Acing Your
Interview
How to get the job offer
© 2008
Marrietta Reber
Katharina Nötzel
Interview - Overview
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Preparing for the Interview
Doing a Self-Assessment
Conducting the Interview
Following up after the Interview
Understanding Types of Interviews
Preparing for the Interview
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Know the Company
Gather Your Materials
Time the Interview Optimally
Preparing for the Interview –
Know the Company
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Research company, position and your
interviewer
 Check
out company web site
 Read company’s financial and annual reports
 Ask people you networked with about company and
interviewer
 Call company directly and request sales brochure and
any company information they give out
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Confirm interview
 Call
1-2 days in advance and confirm time and
location
 Know how to get there and how long it takes!
Preparing for the Interview –
Gather Your Materials
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Several copies of your resume on professional
grade paper to hand to interviewers
Portfolio in print and digital format
Paper and pen
Business cards
Reference list
List of questions you want to ask
Preparing for the Interview –
Time the Interview Optimally
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Try to never schedule on Monday. Work has
piled up over the weekend and people are busy
Try for a late morning interview. People are more
alert in the morning
Try to be the last person interviewed. Statistics
show the last person interviewed is offered the
job more often than the first
Plan for a day when your schedule is relaxed
and flexible
Interview - Overview
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Preparing for the Interview
Doing a Self-Assessment
Conducting the Interview
Understanding Types of Interviews
Following up after the Interview
Doing a Self-Assessment
Purpose
 Showcasing Skills and Achievements
 Managing Weaknesses
 Anticipating Common Questions
 Navigating Tricky Questions
 Understanding Types of Questions
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Doing a Self Assessment –
Purpose
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A self assessment gives you a solid inventory of all your accomplishments,
skills, talents, and abilities to prepare you for the interview
Allot about two hours of focused time a day or two before your interview to:
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reflect on your experience and skills
brainstorm on paper highlights from your past
record effective responses to common questions
Make sure to capture all thoughts in an organized fashion on computer
Choose examples most fitting for the desired job and company
This exercise will bring your most relevant experience to your mind in an
articulate, cogent way
If possible, conduct a mock interview to be at ease presenting yourself
Review printed self assessment just prior to your interview. Seeing your
answers in print will jog your memory
Before an interview, read over your list and write a short 2 to 3 sentence
summary what skills and accomplishments make you the perfect candidate
for the job
The objective is not to memorize your self-assessment, but rather to reflect
on and provide a linguistic flow for your most relevant experiences
Doing a Self Assessment –
Showcasing Skills and Achievements
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Sit down and describe your 5 most important
accomplishments and the specific skills used to achieve
them. Tailor to desired job
Summarize your achievements and make them concrete
with past experiences
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Situation or task
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Actions
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Describe an experience you felt proud to have achieved or a
problem that needed to be dealt with
Describe your response to the situation
Describe the challenges and issues you faced
Describe what you did about the situation
Describe the actions you took
Result or outcome
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Describe the outcome
Describe why this experience is important to you
Doing a Self Assessment –
Showcasing Skills and Achievements
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The following examples illustrate how an
accomplishment could be related to specific
skills and abilities:
 Increased sales by x %:
 Developed excellent personal customer relations and trust
 Worked closely with logistics to optimize delivery
 Organized and held training seminars with internal customer
support to increase customer satisfaction
 Successful project manager:
 3 promotions in 2 years
 Increased productivity of team by x% and reduced lead time
by x days
 Only manager to finish every project on time/budget
 Worked very successfully work with difficult employees and
clients
Doing a Self Assessment –
Showcasing Skills and Achievements
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Tips
 Look
for examples that showcase your top selling
points
 Choose some examples that are totally positive and
some that started out negatively but either ended
positively or you made the best of the outcome
 Vary your examples; don't take them all from just one
area of your life, include various jobs (even private life
if relevant)
 Use fairly recent examples. Start with examples within
last year
 Try to describe examples in story form, describe the
situation, your actions and the outcome
Doing a Self Assessment –
Managing Weaknesses
Describe a few weaknesses or failures
and explain briefly what went wrong and
why
 List what you learned from each problem
 Don’t go for catastrophic failures but
weaknesses most employees have or that
demonstrate a correlating strength
 Show that you dealt successfully with
problems and how you worked to resolve
them as positively as possible
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Doing a Self Assessment –
Anticipating Common Questions
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“Tell me about yourself …”
 Keep
 Have
it to 1 to 2 minutes maximum
a prepared answer ready but don’t make it
sound memorized
 Mention some personal information
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Where you grew up/lived/went to school
Unique hobbies, experiences, or volunteer work
 Mention some professional information
 Short summary of most recent entries to resume
 Relate past accomplishments to what is required in the new
position
 Close with a statement like “I am looking forward to
further my career in ___ and believe I can contribute
greatly to the success of ___”
Doing a Self Assessment –
Anticipating Common Questions (cont.)
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“Why did you leave your last position …”
 Prepare
a short statement that summarizes the
reasons for your departure
 Keep it short and positive, don’t ramble
 Possible outline
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State briefly events that affected the company and led to your
departure
Point it out if a group of employees were affected
Examples:
“Due to a merger between __ and __ I was one of 300
people who were released…”
“Due to a restructuring at __ I have decided to resign my
position as __ and search for a position that more closely
matches my career goals ..”
Doing a Self Assessment –
Anticipating Common Questions (cont.)
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“What are your strengths/weaknesses …”
 Strength
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List strengths that are relevant to the job
Give examples from past jobs to illustrate
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E.g. creative: patents/publications/campaigns
E.g. leadership qualities: promoted quickly
 Weakness
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Talk about only one if possible
Mention only weaknesses not related to your core
competency
Make sure they are minor
Give explanations how you overcame them
Doing a Self Assessment –
Anticipating Common Questions (cont.)
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“What did you like most/least about your last
job…”
 Things
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List what is most relevant to the desired job
Talk about things that you were good at
Don’t mention salary, holidays and short work hours
 Things
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you liked most
you liked least
Try to keep this as short as possible
Phrase carefully as not to sound negative or overly critical
Think of some innocuous answers
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Long commute (unless the new commute would be longer)
Lack of communal feeling in the group etc.
Doing a Self Assessment –
Anticipating Common Questions (cont.)
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“Why do you want to work for us …”
 Don’t
give too many selfish reasons
 Flatter the company you want to work for
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Love the work
Reputation of the company/product
Opportunity to meet new challenges
“Why do you believe you are a good fit for this
position …”
 State
you relevant skills, experience and education
 Give examples that relate to the job you interview for
Doing a Self Assessment –
Anticipating Common Questions (cont.)
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“Why should we hire you …”
 Delivers
to the hiring manager the arguments in your
favor and gives you the chance to stand out
 Lets you make the live easier for hiring manager: You
can supply him with all the right reasons why you are
the one
 Lets you use your prepared summary why you are
ideal for the job – your pre-written declaration of what
makes you the perfect fit
Doing a Self Assessment –
Anticipating Common Questions (cont.)
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“Do you have any questions …”
 Have
about two or three questions ready to show you
are prepared, engaged, and considering actively
 Don’t ask about holidays or benefits until you are
close to a job offer
 Ask questions relating to company and job
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Reason for job opening
Reporting relationships
Group size
Equipment
Immediate goals (3/6/12 months) of position
Doing a Self Assessment –
Anticipating Common Questions (cont.)
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The answers to these often asked questions
may seem self-evident, but write them out with
examples and practice
 Do
you take the initiative
 How do you deal with pressure
 What would your previous supervisor say about you
 What do you know about our company
 Are you ambitious
 Are you willing to work overtime
 What do you see yourself doing in five years
Doing a Self Assessment –
Navigating Tricky Questions
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“You seem over/under qualified …”
 Overqualified
(too expensive / you may not fit in and
quit soon / you could be a threat to a supervisor’s job)
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Never address money; rather stress how you always helped
your previous supervisors to meet/exceed their goals
Show by examples that you work well with younger team
members/supervisors
Your experience will help you do the job faster and better
 Underqualified
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Exploit transferable skills from other jobs or volunteer work
Show your flexibility, willingness, and ability to learn or gain
additional training
Doing a Self Assessment –
Navigating Tricky Questions (cont.)
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“What are your salary expectations …”
 Don’t give a fixed number
 Say you’d like more info on
the job’s duties and
responsibilities before you can answer
 Try to mention a range if pressed and ask about the
company’s salary range for the job
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“Why have you changed jobs so frequently…”
a negative a positive – change as promotion,
development, and growth
 Make clear that you now want a career commitment
to apply all you learned
 Stress that all changes were voluntary (if true) and
your performance was always excellent
 Make
Doing a Self Assessment –
Understanding Types of Questions
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Explanation
 Interviewer
needs information not sufficiently
explained in resume or has doubts to be clarified
 Typical questions
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“Why have you changed jobs so frequently…”
“You seem over/under qualified …”
Expectation
 Interviewer
wants to clarify your expectations about
the job
 Examples
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“What are your salary expectations …”
“Do you have any questions …”
Doing a Self Assessment –
Understanding Types of Questions
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Scenario
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Interviewer may describe a job scenario and ask how you would
handle it in exact steps
A scenario may cover a single complex problem or a situation
where you have to deal with several problems
Scenario based interviews tend to reflect a situation that can
arise in the job you want
You need to cover three main areas:
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Define the situation exactly and understand what the problem is
Describe exactly what steps, in which order, you would take to deal
with the situation and who would be involved
Describe the outcome you intend your actions to have. If necessary,
describe how you would deal with a negative result if there is
nothing you could do to remedy the situation
Doing a Self Assessment –
Understanding Types of Questions
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Behavioral
 Interviewing
technique based on the idea that
past behavior predicts future behavior
 You may be asked to give an example of a
specific, tricky workplace situation and how
you dealt with it
 Questions often deal with workplace
situations that are critical, difficult or could
shed a negative light on the applicant
 Questions are often very specific and cannot
be prepared for individually
Doing a Self Assessment –
Understanding Types of Questions
 Examples
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of behavioral questions could be:
How have you demonstrated initiative
How did you successfully interact with a difficult boss, coworker or other person
Tell me about the riskiest decision you have made
Describe when you or your group were in danger of missing
a deadline. What did you do?
Tell me about a challenge you met successfully
Give an example of when your persistence had the biggest
payoff
Summarize a situation where you successfully persuaded
others to do something or to see your point of view
Interview - Overview
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Preparing for the Interview
Doing a Self-Assessment
Conducting the Interview
Following up after the Interview
Understanding Types of Interviews
Conducting the Interview
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Dressing for Success
Arriving at the Interview
Opening the interview
Using body language
Interacting with the Interviewer
Closing the Interview
Conducting the Interview –
Dressing for Success
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Conservative, professional outfit
Dark or neutral colors
Clean, polished shoes in good repair
Clean, trimmed fingernails. Women may wear
conservative nail-polish
Beards or moustaches must be neatly trimmed
No noticeable fragrances or distracting jewelry
Avoid visible piercings or tattoos
Conducting the Interview –
Arriving at the Interview
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Arrive in lobby 15 to 20 minutes before
appointment
Tell the receptionist whom you have an
appointment with
Try to engage receptionist, be scrupulously
polite and friendly
 Formally
or informally, receptionists may be asked
about their opinion
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Turn off cell phone. Having your phone ring
during an interview is rude
Conducting the Interview –
Opening the Interview
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Introduce yourself
Smile and offer firm, dry handshake at introduction
Make sure to remember the name(s) of your
interviewer(s) and use them
Set a positive tone
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Make short pleasant small talk if appropriate
Thank them for their time
Compliment the office/location
Impress the interviewer. Likability and good fit for
position is often more important in hiring decisions than
perfect qualifications
Be prepared to answer the dreaded question “So tell me
a little bit about yourself …”
Conducting the Interview –
Using Body Language
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Make eye contact
Sit down in a relaxed and confident position
Affirm that you are listening by nodding, etc. Don’t fold
arms or legs
Accentuate your words with gestures but don’t overdo it
Vary voice tone, volume and inflection, don’t talk in a
monotone
Do not fidget
Watch your interviewer
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When they glance away, shuffle paper etc., you lost them
Stop talking, ask a question, draw them back into the interview
Above all, be natural!!
Conducting the Interview –
Interacting with the Interviewer
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Show self-confidence but not arrogance
Don’t make any negative comments or mention anything
negative about your last position
Use phrases that reinforce your good fit: “I am able/willing …
”, “I work well with others…”
Use strong action-verbs: “contributed”, “developed”,
“managed”. Avoid weak words: “try”, “guess”, “pretty good”,
“maybe”
Express your interest in the position in uncertain, strong terms
Stress what you know, not what you don’t
If you know nothing regarding a question, admit it, but follow
up immediately with a complementary skill you do possess
React to common questions with winning responses
Be confident and enthusiastic
Conducting the Interview –
Interacting with the Interviewer
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Listen
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Let the interviewer talk
Don’t interrupt
Be calm and patient
Listen to their questions and needs
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Address those needs
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Give information
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Don’t give yes-or-no answer, but don’t talk longer than one to two minutes
Ask for clarification if you’re not sure what the interviewer wants to know
Stress your strengths
De-emphasize your weaknesses
Get information
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Ask assessing questions about the job
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Reasons for job opening
Expectations for first 3, 6, and 12 months
Opportunity for advancement
A typical day
Avoid inquiring about salary or benefits in first interview
Conducting the Interview –
Closing the Interview
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Summarize shortly your strengths and
accomplishments as they relate to the position
Reaffirm interest in the job – most job seekers
don’t
 Ask
for another interview or directly for the job
 Ask for timetable for decision
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Affirm the next step
Thank those you met on your way out and use
individual names
Interview - Overview
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Preparing for the Interview
Doing a Self-Assessment
Conducting the Interview
Following up after the Interview
Types of Interviews
Following Up After the Interview
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After you leave the interview
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Take notes: What was discussed, what wasn’t, problems etc.
Try to evaluate the interview from the employers’ view
When you get home
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Send a hand-written thank-you note to interviewer. Preferably
mail, else email
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Thank the interviewer
Refer to something said in the interview to emphasize a strong point
or add to an answer that was weak
Express interest in the job again
Follow up by telephone
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Call 5 to 7 working days after interview
Not a push for a final decision but rather an expression of ongoing
interest
Interview - Overview
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Preparing for the Interview
Doing a Self-Assessment
Conducting the Interview
Following up after the Interview
Types of Interviews
Types of Interview
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One-on-one with HR and/or Supervisor
Interview by One or Several Co-Workers
Group or Panel Interview
Phone Interview
Stress Interview
Types of Interview –
One-on-one with HR and/or Supervisor
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Interviewer evaluates applicants’ overall potential and fit within
company
Interviewer tries to see if applicant has experience and
qualifications for job
Interviewer asks general questions to test applicants problem
solving abilities and ability to socialize with rest of team
HR tends to focus more on general skills and fit, supervisor
more on technical skills specific to job
Applicant should use previous achievements to back any facts
mentioned
Applicant has to prove both knowledgeable and able to fit into
a team
Applicant has likely to go through several more interviews,
cannot assume that the next interviewer knows what was told
to the one before
Types of Interview –
Interview by One or Several Co-Workers
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Assesses applicants’ fit into the department and
group
Allows in-depth interview about specific skills
and accomplishment necessary for job
Gives applicant a chance to show they
understand the nuts and bolts of the job
Lets applicant show willingness and ability to be
team member
Types of Interview –
Group or Panel Interview
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Panel often consists of supervisor and one or several team
members. Depending on job, can also include higher-ranking
managers
Panel interview tests various skill at the same time
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Dealing with stress
Communication with possible team mates
Facing the public, customers, and colleagues
Having the skills and knowing the job
Using knowledge in a discussion
All panel members may ask questions
Applicant needs to stay calm. Asking questions can buy some time
to consider answers
Panel interviews can shorten the interviewing process considerably
because less follow-up interviews are necessary
Types of Interview –
Phone Interview
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Show enthusiasm with your voice but don’t overdo it
Hold receiver mouthpiece about 2 inches from lips. Speak a little
slower than normally
Do not use slang and try to minimize an accent
Turn off background music, mobile phone, computer speaker, and
front bell (if possible)
Keep children and pets away
Prepare like for any interview and keep your resume, your list with
achievements and summary at hand
Practice a phone interview with a friend
Do not smoke, chew gum or drink tea during the interview
Avoid salary discussions in a phone interview
Ask when it is convenient to meet for a face to face interview
Types of Interview –
Stress Interview
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Is less common than normal interviews and most often
used when the candidate is applying for a high-stress
position (customer relations, working in an extremely
high-stress environment where quick and cool reactions
are absolutely necessary etc.)
Exposes applicant to unexpected circumstances in order
to evaluate their ability to deal with stress
Requires applicants to be calm, polite and think on their
feet
Tests an applicant’s ability to be articulate, graceful and
polite under pressure
Tries to disorient and put the applicant on the defensive
and elicit genuine and spontaneous reactions
Types of Interview –
Stress Interview (cont.)
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Comes in various forms:
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Interviewer stares intently at applicant
Interviewer ignores applicant and remains silent for long periods
Interviewer asks questions rapidly without giving applicant the
chance to properly answer
Interviewer asks strange and utterly unrelated questions
Interviewer keeps asking the same question and seemingly
doesn’t understand the answer
Several interviewers throw questions at applicant
Applicant may be surrounded (including his back) by
interviewers
Interviewer is aggressive and hostile, may even shout at or insult
applicant
Types of Interview –
How to React to a Stress Interview
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Realize (and remember), this is a test, nothing personal
Stay calm and in control whatever happens
Answer questions collectedly, force yourself to slow
down and speak softly, focus only on the question and
not on the interviewer
Focus your answer at the interviewer who asks, if there
are several, not on the whole group – this relieves some
of the stress
Clarify the question and the nature of the answer desired
– this can buy you some time to think
If you feel the interview is utterly out of hand and you
can’t handle it any more, remember that an interview is
two-sided!! Very politely end the interview.
Interview – Online Resources
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http://www.resumagic.com/job_interviews.html
http://www.jobinterviewquestions.org/questions/intervie
w-guide.asp
http://career-advice.monster.com/job-interviewpractice/Tell-Me-About-a-Time-When/home.aspx
http://www2.oakland.edu/careerservices/job_search_re
sources/Behavioral%20Interview%20Preparationweb.htm
http://www.careerchoiceguide.com/preparing-for-a-jobinterview.html