at the interview venue try and find a private place to check your grooming and appearance. Start from the top of your body of work your way down. Check your hair, teeth, makeup or earrings. Straighten your tie or scarf and check your buttons and zips one last time. Switch off any phone that you may be carrying on you or any other device that may cause a distraction during the interview.
If you're expecting to have to attend an interview shortly before or over a mealtime, you may want to grab something light to eat. You wouldn't want to be struck by hunger pangs or have an audibly noticeable rumbling stomach during an interview. This may distract your concentration or provide a degree of embarrassment.
- Chapter 6 - How to conduct yourself -
The situation
An employer's task in the interview is to find out as much as possible about you. You should be looking to do the same, but about them. The interviewer may make use of a variety of techniques to gather their required information. Sometimes these techniques will not be obvious to you and may even occasionally cause you some mental discomfort. Do not take anything personally during an interview because that in itself may be an interviewer's test of your character traits.
A cornerstone of delivering a good interview is being able to maintain a purely logical frame of mind throughout the exchange of information and not to let your emotions interfere. This is, of course, easier said than done. You may want the job so badly that you come across to the interviewer as being anxious or even desperate. Few people are comfortable hiring someone who needs the job. On the other extreme, someone who appears aloof and disinterested will not be able to convince an employer that they have a genuine interest in the job.
- Chapter 7 - What not to do-or how to blow it -
Keep it professional
Do not ask anything that may put the interviewer(s) on a defensive footing. Nobody enjoys scepticism or criticism being directed at him or her no matter how tactfully it is phrased. Creating a negative mental 'incident' is almost sure to rule you out of consideration.
Do not ask an employer to make a hiring decision earlier than they had planned to do. You may be tempted to do this because you have another role that you are considering an offer on. This may irritate your current interviewer and you will have spoiled your chances with them. They will usually have a few more people that they need to interview. Try and see things from their point of view and accept that you will have to be juggling offers if you are fortunate enough to find yourself in that situation.
- Chapter 8 - 135 Common questions & answers -
There are questions that tend to pop up during almost every job interview. This doesn't mean that they are bad questions. In fact most of them are necessary for the interviewer to assess a candidate adequately.
The bad news is that some of these questions can be quite difficult to answer. The good news is that, because they are so common, you can prepare for them well in advance and give a perfect answer without displaying much concern.
- Chapter 9 - Questions to ask the interviewers -
Why ask questions of the interviewer(s)
The last phase of the interview is when you clinch the role. At this point the interviewer thinks that they have all the information that they need to make their decision. This is when you make your big impression by showing them that you know what you are talking about and provide the final evidence that shows you have the experience that they need.
The research of the employer or position that you conducted may not provide all of the information that you will need to make an informed decision about the role. Remember that you are also interviewing the company. This is your working life and you are entitled to perform some due diligence of your own. Nobody will hold it against you for asking a few intelligent questions.
- Chapter 10 - Asking for the job -
There comes a point in the proceedings when it is opportune and prudent to make your desire for and interest in the job known to the interviewers. This, of course, should only be true if you are actually still interested in the position. This will require a bit of decision making on the spot once you have asked your questions and evaluated the answers given to them.
You don't necessarily have to have made up your mind during the interview. To keep your options open and to buy yourself some time, it would be wise to simply express your interest in the position nevertheless.
- Chapter 11 - Ending the interview -
The interview will end in one of two ways. Usually the interviewer(s) will indicate that they have the information that they require and will take charge of the situation as they see you out the door. Otherwise you will have to take charge to avoid an awkward and embarrassing ending to what otherwise would have been a very pleasant experience for everybody. You'll need to guide the interview home to a positive ending.
Do not be tempted to continue the interview as you are walking out of the building. This stage of the entire interview process is a mere formality. Trying too hard to win the job as you are walking out the door can only be negative and thus counter-productive. Trying to ask clever questions now or re-answer questions that you fouled up earlier will only make you look bad.
- Chapter 12 - The Dance -
Being average is dangerous
Most people approach an employment interview with a negative mind-set accompanied by negative actions. Whether they realise it or not, they're setting themselves up to fail. They convince themselves that an interview is an unpleasant experience and is best completed as soon as possible to end their anguish. For many people attending a job interview is as desirable an experience as a visit to their dentist. At best it is viewed as a necessary evil.
This broad-based belief is excellent news for those people who have no such difficulties with the idea of a job interview. The people who look forward to an interview can only but take delight from knowing that most of their competitors do not share their same cheery outlook. They will therefore already have an advantage that is created for them by most of the people that they will be competing with for the job offering.
- Chapter 13 - Out of the ordinary -
The Phone Interview
There are essentially two types of telephone interviews: the phone screen and the full interview conducted over the phone.
The former is designed to eliminate unsuitable candidates, with survivors from this screen going on to a more intensive, usually face-to-face, interview. The latter type of phone interview is designed to achieve absolute confirmation of the suitability of a person for a role. The second type is usually conducted if the candidate is not able to attend in person (possibly in another city or country).
The telephone interview is becoming increasingly popular. Most job hunters still get an adrenaline rush from a phone interview. By following the tips and advice in this section you will master the phone interview and get to the next step - the face to face interview.
- Chapter 14 - If it all goes wrong -
This interview is going nowhere
Sometimes an interview goes so badly for everyone involved that some people can be said to be a state of mild shock. Only if the interview has gone so badly that you and any of the interviewers would describe it as a total disaster, should you then attempt to say anything at this late stage which might turn the whole experience around. If you haven't used up your best questions then this may be the time to ask them because you might have nothing to lose.
If your best questions are used up and they haven't had the desired positive effect then you may as well revert to your next best option. This would entail revisiting some of the earlier questions that were posed to you. Your subconscious may have come up with more facts or a better example in response to a question that you feel was poorly answered. Do not attempt to re-answer every question posed to you, but rather just the few that stand out in your mind as the ones that you should have done better with.
