Job interviews

[Bored@work 4,240]

I couldn't find the old thread. 

Any hints and tips would be greatly appreciated. 

I have an interview on Thursday for a management role at my current place of employment. I have been with the same company for 19 years..... I have been interviewed for promotions in the company but this is the first "formal" interview. 

The other ones have been more "Davo, want to work for me? lets discuss the role over lunch" type of interviews.

 

 

[Naut 735]

Last time I did some serious interviewing we were asking to research the STAR technique. No idea if it is in vogue, but I think the prep work you do for it can pay off regardless.

https://www.vawizard.org/wiz-pdf/STAR_Method_Interviews.pdf

Oh and if they ask for weaknesses, don't say your weakness is not having a weakness.  

Edited Monday at 07:29 AM by Naut

[FatPom 5,497]

39 minutes ago, Bored@work said:

I couldn't find the old thread. 

Any hints and tips would be greatly appreciated. 

I have an interview on Thursday for a management role at my current place of employment. I have been with the same company for 19 years..... I have been interviewed for promotions in the company but this is the first "formal" interview. 

The other ones have been more "Davo, want to work for me? lets discuss the role over lunch" type of interviews.

 

 

I've had loads of interviews myself and done loads of interviewing (in fact, just been on a recruitment panel for some line mgrs that will work for me and others).

Internal interviews are tricky, you know people, they know you. Plus you have extra scrutiny on your achievements. The advantage is that you don't waste a lot of time building a picture but still use you SAR. (I usually leave out the T in STAR because it becomes obvious what the task is through the S and A)

Have a proper read of the job desc, especially the ad that went external (if one did), does it describe what the essential skills/behaviours are?  If it does, separate those skills out and demonstrate through your achievements how you've displayed those skills.  Forget your CV, everyone will know that and that just gets you to the door.

Practice out loud what you will say.

Do you know the structure of the interview? Is it a video interview?

Edited Monday at 07:31 AM by FatPom

[Bored@work 4,240]

Thanks for the tips. It’s a strange situation. I’m confident I have the role & the interview is just ticking the box for HR. But that makes me even more nervous.

[FatPom 5,497]

Just now, Bored@work said:

Thanks for the tips. It’s a strange situation. I’m confident I have the role & the interview is just ticking the box for HR. But that makes me even more nervous.

It will largely depend on two things. Has it been opened up to external candidates?  If it has, don't be over confident. It would extremely rare just to have an interview process for you and you don't know who else will attend.

Is it a Mgr position?  Will you be managing people you currently work alongside? I am a Snr Mgr and I have a few line managers that are promoted this way and that transition isn't easy. i'd want to hear about how you plan to manage that.

[KieranR 1,991]

Just walk in and say when do I start.  Process over and done with nice and quick 😂

[Bosco 239]

FP - has nailed it. All of the internal interviews I have done, bugger all use SAR (I like that FP) and just assume you know what they have done or struggle to ‘sell’ their achievements. There is no harm in being over prepared on this one. 

[FatPom 5,497]

If you could enquire as to the format (which is a reasonable question usually) we might be able to help a bit more.

[more 870]

Definitely practice what you are going to say. I can remember when I was interviewing for jobs and the first one or two I was a bit unsure of what I was saying, by the third I had the spiel down pat and smashed it. Offered me the job basically within 20 mins of leaving.. 

[FatPom 5,497]

3 minutes ago, more said:

Definitely practice what you are going to say. I can remember when I was interviewing for jobs and the first one or two I was a bit unsure of what I was saying, by the third I had the spiel down pat and smashed it. Offered me the job basically within 20 mins of leaving.. 

This is a good tip and say it out loud (you will feel like a goose at first). Especially important for video interviews where there are a lot less body language cues. 

[Prince 946]

56 minutes ago, Bored@work said:

Thanks for the tips. It’s a strange situation. I’m confident I have the role & the interview is just ticking the box for HR. But that makes me even more nervous.

Depends on the panel   It is best to earn the role and dont assume its a walk up. So just because they know you, pretend they know nothing about you.   

Oh, and picture them naked...

[more 870]

1 minute ago, Prince said:

Depends on the panel   It is best to earn the role and dont assume its a walk up. So just because they know you, pretend they know nothing about you.   

Oh, and picture them naked...

Or even better have pictures of them naked... Preferably with a secretary/PA..

[Mr Tinman 323]

I am absolutely no help what so ever Bored because I have never either written a resume or interviewed for a job.

I would hazard a guess that there aren't many people that can brag about that!

[Bored@work 4,240]

So I found out. There will be questions about resolving conflict, developing people, situation where you made a mistake - what would you do differently next time,...

[more 870]

3 minutes ago, Bored@work said:

So I found out. There will be questions about resolving conflict, developing people, situation where you made a mistake - what would you do differently next time,...

Just tell them you moderate transitions... Ticks all those boxes.. 😂

[FatPom 5,497]

4 minutes ago, Bored@work said:

So I found out. There will be questions about resolving conflict, developing people, situation where you made a mistake - what would you do differently next time,...

I thought that might be the case.  A typical question might be:

'Tell me how you would approach managing a negative team member (usually related to implemented new initiatives'.

The 'mistakes' question is a double edged sword for internals because they know the situation you are referring to.  If you have a slam dunk ball dropper (and they happen) use that and your lessons learned methodology to flesh out what you'd do differently.  Concentrate on the process of learning from the mistake, rather than beating yourself up or blaming others for it.

[Bored@work 4,240]

9 minutes ago, FatPom said:

I thought that might be the case.  A typical question might be:

'Tell me how you would approach managing a negative team member (usually related to implemented new initiatives'.

The 'mistakes' question is a double edged sword for internals because they know the situation you are referring to.  If you have a slam dunk ball dropper (and they happen) use that and your lessons learned methodology to flesh out what you'd do differently.  Concentrate on the process of learning from the mistake, rather than beating yourself up or blaming others for it.

Lucky for me I was once a negative team member with the worst attitude in the business. My previous boss gave me the nick name "Frank" as in Frank Abagnale the character from the move "Catch me if you can"  He spent years trying to catch me before I started working for him. I always joked I can't be Frank Abagnale because I never got caught. I got bored being dodgy and decided to work for the good guys. 

The number of times I was asked "how did you know to look there" when we were doing formal investigations/audits was scary lol 

[Cottoneyes 1,429]

Ok, Management role screams to me if they know what they are doing, the want to see your emotional intelligence on Thursday.  In the SAR, really hone in on what you did with the people, what you observed, what questions you asked, show you listened / consulted, how you delivered the message and how you reflected on the outcome.  Ooompa posted a video on Simon Sinek, watch it and start to think about it over the next few days.  Without copying him word for word, think of the language used and how you have seen his examples shown in the past.  Don't be afraid to give examples of good managers you have worked under in the past, and how you liked their style (don't pick the one that go sacked for embezzlement or touching up the EA)

Don't be over-confident, I've been in interviews where we have the one internal candidate, they don't take it seriously and next thing we are delivering bad news and looking externally.

Have your stories prepared to share of what you are most proud of, and also where you could have done better and how you would do them better - what lessons you learned is also important.  When did you realise you got these wrong, how did you try to repair them.  More than likely you will be given questions in the scenarios provided where you can weave these in.

When you get to questions from you, have some development areas ready and ask if they would be prepared to mentor you in these if you were successful (asking them for an expensive course to go on, or sponsoring you for a MBA out of the gate will not go down well).  A favourite question of mine is to ask, if I am successful, what would success look like 6 months in.  What KPIs would you be likely to set - show you are already looking at how to make the role not only yours, but how to exceed their expectations.

[Bored@work 4,240]

Some great tips etc 

thanks guys it really has helped.

[FatPom 5,497]

25 minutes ago, Bored@work said:

Some great tips etc 

thanks guys it really has helped.

Good luck!

[IronmanFoz 1,683]

Dave. Your a shoe in. I’d employ you without an interview.

Just be wary of the question..... Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

 

[IronJimbo 1,436]

17 minutes ago, IronmanFoz said:

Dave. Your a shoe in. I’d employ you without an interview.

Just be wary of the question..... Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

 

How many people got that question right in 2015?

[FatPom 5,497]

19 minutes ago, IronmanFoz said:

Dave. Your a shoe in. I’d employ you without an interview.

Just be wary of the question..... Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

 

The answer to that is alway ' sat here re-applying for my bloody job again due to the latest corporate brainwave' 😉

[Cat Lady 864]

Good luck tomorrow

[skel 552]

1 hour ago, Cat Lady said:

Good luck tomorrow

+1 😊

[Prince 946]

2 hours ago, Cat Lady said:

Good luck tomorrow

+1

[Bored@work 4,240]

All done & dusted.  That was brutal, 3 ppl on the panel. One question after the other. 
Heavily focused on situations and emotional intelligence etc.

As always I could have answered some question better but overall. I’m happy with how it went.

Time to wait & see if I got it & what $$ they offer. 

[Bored@work 4,240]

waiting, waiting, waiting.............this part sucks 

[pieman 1,208]

14 minutes ago, Bored@work said:

waiting, waiting, waiting.............this part sucks 

Just remember make sure that no matter what happens, the wife thinks you didn't get it and get the extra $$ diverted to a special donut and bikes account...

[FatPom 5,497]

Bored, did they say when the decision timeframe is?