Skip to main content

Preparing for an interview

 Lately, I’ve had the pleasure of taking part in an hiring process for a position that my team had open. I reviewed a number of CVs/resumes and interviewed a number of people. I thought that I would share that experience with you and give you some advice about the CV and interviewing process.

I wrote about the CV in my last article, “Looking for a Job”, what should go into a CV and how to frame it so that it fits what the employer is looking for. However, putting a bunch of keywords on your CV that you have barely touched will probably backfire on you. For an entry-level job, hiring companies generally understand that most the skills listed are educational and not necessarily practical. However, for anything after the first job, you will be expected to back up any skills that you put on your CV.

In order to best prepare for an interview, it is worthwhile to understand the interview from the employer’s perspective. There is a popular term in the investing world, “Past performance does not indicate future results.” This concept is not true in the interviewing and hiring process. Human nature is to continue to act in similar ways that you’ve acted in the past. Based on this the questions that are asked in an interview are generally all based on examples of what you’ve done in the past.

Everything on your CV is fair game to ask about, so you should have stories prepared for every skill and experience that is listed. If you wrote a skill on your CV, you can expect questions such as:

  • What did you use that for?
  • Can you describe the workflow that you used?

During the discussion, other questions will pop up, such as:

  • When you did X and Y, which method did you use?
  • Can you write the commands that are needed for this?
  • Did you have any problems, and how did you solve them?
  • Can you draw out the architecture of the components used and how they work?

While a lot of work is collaborative and you only played a part in the big picture, the interviewer wants to hear about what you personally did as part of the process. The fact that your team accomplished a major project, and you were only involved in a small aspect of that, focus on the role that you played and how that facilitated the success of the entire project. Collaborative experience is also very important. Make sure you talk about how many people were on the team, and what your specific role was.

  • How did you interact with the other people?
  • Were you able to rely on them and they on you?
  • Can you give an example of when you needed to trust someone to do their job?
  • Did you ever cover for someone who was unable to complete his work on time?

A major question that I like to ask is: "Tell me about time that you screwed up badly." It happens to everyone, whether you erased the production database, let a virus into the company, recommended purchasing software that did not meet the requirements or did the accounting math wrong and caused a scandal at the company board meeting. 

Why is this a good question? First of all, it tells me that you are willing to talk about your mistakes. It also lets me know how you fixed it afterwards. Were you transparent? Did you try to fix the mess without reporting first to your manager? Did you ask for help in fixing the problem? 

Your behavior during a crisis speaks a lot about your personality. 

Another popular question is “tell me about a weakness that you have”. Don’t try to outsmart the interviewer by trying to turn a strength into a weakness. “I am a perfectionist and make sure that my work is 100%, though it might take me a little too much time.” “I’m too organized for my own good.” Interviewers aren't fooled and don't want to hear that garbage. What they want to hear, and what will make you stand out, is an actual weakness. Think back through times that you’ve messed up, and use a real example of something you did. You can include what you are doing to mitigate that weakness as well. But being real and honest will give you a huge advantage during the decision making time.

As examples:

  • When I've sent emails in the past, I often used sarcasm, which was misunderstood by the receivers. After a few negative responses, I asked a colleague to review important emails before I send them. I do the same for him, so we both benefit
  • I've noticed that I often argue a point even after a decision has been made. I've been working on taking a step back and accepting the fact that my argument was not accepted.

The most important takeaway from this article is that before you start an interview process, understand what that process is and how to prepare for it. Know what is on your CV and be prepared for each element to describe what your experience is with it. Think about stories from your experience that will show your behavior patterns. Good luck in your job search!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reward vs Risk

 When developing a strategy, there are 2 opposing concepts that must be balanced - Risk and Reward. There are two known philosophies to take into account when determining the methodologies: “The best offense is a good defense”.  “The best defense is a good offense” Understanding these 2 philosophies and when each is appropriate, is a key factor in determining a plan of action. Generally speaking, risk and reward are proportionate - the greater risk a person is willing to take (potential loss), the higher the potential for reward. For example, there are different bets you can make at a roulette wheel. If you have $1000 to gamble and pick a specific number to bet it on, you have the opportunity to win $35,000, whereas if you pick red/black you only have the opportunity of winning $1,000. In both cases, the odds are that you are going to lose, but the risk is much greater when choosing a specific number. When choosing an objective, you have to understand what you want to accompli...
Post a Comment
Read more

Stop apologizing and just do it

 There’s a popular phrase, “presentation is everything”. If something is presented in the wrong way, it has a good chance of losing a good deal of appreciation. While most people understand this from a physical perspective - great food that is just piled on your plate is less appreciated than decent food that is carefully presented - this is also true when presenting something written or oral.   When somebody starts off talking by saying, “this probably isn’t going to work, but...” or, “I’m sure there are better ways of doing this…”, expectations drop. Why should they waste their valuable time on something that even the person presenting it doesn’t think is any good. So why do people do this? Nobody likes being wrong. There is a lot of posturing and expressions whose sole purpose is to allow people to save face.  People feel uncomfortable making a statement that they don’t feel confident that they can back up. It is easier to hide behind an excuse than to be proven w...
Post a Comment
Read more

Strategy in your daily life

So how do we use strategy in our everyday life? It should be used whenever you want to achieve something to which there is no obvious answer. While the shortest path between two points is a straight line, it is often not practical or possible to follow it. There are factors and ramifications involved in the different methods and stages of getting from Point A to Point B. Strategy is understanding what is involved, weighing the pros and cons and consciously deciding the best method for you. As a very basic, practical example: You are standing on the corner of a busy street (A) and need to get to the bus stop on the corner diagonal from you. The bus that you need is going to turn left at the corner to get to the bus stop. You need to cross 2 streets to get to that bus stop. Do you first cross From A to B or from A to C? Most people don’t think about it - whichever light turns green first is the road they are going to cross. It is the same distance to the bus stop no matter which ...
Post a Comment
Read more