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QUICK LINKS ON THIS PAGE: Introduction Interview Process Interview Preparation Interviewing Resources and Sample Questions Behavioral, Case, and Panel Interviews Follow Up and Thank You Letter Additional Resources
The interview is the opportunity for you to emphasize how you can bring your skills, knowledge, and professional experiences to contribute and add value to the company and the specification position for which you are interviewing. It's also the opportunity to find out if there is culture fit: do you like this opportunity and do they like you?
The interviewing process is a series of conversations between you and company representatives. It's a mutual exchange of information. The interviewer is evaluating whether or not you are the right fit for the position, and you are also evaluating whether or not the position is the right fit for you.
The best ways to sell yourself in the interview include:
The interview process typically has several rounds:
In a tough economic cycle and down job market, the interview process may draw out over months while a company evaluates candidates in the market. During this time, if you are still a viable candidate, proactively stay on top of the interview process by showing your interest and adding value to the company and hiring manager.
Preparation is extremely important for interview success. It is crucial that you 1) know the company, industry, and job, 2) know yourself and be able to communicate the value of your professional experience, skills, and knowledge, and 3) practice.
Interviewers evaluate candidates around these general key questions:
Do your experiences, competencies and specific skills match the job specification?
Are you interested and motivated to do this assignment?
Does your motivation and style fit with the culture of the company and team?
In a turbulent job market, another question is: what value will you bring to this job versus others in the job market?
The interviewers make decisions around these questions by asking detailed questions about your skills and experiences.
The basic steps you need to do to effectively be prepared for interviews include the following:
Practice answering standard interview questions, by yourself or in mock interviews with friends, colleagues, or a career coach. By practicing your responses, you will not be surprised if asked one of the questions. Be sure to identify the questions that you hope you won't be asked in an interview or those that you would feel the most uncomfortable answering—because these "weak links" are the ones that require careful preparation!
In a tough job market, a candidate needs to show the value they will bring to the job. Sometimes, this takes the form of extra preparation as if you are already doing the job. What is the current market situation? What are the objectives of the job? What would you do if you were in the job? How would you approach the role? What is your plan of attack? Taking the interview from discussion of your skills and experiences to discussion of how you will add value to the company will completely change the dynamic of the interview and may put you ahead of competition for the role.
Rather than just probing about your previous work history, interviewers may do a behavioral (also called competency-based), case, or panel interview.
The behavioral interview is based on the notion that a job candidate's previous behaviors are the best predictors of future job performance. In a behavioral interview, interviewers ask candidates to share experiences and then ask specific questions related to how they handled the situation. For example, behavioral questions may include:
A case interview is often used in interviews at management consulting firms. The interviewer discusses a business problem that might be typical for the company and asks the candidate to analyze the business scenario. These are typically two-way discussions without a correct answer. The candidate is being assessed on how they approach the problem, identify key business issues, develop a framework to analyze the situation, and work through gathering information to arrive at a possible solution. In some cases, companies are also testing basic assumptions and math (e.g. assuming the market is one-third of the US population, then we may have a market of 100 million as a total population.) Practice is essential for understanding how to approach case interviews.
A panel interview is where a candidate is interviewed all at once by a group representing various members of the recruiting "jury" during the hiring process. In these interviews, there can be different formats, including presentation to the panel; role-based questions with each panelists asking questions pertaining to their role/interaction with the job; working session where the candidate becomes a working member of the team and making contributions as if they were already on the job; or stressful environment with panelists quickly questioning the candidate creating a stress-filled environment to test the candidate in this situation.
Understand the format for the interviews and that company, be prepared and practice, then be confident walking into the situation.
Following an interview, there are several things that you may need to do: send a thank you letter, critique your interview, and any follow-ups from the interview.
A thank you letter shows respect to people who have spent time talking with you, whether an interview or informational interview. In many situations, an email thank you note is sufficient in thanking someone, however, if someone has spent considerable time or effort in helping you, a hand-written thank you note can help you stand out and reflects very favorably on you as a candidate.
The thank you letter gives you a chance to thank the person, reiterate your discussion with them, discuss any follow-ups or points not covered. It also demonstrates your courtesy, written communication skills, and interest. The best time to write the thank you letter is immediately after the interview for best impact.
Immediately after each interview, take time to evaluate the experience. Doing an assessment of your interview performance allows you to improve on future interviews and your job search in general. Following an interview, often you can do a self-assessment, reviewing your responses to questions, your interaction with interviewers, and any non-verbal cues from the interaction. You may also want to get company or recruiter feedback (if they will provide it), peer feedback, or expert evaluation from working with a career coach. Honestly assess how you perform in interviews so that you can improve your interview performance.
Questions to consider during your evaluation: