Recruitment:

Tips

Tip 3 - Consider the interview from the interviewer's perspective

From experience of having been sending candidates to client interviews over the last 5 years, we have had a lot of feedback on interview performance and what works and what doesn't for interviewers. The following is a summary of the feedback received.

Interviewers have been impressed with candidates for the following reasons:

1. They have done their research on the company and understand the role
2. They are confident
3. They are enthusiastic
4. They back up their answers about experience, achievements and successes with concrete, relevant examples
5. They demonstrated that they can bring business to our company
6. They have skills and experience that we need in our team
7. They had exceeded expectations in their thorough preparation for the interview - this particularly applied to candidates who were given a presentation or case study to prepare in advance of the interview
8. They would be a good fit in our team / company
9. I would be confident that they would hit the ground running and need minimal training
10. I would be very happy putting them in front of our clients

Interviewers have been unimpressed with candidates for the following reasons:

1. They hadn't done their research on the company
2. They couldn't back up any of their answers with relevant or convincing examples
3. They were too nervous 
4. They were overly familiar
5. They couldn't give any examples of weaknesses
6. When they probed deaper candidates' answers fell apart - this particularly applied to questioning into targets that were supposedly met and surpassed but then when questioned the figures didn't add up
7. They seemed to want a different job or greater responsibility than this job could offer them
8. I didn't get the feeling they really wanted this job
9. They were late
10. They gave me the feeling they were interviewing me, not the other way around

 

Tip 2 - What not to say at an interview

• you didn't or don't get on with your boss
• you don't know anything about the company you are interviewing for
• you have company financial or client data you have downloaded from a previous employer

 

Tip 1 - Good interview preparation

Good interview preparation involves researching:

• the company website specifically the details on the company, its clients, and its press section
• the company's online presence, mentions in the media etc
• the company's social media profile and following
• the company's major competitors, market share and relation to the competition
• relevant trade publications for mention of the company and current industry trends and challenges
• the company's marketing material, financial statement where publically available