You want the job. They want to hire you! win:win

Posted on November 30, 2017 by Karen Hennessy-Coles, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.

The most important thing to remember when going for a job interview is that they want to hire you!

Recruitment campaigns and assessments are expensive in both money and time. Assessments take managers away from the day job. Nobody wants to re-run a campaign, spending even more time and money.

So, unless there is a favoured internal candidate, they want YOU to be the perfect person for the job.
Companies all use different assessment methods. Some will have one person interviewing others a panel (more than one person), some will be informal and others formal. This will depend on the organisation and the position. What they will all have in common is that they want to find the right person for the job.

Apply for jobs you truly want.
Yes, when you need or want a new job it can be tempting to go for every job out there. It takes time to apply. To write tailored cover letters. To research the company. There are a lot of jobs out there, put more time and energy into the ones you really want. Interviewers can tell if you want a job or not. The jobs I’ve really wanted I’ve always got, those I didn’t, well, I didn’t.

When you are invited to an assessment prepare!

1. Research the company and prove you are familiar
You are likely to be asked what you know. Be prepared to give an overview and have one specific piece of info which interests you about the organisation, ideally related to your field of expertise i.e I never realised you made…… I’m a huge fan. I was really interested to see that you …… I was really curious about…….I loved…..I studied your organisation while at university…. But be genuine with your answer!

If you know someone who works at the company talk to them. Ask them what it’s like, what are the key priorities, get some insider knowledge.

2. Review the information you have about the role and do some pre-work!
Review the JD and pick out the key competencies, the company may even give you a set of competencies. What does the company say they want from the candidate? Below are a couple of sentences from a JD, I’ve highlighted the competencies:

‘works in a collaborative way with other team members, thinks ‘laterally’ when looking for
solutions to problems, looks for more effective ways of doing things’.

3. When you are invited to the interview, remember you are a STAR!

S – What was the Situation?
The organisation took on a big project for which we needed 34 new temporary staff fast, if the people weren’t in on time then it was fatal for the organisation.

T – What Tasks were involved?
I was leading on the recruitment of the staff. It was for me to ensure that we had a plan which everyone was committed to which was delivered on time.

A – What Actions did you take?
I researched the potential options and spoke to those managers who were to be involved. These options were presented to the these with the pro’s and con’s to the Directors with my recommendation. Blah, blah, blah

R – What were the Results?
I achieved the goal, we got the right number of people in and trained by the deadline.

4. Prepare your interview responses
You now have a pretty good idea about what the company is wanting in their successful candidate and you have a method for demonstrating that person is you! Now let’s put points 2 and 3 together.

Think of an example for each of the competencies you identified.

Let’s take collaborative working as an example.

When have you successfully worked as part of a team? Think about it in terms of STAR (see below).

Ensure in your example you state your role while respecting the roles that others had. This example is very short, yours will be somewhat longer. You will see that even in this short example that it shows the interviewer that you understand the importance of client satisfaction. That you want to be proud of the organisation you work for and that you can manage your workload and your time. As part of your answer for each also think about the risks and how you mitigated against them.

Competency
Collaborative Working

Situation – My colleague received a complaint from a client. However had to leave the office so wouldn’t have been able to action until the following day.

Task – As a business we want to be proud of our work and have happy and contented clients so I said I would deal with the complaint. I was able to re-prioritise my work for the day.

Action – I liaised with the finance team, our suppliers and successfully solved the issue

Result – The client was happy!

5. What else should you think about?
What would you would do differently if you were to be in this situation again? What did you learn? Employers don’t expect candidates to be perfect and want their employees to reflect and improve on their projects. You may be asked this question. I would only volunteer if you are making a positive point. For example ‘In a previous project I learnt that………..and I used that learning in this project’.

6. Applying your examples to potential questions
There are lots of competency based questions which can be found on the internet. Look up some questions for the competencies you’ve identified. Then apply your answers in the table above to the questions. Practice flexing your answers to fit the questions.

An assessment which is more of a ‘chat’ than an interview can sometimes be more difficult to get your experience across. There is a temptation to talk without structure. Even though it may seem less formal they will still be looking for the same information so give them what you’ve prepared!

7. Getting ready on the day
Make sure you know the location for the assessment and get there on time. Know who you are going to be meeting and their role in the organisation.

Wear clothes that make you feel amazing.

Get your head in the right space. What puts you in a confident and focussed mood? Listening to music you love? Yoga? Exercise? Reading a motivational quote? Reminding yourself of your strengths? Thinking about why this role is so important to you and why you want it?

8. THEN REMEMBER – They want to hire you!