Five common errors to avoid in a job interview
Q: I am working with a group in their 30’s and 40’s who have been out of the workplace for some time, and now want to get back to work. I’m trying to prepare them for upcoming interviews, and I would appreciate a quick summary of the most common mistakes people make in a job […]
I was kept down, now I need to rise to the challenge
Q: I’m going for an interview in my own company next week. I’ve been working here for ten years and, to be honest, I have been kept down by my boss, despite my best efforts to get involved in various initiatives. She has now retired, and I fear that in the interview I will be […]
Thinking on your feet can be crucial in a job interview
Q: In a recent job interview the panel asked a scenario question: “what would you do if somebody turned up for work with a smell of drink?” I was going for a job as manager of a retail store and despite working in the sector for almost ten years, I have never encountered this type […]
What to do when you hit ‘the black ice’ in a job interview
Q: I froze in the job interview. There is no other word for it. I was going great guns until they threw a question at me that caught me off guard. I stumbled through that and knew from their reaction that it hadn’t gone well. For the rest of the interview, I was a mess. […]
Face-to-face or Zoom interview – which is better?
Q: Now that COVID-19 restrictions are fast vanishing, what would your preference be for interviews in the long If you were called for one tomorrow, would you prefer to go face-to-face in a room or take the Zoom option, if offered? I have seen some cases lately where both options were made available. As I […]
Interview panel really put me through my paces
Q: I did the second interview for a company last week. The interview panel asked me to deliver a presentation on my ideas for the role. It was tricky because I don’t work in the company and the sector is complex. I gave it my best shot but was taken aback when they cross examined […]
How to flesh out your initial answers in a job interview
Q: I did a job interview last week and one of the things that surprised me was the extent to which they cross-examined me after my answers. Every time I gave an answer, they had at least one follow up question – e.g., how I felt I did in the scenario, what I learned from […]
Bring ‘them’ into your interview answers – ‘they’ will value it
We now come to the fifth and final article in our series on the START method. To recap, START is a storytelling method you can use in competency-based job interviews. It stands for Situation, Task, Action(s), Result(s) and Them. STAR has been an industry standard for years. The Them part at the end is our […]
Show results of your workplace contribution in job interviews
Continuing our series on the START method used in job interviews, this week we come to Results. As you will know from the previous columns, START stands for Situation, Task, Action(s), Result(s) and Them. The START method is a storytelling format to allow you perform better in competency-based job interviews. In Situation, you let the […]
Actions you took are at the heart of the START method
This is the third in our series of five columns explaining the START answering method that candidates find useful in competency-based job interviews. Typical competency-based questions start with ‘tell me about a time when you [were asked to lead an under-performing team / established a new process, etc.] …’ or ‘outline when you made a […]