Dear Readers,
Thank you for coming here!
I shared my feelings as the interviewer in my last post.
When I thought back the whole process, there were a few things that the interviewees did or did not do that left an impression.
I would like to share those with you here.
Interview tips are more than abundant on the internet. These are just some personal opinion from personal but real experiences.
So use them with caution.
Here we go!
1.Make sure you have the personal touch and be authentic
You can find tons of standard answers to all the common questions in interviews. Giving those answers minimizes your risk.
But they are boring and prevent the interviewers from knowing who you really are.
If they cannot get a good read on you, they will drop you.
So read those standard answers and use them as reference. But always add your personal touch.
One candidate really convinced me by giving a short example of what he did after each point he made about himself. That is the personal touch.
Anyone can say that they are responsible and a good team player. But what did you do to prove to me that you are?
There was another candidate who was clearly highly skilled in interviews. She gave all the standard answers. The interview went so smoothly that I could not even remember anything about her when we had to summarize our opinion two days later.
2.Please do not read a script
I understand, in online interviews, you can place your script besides your computer or on another screen.
You may think it is a good trick.
Unless you can really act, please do not read a script.
A candidate with more than 20 years of experiences gave the best introduction about his professional experiences I have never encountered.
It was concise, logical and clearly tailored to the role.
But it became obvious that he was reading a script. And that ruined everything.
When you read, you lose eye contact and your head movement goes into a different pattern and you might be caught surprised when interrupted.
We started to interrupt him by asking deep dive questions and he almost immediately became incoherent.
Just remember the key points and speak like a human.
3.Answer the questions
This might be obvious.
But I encountered a candidate who just could not answer the questions, even after being reminded repeatedly.
He either did not understand the question or was not able to answer the question.
Would you hire anyone like that to work for you?
4.Be structured and concise
It is not always easy to understand you, especially when interviewer have to multi-task during the interviews.
So be structured and concise.
Tell them you are going to elaborate 3 points. And the first point is….So that is for the first point. Now let me go to the second point…
It is not always possible, but you should try as much as possible.
Also drop the unnecessary details. If interviewers are interested, they will ask.
Background should not take 15% of the length.
One candidate spent all his time introducing the background and ended his answer afterwards.
So what was the problem? what did you do? what was the result?
That is the meat, not the background. And you bore the interviewer to death.
5.Be careful when cuing interviewers
It is fine you do your research on the interviewers and it is fine you let them know that.
But be careful when curing them.
There may be experiences they do not want to bring up, especially in a group interview setting.
And it is not a good idea to do it more than once in one interview.
One candidate was literally “showing off” how much he knew about the interviewers. He mentioned more experiences of the interviewers than his own.
Do not be too smart for your own good.
6.Bear in mind that interviewers are chatting while you speak
In a group interview setting, interviewers almost always chat and evaluate as the interview goes.
While for interviewers, it is interesting and insightful to know what the other interviewers are thinking, it could be detrimental to candidates.
So make sure you keep all of them in mind.
Do not say 5G will replace Wifi one day, if there is a Wifi guy there.
7.Ask good questions
If you have lost the interviewers in the process, questions are your chance to bring them back and bring yourself on the board again.
Prepare good questions. One of the good questions is to ask for personal opinion of interviewers.
8.Send the “Thank You” note
You want the interviewers to remember you, this is one of your best tools.
Summarize the strong points for the role and express again your passion.
It will not help you go from “Fail” to “Pass” but it can definitely help you to pass more quickly.
In the end
Interviews are a mutual selection process.
There is no need to be who you are not. It is not a good thing to get into a place you do not belong.
Also do not forget to assess the other party. Do you want to become people like them? Do you want to work with them?
One hour is too short to know anybody. But this is what we get.
So use it to your advantage.
Till next time!
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