The number of online job interviews has rapidly increased over the past two years and only seems to be becoming ever more popular. In a recent Indeed poll, 82% of employers said they are using virtual interviews.
A virtual interview, from an employer’s perspective, is quicker, easier, and cheaper. The convenience of being interviewed at home also has similar advantages for the potential employee – no travel required, saving transport costs, and having to put time aside to travel. But it also has a downside, the hiring manager gets a glimpse at the applicants’ private lives.
This sneak peek is a peephole into an applicant’s personal life. Just like a face-to-face job interview, where the candidate’s clothes create an unconscious bias, the background of a virtual interviewee can influence the employer’s hiring decision-making process.
Background Matters
Many online platforms offer fake backgrounds; a beach, a beautiful countryside, or an office setting. These backgrounds either look fake, seem inappropriate for a job interview, or create a ghost effect – where the applicant’s body has a white shadow around it.
The number one rule for a virtual job interview is to use a real background.
3 Background choices
With a real background there are three obvious choices:
Clean space (often a white wall)
Single item (plant)
Full view (able to see the whole room)
It is common for interviewees to choose a clean space, a close-up camera that captures the applicant’s face with a blank background – a painted wall.
The camera position is highly important as discussed in our ‘online interview tips’ article. But a blank background can be boring. A white wall doesn’t say anything about the candidate’s personality. Some hiring managers may even feel the applicants are hiding something.
If a blank wall is chosen, use a coloured wall. Ideally blue. Blue conveys relaxation, calmness and as discussed in Very Well Mind, blue is associated with stability and reliability.
Your Background Shows Who You Are
The background an applicant chooses says a lot about them, often speaking to the employer’s subconscious decision-making process.
Having one or two items in the background makes the who image a little more interesting. Too many items make a ‘busy’ image that can be distracting.
The question is, what to choose to place in the background? A bookshelf filled with industry-related books can create the impression of authority or knowledge. But bookshelves can be overcrowded.
A few books on each shelf separated by an additional item can make a cleaner and more professional background.
Plants are ideal for an online interview background. Potted plants, especially in bloom, are pleasing to the eye. They look good in the background and help create a calming atmosphere.
Ensure the plant isn’t looking dried up, shriveled, or dead.
Whichever object is chosen should be to one side of the frame, not taking more space than 1/6th of the whole space.
Don’t Show Everything
A full room frame is bad for virtual interviews. One, in a full view, shot the applicant’s face is less clear which leads to less non-verbal communication, facial expressions.
In addition, a full view of the room will either show too much – which is distracting, can highlight mess which doesn’t create a good impression, or has lots of clear space, which is seen as boring.
Camera, Lights, Action
Finally, think about the essentials of creating a video. The virtual interview setup is similar to setting up a space for a video or film.
One of the most important elements of being on camera is the lighting. Some candidates will set up the camera with a large window behind, where the sun blinds the interview panel, hiding the applicant’s face.
Others will set up the video call in a dark room with little like creating dark shadows that create a horror film type of environment.
If a job seeker has the equipment, they can set up lighting behind the camera facing the interviewee which lights up their face. If not, a cheaper option if to have the camera in front of a large window, facing the job candidate, allowing the sun to naturally light up the room.
The idea is to find a well-lit clean room where the job hunter feels relaxed and calm. Ensure the room is clean and add one or two small items in the background, a flower or book.
Most job applicants fear the job interview. Some, who are highly anxious, will even go as far as turning down an interview offer due to excessive low confidence.
This fear is real. In fact, the fear of speaking in front of strangers or in public – also known as glossophobia, is the number one fear in the world.
The job interview can double the impact of glossophobia and many candidates put an ‘all or nothing’ association on the job they are applying for – “if I fail this job interview, I will always be stuck in a job I hate”.
An article on Psychology Today explained how confidence comes from experiencing achievement in a task. There more you are successful in a task the more confident (in that task) you will be.
Most people fear public speaking, job interviews, or talking to strangers because of a previous negative experience. The experience of failure increases anxiety and fear.
As an example, a job hunter will fear being invited to an interview for a job they truly desire because of a past memory: when they were asked to read out a text in front of their classmates in school or their first public speaking experience that ended in disaster.
The job interview should be easy. Interviewees are asked questions about something they know well – themselves. Job applicants’ confidence should be high. If an application has resulted in a job interview offer from one company, it should then result in a second interview from another organization. This means a failed job interview can be a learning point that will increase future job interview performance and the applicant’s interview identity.
These 7 ideas will help you improve your interview confidence and interview performance.
People buy what they like.
In the psychology of sales, the ‘liking principle’ is quoted as one of the key determinators in persuading customers to make a purchase.
It works through creating a likeability association. As an example, many brands will use celebrity endorsements to sell their products. Example: The audience likes George Clooney, so they will like a coffee brand if they see Clooney drinking that coffee brand in a TV advert – even though the audience knows Mr. Clooney was paid to star in the TV commercial.
Tupperware famously embedded likeability into the sales of its product. Rather than have their products in retail stores (they tried this approach and it failed) they created Tupperware parties. A host would invite friends and family round for a party and promote the Tupperware products. People purchased the products, not because they were good or they needed them, they made purchases because they liked the host – their friend or relative.
To improve your interview outcome, you can create likeability.
Likeability can start prior to the job interview. We know from recent data that 70% of employers check social media before a recruitment day. Create likeability through a second persuasion law – authority. If an employer views an applicant’s LinkedIn profile and the feed is filled with relevant industry insights, sector-related intelligence, and positive opinions the employer will create a halo effect that will have a big influence on the interview outcome.
Research has also found that commonality creates likeability. By disclosing information that highlights commonalities with the hiring manager a positive impression will be made. Commonality can include, well anything: same interest or hobbies, attending the same university, or living in the same town.
Which interview timeslot to choose
Timing makes all the difference. The interview timeslot allocation given to each interviewee makes seem unimportant. In fact, the timeslot can change the way an employer scores the applicant.
The timeslot is related to the hiring manager’s confidence in conducting the interview, the interview panel’s tiredness or alertness, and if you become the baseline applicant.
Research has found that the first interviewee becomes the baseline applicant – following interview scores for other candidates are influenced by the original scores given to the initial interviewee.
The final applicant of the day is often interviewed by a panel of hiring managers who are tired from a full day of recruitment affecting how they view the last interviewee. And post-dinner candidates are affected by biology – the process of digesting food affects a person’s decision-making processes.
It’s the second or third interview time slot around 10:30-11:00 that is the ideal interview timeslot.
What we see we feel
Whatever the mind focuses on the body feels. A person looking forward to a holiday, a networking event or a job interview will feel positive. Whereas someone who fears flying, is anxious about meeting strangers or someone who hates talking about themselves will have a negative response to a holiday, networking event, or job interview.
If what you imagine you feel, you can feel positive about a job interview by imagining yourself being successful in a forthcoming recruitment process.
To have a lasting impact, the process has to start with a relaxed state. Taking deep breaths or imagining being in a relaxed place; a countryside or peaceful beach helps to calm the mind and body. In this peaceful state imagine by relaxed during a job interview, then imagine being confident in a job interview, and final imagine being charismatic in a job interview. Make each visualisation vivid; see yourself confident, hear yourself being confident, and feel confident.
The repetition of the visualisation creates new neuro-pathways that create a positive association: job interview = calm and confident.
The hands have it
A little technique to help improve the first impressions is to manipulate the hands.
Anxiety kicks off the fight or flight response which sends oxygen from non-virtual parts of the body (hands and feet) to essential organs. The redirection of the blood cells leaves hands feeling cold and clammy.
At the initial introduction, where a welcome handshake is expected, the first impression is weak as a damp and cold handshake has a negative unconscious bias.
To be viewed as confident requires a warm and firm introductory handshake. When you arrive for the interview, either accept a cup of coffee (and wrap your hands around the warm cup) or visit the bathroom and hold your hands under the warm water for a few seconds, to warm the hands.
Turn off your phone the night before
One sleep study showed how using your phone three hours before you plan to go to bed can disrupt your sleep.
In addition, many people charge their phones overnight in the bedroom. If the phone is left on small LED lights will be on display. The brain is trained to stay more awake when there is light. Charging the phone in a different room, and having thick curtains to cut out any streetlights allows for a deeper sleep.
Deeper sleeping restores energy, increases blood supply, and improves cognitive ability. All this helps the brain to respond to tricky interview questions.
Create high status
How we view ourselves, as high or low status, is leaked through our language. The language used in a job interview is subconsciously filtered by the hiring manager creating a ‘gut feeling’.
As an example, a low status would use weak language such as ‘try’ – ‘I would try my best’ compared to a high-status person who uses assertive language ‘will’ – ‘I will achieve the task’.
One experiment found that writing a letter to yourself that assertively states skills, strengths and abilities increase self-worth, creating high status. The letter must use positive language, be true, and be assertive.
Get good at asking questions
The tip to improve a job interview outcome seems a little odd, it’s to be good at asking, not answering questions.
Obviously, in a job interview, the ability to confidently communicate competencies within a job interview answer is essential. But what makes a person stand out is their ability to ask the interview panel questions.
Questions create a conversation. Conversations improve likeability. Likeability, or rapport, increases job offers.
Also, the ability to ask questions relaxes the interviewee and helps them to clarify the required content of the interview answer.
At the interview start, the applicant can ask the interview panel questions about their day or the company.
During the questions, the candidate can ask for specifics to generic questions and can ask the employer’s opinion or an aspect of the interview question.
Towards the interview end, the employer will allow the interviewee to ask any questions to help clarify the company culture and job role.
Asking questions shows confidence, and confidence is a quality that all employers want staff to possess.
Questions, or their answers, also allow the applicant to decide if the employer is one they want to work for.
Times are changing in the world of work with an increase in remote working, workplace artificial intelligence, and the decline of low-skilled jobs. Changes are taking place, not just in the workplace itself, but in the recruitment of employees.
The pandemic, that led to the great resignation, and the increase of applicants per vacancy, which is at an all-time high, has created a demand for a new style of job interviews.
We are now in the midst of change, the evolution of the job interview.
The evolution of job interviews
In time gone by our ancestors, the hunters and gatherers, either hunted or gathered with evidence showing how these roles weren’t just determined by a person’s gender – women hunted and men gathered, and vice versa.
From a survey of over 170 ancient socialities, it was found that men, rather than women, were mainly employed as the tribe’s big game hunters.
By the time farming was commonplace, new jobs arrived. There were farm laborers, of course, who harvested the crops, but farming changed the hierarchy of job roles.
Farming created towns. People no longer needed to travel across great distances to hunt and gather, instead, tribes became villagers who sowed the seeds, domesticated wild animals, and yielded the harvest.
Towns created jobs. By the time ancient Egypt was well established, there was a need for skilled people. A bowl, axe, or pick had to be made by hand. Skilled laborers were required and could demand more payment for their skills (in ancient Egypt, payment was original made in beer and bread, and then copper coins were introduced).
As towns grew so did the demand for other types of jobs. Architects and engineers were needed to design buildings, and military leaders and soldiers were required to stop neighboring towns from attacking and stealing the crops. Doctors treated ill citizens and priests prayed that the crops wouldn’t fail.
These new job roles changed and created a hierarchy that led to a King overseeing the distribution of work and gathering of a tax, a percentage of the crops, to share among the non-food producing roles.
History of Job Interviews
The training of an employee on the job is known as an apprenticeship. Apprenticeships can be traced back to medieval times; a young person would be taught the skills of a trade at a young age. Often apprentices were family members, a son or daughter, this way a family became the experts in that trade.
Many family surnames are derived from their association with a trade:
Baxter = Baker
Bowyer = Made bows for archers
Fuller = Cloth worker
Hooper = Maker of hoops for beer barrows
Reeve = Churchwarden
Spencer = Despender of medicine
Thacker = Thatcher
Wainwright = Wagon repairer
Walker = Cloth worker
Families, especially those without children or with a growing business would take on other people’s sons and daughters as apprentices, creating job openings that people could apply for.
The industrial revolution, in the 1900s, changed the face of the world of work, for the first time hundreds and thousands of people worked together in one building or factory.
The introduction of the railways allowed skilled workers to search for job positions in other places than the area or village where they grew up.
The movement of labor and the demand for workers changed recruitment forever. 1917 saw the Woodworth data sheet – a personality test to screen WW1 recruits for potential shellshock.
By 1921 Thomas Edison had written a test, the first job interview, to evaluate the knowledge of job candidates. One test was Edison’s famous ‘soup test‘ Edison would give applicants a bowl of soup to eat while he observed if the candidate would add extra seasoning before tasting the soup.
Edison rejected pre-seasoning applicants because he didn’t want to recruit staff who relied on assumptions and was looking to hire employees who were more curious and would ask questions.
Current Job Interview Processes
Today most employers use a variation of the structured job interview. A structured job interview asks a set number of questions to each applicant and compares their answer to skills, qualities, and duties required for the advertised position.
In addition to the standard formal job interview, employers will also request applicants to attend on average 4 additional interview rounds (for high-skilled positions) which can include:
Psychometric testing – which has its findings in Woodsworth datasheet
Skill test – a practical test to evidence skill
Technical interview – a knowledge-based test/interview
Values interview – to find an applicant that will fit within the culture of the organisation
Traditionally, all job interviews were held face-to-face, with the exception of a telephone screening interview.
Just as the industrial revolution, with its big factory employers that required high numbers of staff and trains that could move skilled workers around the country, changed the face of employment in the 1900s, new technology is changing today’s world of work.
Artificial intelligence will soon be embedded in all job sectors
Remote working, allowing teams to be made up of staff from around the globe, is here to stay
Online applications create the highest number of applicants per vacancy that has ever been recorded
The decline in low-skilled jobs and growth in high-skilled job roles such as STEM
Virtual reality being used in recruitment
The Future of Recruitment and Job Interviews
2 million people apply for a job at Google each year.
The high number of applicants created a problem in the recruitment sector. Humans simply couldn’t handle the volume of applications.
The answer was to introduce artificial intelligence into the recruitment cycle. Within a short period of time, HR artificial intelligence is able to design a job advert, schedule interview dates, and deliver a live online job interview with a candidate before deciding which applicant is to be offered the position.
As with all technology, some original bugs were found. In 2018 Amazon ditched its application reviewing programme after it found that the system discriminated against women.
With 9 out of 10 companies now using some type of HR artificial intelligence in their recruitment processes, AI in HR is here to stay.
The future could see large numbers of staff, being recruited from around the globe, without any applicant having any face time with a human recruiter.
The interview process is changing
Human interviews may happen, but just not as you know it.
Is the face-to-face interview dead? Currently not. With two out of three employers favoring the face-to-face interview, there is still some way to go until all recruitment become automated.
Face-to-face interviews might not be face-to-face. The pandemic saw an increase of 67% of employers using virtual interviews with half of the employers saying they will keep on using the online interview process.
45% of employers agree that the virtual interview process is quicker and cheaper than conducting a traditional in-office recruitment process.
Virtual Reality Job Interviews
The evolution of hiring may see the traditional ‘ask and answer questions’ interview disappear.
The increase in virtual reality in the workplace will also see an increase in VR in recruitment.
The future of the workplace will be a mix of virtual reality, home working, and the physical workplace itself.
CNBC reported that: “A PwC report last year predicted that nearly 23.5 million jobs worldwide would be using AR and VR by 2030 for training, work meetings or to provide better customer service”
Virtual reality is already being used in recruiting. The British army uses VR headsets to show applicants what driving a tank would look like, KFC uses a VR “escape room” for their chefs, and the head of talent acquisition at Deutsche Bahn talked about the use of VR in recruitment: “within a matter of seconds can experience a job in a very real-life atmosphere” in CNN article.
Show and Tell
The virtual reality job interview will be about showing, not telling.
Current interview processes ask competency-based questions. The barrier here is that even a good answer doesn’t show the applicant’s decision-making processes, problem-solving skills, and how they work under pressure. It doesn’t take into consideration the applicant’s personality and how their temperaments would affect the wider team.
Virtual reality and augmented reality job interviews can put the candidate in a real workplace situation, working with (virtual) team members, and their many personalities, to complete job-related tasks. A surgeon, as an example, may have to perform an augmented reality surgery on a virtual patient creating the feeling of ‘real’ pressure.
A project manager might be asked to resolve a dispute between stakeholders, with the VR and AR characters re-acting to the applicant’s tonality, volume, assertiveness, and logic.
Virtual reality job interviews will be designed to stop deceitful job applicants from gaining job offers and to support employers to higher high-performing teams.
Chris Delaney
Chris Delaney is one of the leading job interview coaches in the country, helping career professionals to successfully pass job interviews. Delaney is the author of several job interview reference books including ‘what is your interview identity’
A recent poll of recruiters found that the average number of job interviews required to secure a job offer is three.
The magic number, three, does have a practical reality to it. Let’s say that a job applicant has decided to take a career sidestep or a promotion. This candidate has a vast array of transferable skills, lots of relevant qualifications, and some experience, but not a like-for-like experience as the applicant is applying for a new role, rather then the same position within a new organisation.
After an average of 4-5 hrs of interview prep, the nervous career professional attends their first interview that results in a ‘thank you, but no thank you’. A failed first interview for a new role is common, graduates also fall into this same pitfall, as do applicants searching for a big job promotion.
The reason behind the first failed interview is a lack of job understanding. When an experienced employee applies for a similar role in a new business, even if the interview is their first interview, the unexpected questions aren’t that unexpected.
The employer, following a structured job interview process, ask questions and score answers against a list of job criteria that are needed to complete business-as-usual tasks. The experienced applicant, even if they haven’t undertaken a lengthy period of interview preparation, can easily recognise the context of the interview question and present evidence that states they have the required experience.
A career professional wanting to climb the career ladder is applying for a new position. The first interview comes with a surprise, a list of unpredicted job interview questions and/or tests, presentations, and tasks.
Some questions asked may sound simple, and a good answer can be created in the moment by the interviewee, but again, without industry experience and a lack of context a low score is given for an interview question the applicant thought they answered well.
A confident applicant states they have the required skills, and sells themselves, but when an expert interviewer requests specifics to measure competence against the job criteria, the lack of experience shines through creating a deceitful interview identity.
Post job interview reflection is the key to success
Experience creates competence. The more job interviews a career professional attends the more skilled they become at answering tricky interview questions.
Creating a list of the interview questions asked during the first interview allows the skilled applicant to use industry research to help craft a higher-scoring interview answer, using examples that highlight how they meet the job criteria.
This is true when job interview technology is introduced. 98% of the top fortune 500 companies use recruitment automated software. Many shifting interview rounds are now conducted by AVIs – Asynchronous Video Interviews. The computer algorithms search for key terms that are then cross-referenced against the job criteria.
What is important, then, is to possess the ability to offer examples and interview answers that state enough of the essential skills, qualities, and experiences, to ensure a high-scoring answer.
Generally speaking, high-scoring answers come in one of three ways:
Being highly confident as this increases the number of words per answer
Having excessive experience that results in the nature spillage of job criteria
Attending a high number of job interviews relevant to the role to help craft answers that score well
Each job interview process, on average, is three rounds of interviews. Three recruitment rounds x three job interviews is a total of nine interviews. Each interview stage tends to last for sixty minutes, equalling a total of nine hours of interviewing.
Possessing at least nine hours of real interviews, plus a high number of interview preparation hours helps a career professional to become skilled at job interviewing.
Two is better than one
One interview alone isn’t enough.
The reflection after one single job interview isn’t enough for a candidate to become a first-choice applicant.
A list of remembered interview questions can be drawn up and new answers written in preparation for a second interview, which in itself increases the confidence of the interviewee. Once at the second interview, with a second employer, the now confident applicant can have the rug pulled from beneath their feet when 80% of the questions asked aren’t on their recently drawn-up Q&A list created after the first interview.
Each employer, even when recruiting for the same position, in the same sector, may have their own unique job criteria and therefore their own list of unique interview questions.
Over time, the new entry into a sector will find commonly asked job interview questions, which may be phrased differently, but underneath are designed to uncover the same skills, qualities, and experiences.
This is why more is better for applicants who lack experience (graduates, promotions, and entry into a new sector) The more interviews that a job seeker attends helps to improve the interview answers (and the prediction of the interview questions) for the next job interview.
Familiarity breeds confidence
It is the familiarity of the recruitment process that breeds confidence. Experienced candidates applying for the same position in a new business are more inclined to relax during the interview when they become aware that the tricky interview questions are really questions about their business-as-usual tasks.
From a job interview perspective, the lack of sector experience can, sometimes, be overturned, by being an experienced interviewee.
This is why at least three job interviews are needed to gain a job offer:
Job interview 1 – create a baseline of interview questions vs good/poor interview answers
Job interview 2 – recognise common interview questions/sector-related themes/job criteria to help shape interview answers
Job interview 3 – deliver high-scoring interview answers that increase the chance of an interview offer.
What is your interview identity?
Job offers are given to the candidate that the interview panel believes will be the best performing employee.
The content of the interview answers; the sector-related jargon used, relatable examples, industry knowhow, stating the job criteria including the required skills, qualities, and experiences vs the confident communication of competencies (verbal and non-verbal) create the candidate’s interview identity.
After each job interview the interviewee, to develop their interview skills must reflect on how they were perceived by the hiring manager – their interview identity. And make changes to improve how they are viewed in terms of predictable performance once employed.
Get Ready to Pass Your Next Job Interview
Chris Delaney
Chris Delaney is one of the leading job interview coaches in the country, helping career professionals to successfully pass job interviews. Delaney is the author of several job interview reference books including ‘what is your interview identity’
The structured job interview is a standardised way of interviewing a number of candite’s to reduce unconscious bias and to create a fair hiring process.
This article will help job applicants to gain higher interview scores by not falling into the subconscious trap of the structured job interview.
Structured job interview and time problems
Even though research shows how a structured job interview is currently the best way to predict job performance, the asking of pre-written questions ‘boxes’ in an applicant’s answer.
Behavioral and situational interview questions are designed to be specific to allow the interviewee to give a relevant example/answer. The specific direction given to the applicant traps the candidate into a box, where they can’t discuss other skills and experiences, they feel would add value to the role.
It is common for a career professional, post a job interview, to reflect on their answer and to feel annoyed because they didn’t mention a key skill or experience, they knew would have highlighted their unique selling point.
In an informal job interview, the hiring manager will allow the applicant to talk about what they feel is important. The openness of the informal interview can be detrimental to the outcome of the interview as the interviewee, without conscious awareness, can discuss irrelevant information.
The duration of the interview creates a second barrier. The hiring manager, asking on average 8 job interview questions over a 45-minute period, feels pressured to ask a question, record the candidates’ answers, before asking the next question on the pre-written list. This is true even when the hiring manager requires additional information – the employer knows the applicant hasn’t disclosed all of their skills, but on the other hand, the next interview should start in 10 minutes’ time.
The pressure comes from the hiring manager knowing that each additional question and answer can possibly overshoot the allocated time slot for each interview having a knock-on delay. This ‘time’ problem comes from many employers having a recruitment day of back-to-back interviews. A solution to this problem would be a one-interview per day recruitment process.
Trained job interviewers versus untrained hiring managers
How can a job applicant overcome the rigorous job interview questions and time pressure created within a structured job interview?
First, it is important to understand that not all job interviewers are the same. A key difference is between being interviewed by a trained or untrained interviewer. Some organisations insist on a candidate being interviewed by a trained interviewer, often an HR staff member or specialist recruiter.
A trained interviewer will have spent time selecting which essential job criteria the interview questions should relate to, and how the interview question should be worded (situational behavioral or strength-based interview question).
Trained interviewers are often more confident in the interview environment than a non-trained hiring manager. Confidence increases the number of follow-up questions asked during the recruitment process.
A non-trained interviewer, often the future employee’s line manager, is likely to use commonly asked job interview questions, rather than taking the time to ask competency-based questions.
Commonly asked questions are more generic:
“What are your strengths?”
“What can you bring to the team?”
“Where do you see yourself in 5 years’ time?”
Competency-based questions are more specific, to drill down to a specific skill or experience:
“How would you deal with a (problem/situation)?”
“Give an example of when you (completed job duty)”
“What is your understanding of (industry knowledge)?”
Follow-up questions can be asked by both trained and none-trained recruiters, but it is more likely that a confident and experienced trained hiring manager will ask for more detailed information, allowing the interviewee to state job-relevant information, and therefore score higher on the interview scorecard.
“What specifically did you do?”
“Why did you choose that option over another?”
“What was the long-term outcome?”
It is the same experienced hiring manager who will ask follow-up questions when a job applicant unwittingly discusses a skill within the wrong context.
“Do you have an example within a (job-related context) environment?”
“Can you tell me about a team task when you took the lead rather than being part of the team?”
“Have you worked on larger scale projects?”
Duration of an interview
High-skilled positions are often gained through being successful in a multi-stage job interview process. The theory is that being asked similar questions, relating to the job criteria, over 3-4 job interviews, ensures that the employer makes a hire with a realistic vision of the new employee’s potential job performance.
In a single interview, the job applicant might be viewed as skilled, but in reality, a single interview isn’t enough to confirm the candidate’s level of competencies for medium to high-skilled positions.
For most low-skilled job roles, employers will only have a single interview as ‘potential’ rather than experience, is a key decision in the hiring process.
The duration of the job interview doesn’t create pressure on the interviewee. The job applicant can give a long or short, detailed or vague, interview answer. In fact, most interviewees are unaware of the time during the job interview itself.
Research shows how the higher number of words per answer often relates to the number of job offers. This is because, on average, the more detailed the answer, the more likely it is that the answer references the criteria on the interview scorecard.
From the career professionals’ perspective, the delivery of a job-relevant detailed interview answer is a more important focus than the duration of their interview answer.
Overcoming the generic question problem
The real problem for a job applicant is knowing what detail to reference to the job interview answer, especially when asked a vague question.
First-choice applicants – career professionals who do exceptionally well in a job interview, have the confidence to ask for additional details before answering the question.
As an example, when asked: “Tell me about a time you worked successfully within a team?” The self-assured job candidate will clarify what experience the employer is attempting to uncover: “Would you like an example of when a led a team or when I was a team member?”
Asking for specific information ensures that the right example is used for each individual job interview question.
Importantly, each answer needs to reference the job criteria for each specific question. Employers use an interview scorecard that has the interview question and a list of criteria that are required to gain a high score. If the job criteria aren’t referenced during the interview answer, the hiring manager will have no choice but to allocate a lower score.
Interview preparation, prior to the job interview, must consist of identifying the job criteria, predicting job interview questions, and crafting high-scoring interview answers.
In the interview itself, when asked a competency-based interview question, it is important to quickly reflect on what criteria the hiring manager is wanting to hear. This self-reflection can help to identify which one of the prepared interview answers to use.
Even when a prepared interview answer has been chosen, the job applicant can cover all bets by giving a specifically detailed answer.
The delivery of a detailed answer is important. If an employer refuses to ask follow-up questions, to gain a better understanding of the candidate’s future job performance, the applicant is scored on the initiative, often limited interview answers.
It is true that a weak interviewer often makes the wrong hiring decision. Many organisations with a high turnover of staff don’t interview correctly. But the same poor interview technique can stop skilled employees gaining job offers.
Specific job interview answers
Essentially, a detailed job interview answer is an example (behavioral job interview answer) or future scenario (situational job interview answer) that is embedded with the answers to the hiring manager’s potential follow-up questions:
“What specifically did you do?”
“Why did you choose that option over another?”
“What was the long-term outcome?”
The specific and detailed answer does have a longer duration, requiring the interviewee to mindful of speech speed, pauses, tonality, and to use emotional intelligence to ensure the interview panel is still engaged and listening.
For a behavioral interview question, the most famous structure to answer the question is STAR:
Situation
Task
Action
Result
When the additional detail has been embedded for the structure of the interview answer is increased:
Situation
Long-term outcome if the situation wasn’t resolved
Options to overcome barriers, including pro’s and con’s of options
Reason for choosing options
Task
Role within the task
Risk assessments
Stakeholder engagement
Action – team actions vs own actions
Additional/unforeseen problems and how these were overcome
Highlighting personal motivation
Result – short vs long term
As each interview question varies, the detailed structure can be amended as required. What is important to remember is that not all hiring managers will ask for a specific criterion when the job interview question is stated.
Nervous or less experienced recruiters ask fewer follow-up questions. A structured job interview cross-references answer against the interview scorecard (job criteria).
Many failed job interviews come down to detailed answers being given that don’t reference enough job-related competency.
A hiring manager’s key objective is to determine the job performance of each job applicant. The interview, therefore, is a short window where candidates must make a strong impression that showcases suitability through the confident communication of competencies.
In the main, career professionals answer interview questions by stating knowledge, experiences, and skillsets – this includes skills, strengths, and qualities, allowing the interview panel to analyse each answer against the job criteria – a logical decision-making process.
Unknown to many job seekers, is the subconscious emotional decision-making process that influences the logical part of the brain – the gut reaction. The emotional brain – the amygdala, reacts much quicker than the logical thinking part of the brain- the frontal lobe.
This means that communication, verbal and non-verbal, produced by the interviewee initially triggers the emotional reaction of the interviewer – a generalisation ‘I like this applicant’ or ‘I dislike this candidate’ prior the interviewers logical decision-making process – a analytical choice ‘the applicant meets 5 out of 6 job criteria’s’ or ‘the candidate only has experience in only 2 out of 6 job criteria’s’.
A First Impression isn’t a Logical Process
Most employers adopt the structured job interview process as a means to fairly determine the job performance of each applicant, as research shows how a behavioral or situational interview is most likely to create a hiring decision based on the requirements to meet the job criteria.
The seven-second rule – ‘first impressions are made within 7 seconds of meeting an interviewee’ is incorrect, in fact, it only takes a tenth of a second. An article in Psychological Science explains: ‘A series of experiments by Princeton psychologists Janine Willis and Alexander Todorov reveal that all it takes is a tenth of a second to form an impression of a stranger from their face, and that longer exposures don’t significantly alter those impressions (although they might boost your confidence in your judgments)’.
Instant impressions can be wrong. They are filled with unconscious biases and, initially, have no evidence to support the belief – ‘I can see this person being a good fit’ or ‘I don’t know what it is but I can’t see them as part of the team’.
Importantly, the first impression influences the logical mind. Imagine you wanted to get a bite to eat. As you are walking down a high street looking for a restaurant you see two establishments side by side. As you quickly scan your head your subconscious takes in a large amount of information: the restaurant name. The colour and font of the restaurant’s sign. How one has tables outside and another doesn’t. If one restaurant looks cleaner than the other. The number of people in each restaurant. The style of dress of the waiters.
Instantly you are drawn to one of the restaurants – ‘this place looks nice’. Once a decision is made – ‘I like this restaurant’ or ‘this candidate seems suitable for the role’ the decision-maker will remember their choices as better or more suitable than they were. This is due to choice-supportive bias. Choice-support bias is the tendency to remember a decision as better than it actually was, by attributing positive features to the first choice, and negative features to the choice not taken.
In the job interview, this would sound like: ‘The (first choice) has X experience which would be suitable for (task). The (second choice) didn’t mention X in the interview which is an important part of the job role’.
What Triggers a Strong or Weak First Impression?
As seen with the ‘which restaurant to dine at’ decision, the subconscious computes a large amount of data which is filtered through the decision makers filters (experiences, beliefs, values, emotional state). A person’s filters makes the decision making process personal, another person choosing a restaurant may have chosen the second restaurant due to their personal filters. Or one interviewer may preference one applicant, and a second interviewer a second candidate.
What is interesting is that external factors can influence a person’s choice. Social proof, as an example – one restaurant being filled with customers and the second restaurant being empty can influence the choice – ‘if everyone is eating in the first restaurant is must be good’. In a job interview, a weaker interviewer may be influenced by a high-status interview panel members opinion.
In an experiment by Janine Willis and Alexander Todorov on first impressions, a group of participants were shown photographs of faces for 1/10th of a second, half a second, and a full second, and asked to judge each person’s IE ‘is this person competent?’ The results were compared with a second group who completed the same experiment but without a time constraints. The experiment found that no matter the duration of the decision-making process, decisions that were made in 1/10th of a second were highly correlated with judgments made without time constraints
An employer’s first impressions can be influenced by the interviewee. Much research shows how a number of elements can help improve the first impression during a job interview. Negative impressions are often caused by anxiety. Feeling nervous affects non-verbal communication: facial expressions, gestures, and postures, and verbal communication: projection, tonality, and word choice.
Emotional Displays Influence Decision Making
A blank expression doesn’t create trust. A high number of interviewees will adopt a neutral facial expression during a job interview. Some, those with higher levels of anxiety, may subconsciously frown or have a look of shock – mouth wide open.
Both a blank expression, the look of shock, or even those who show contempt or anger will create distrust with the hiring manager. Even if the subconscious facial expressions are created due to the body’s response to anxiety, the employer will react from the initial negative impression. On the other hand, smiling and laughter, have been shown to promote affiliative tendencies in observers (Campellone and Kring 2012). Smiling improves trust, rapport and creates and more personal impression
It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it
The advice given for job interview preparation is to prepare high-scoring interview answers. High-scoring interview answers are examples and data/facts that meet the job criteria on the interview scorecard.
Simply stating information isn’t enough. From a logical perspective, stating the required information should result in a job offer. As discussed previously, decisions are made and influenced by the emotional mind. Using varied pace, tonality and projection can improve the delivery of each job interview answer.
Anxious people will have a tendency to speak at a fast pace. The average rate of speech ranges from around one hundred forty to one hundred seventy words per minute. Speeding up or slowing down the pace of speech can help to reiterate a point. Speaking fast shows excitement and pausing before an important point helps an audience to know that they must listen. Speaking with emotion also conveys the desired message as the chosen words and voice match.
Speaking too slowly in a monotone voice can be detrimental to the success of an interview as a slow monotone voice can be hypnotic sending the interviewer to sleep, or at best into a daydream state where they don’t listen to the point being attempted to be made.
The Power of Physical Appearance
Science Daily shared an article that explained the mind – body cycle. Sitting up straight while writing why you are suitable for a job increases self-esteem, the participants were more likely to believe the statement compared to participants writing the same message while ‘slumped’ in their chair.
Much research shows that by standing/sitting in a confident posture increase confidence. Confident interviewees will have stronger eye contact, a straight back and head held high, chest out, and walk with a sway.
Anxious applicants look down, fidget, slump in the chair, cross their legs when giving an interview presentation and avoid eye contact.
By purposely adopting a posture, a job candidate can trick the brain into believing they are more confident. Feeling confident then improves posture creating a mind-body cycle.
Improve Your Job Interview Performance
To improve your job interview identity stop showing signs of weaknesses. The weak leaks come from negative facial expressions, monotone, and fast-paced voice, and slumped posture. Instead, smile and relax. Use emotions in your voice and pause when speaking. Walk tall with your head held high and increase eye contact. You are what you feel, feel more confident, become more confident.
As with any activity that is a constant, the more a person is skilled at the activity the more confidence they have when completing the task(s). The more confident a person is when performing an activity, the more skilled they will become at the task(s).
Job seekers in 2022 will attend more job interviews than their parents. This is due to a culture change from having a ‘job for life’ to a ‘job hopping’ mindset. Job hopping is seen as the quickest way to increase a salary and to gain promotion.
On average a career professional will have three separate careers in their career life-cycle and change roles once every three to five years. For each successful job offer and acceptation, a job seeker will attend around 6 job interviews with 6 separate organisations.
For high skilled positions the average recruitment process has 4 interview stages, including one with an AVI – asynchronous video interview.
This brings the total number of job interviews per person to 24 once every 3-5 years. Compare this to a career professional 50 years ago, who may have started out as an apprentice or graduate and worked their way up the career ladder internally, gaining a promotion once every 10 years – one job interview every 10 years, around 6 interviews in their lifetime.
The Recruitment Process is Changing
Previously an interview was a reactive process to requiring a new staff member due to, as an example, an increase in business or the replacement of a staff member. An old article in the Harvard Business Review on job interview strategies explained: ‘All too often, the inexperienced interviewer launches into a discussion only to find midway through that his preparation is incomplete’.
Recruitment processes have moved on and improved. It is well documented that the structured job interview is the best determinator of an applicant’s productivity. It is the asking of behavioral or situational job interview questions and their cross-referencing of answers against a logical scoring system that helps to create a hire from an analytical process rather than an emotional choice.
The distinction between analytical and emotional decision machining is an important one. Previously, in unstructured recruitment process ‘likeability’ was a key factor over ‘suitability’ for meeting the job criteria. Emotional hiring is filled with prejudices.
Currently, the hiring process is changing to deal with the larger number of applicants per position.
The average number of job seekers applying for an advertised vacancy is 250. For global and highly recognized organizations; Meta, Google, BMW, and Amazon, the number of applicants per position can be up to 25000.
Employers know that making the recruitment process easy and quick keeps the attention of 1st-choice applicants (candidates that often get offered job roles due to their experience/knowledge and confidence in a job interview – their interview identity)
An easy process for a well-known brand increases the applications to an extent that no human can process the volume of resumes and CVs that is received. This increased workload for reviewing applications has been passed to AI bots.
Application Tracking Systems (ATS) are used, and increasingly being adopted by a high number of businesses, to review the initial application – a resume, CV, and online application form. The AI bot scans the documents looking for industry-relevant keywords and experiences to check the suitability of each applicant.
The shifting stage of applications used to be completed by HR professionals but is now a fully automated process.
In four-stage recruitment process, the second stage – an online video is also fully automated using an AVI. The AI bot asked questions which are answered within a set time frame and again reviewed via the AI bot’s algorithm.
It is only when the hiring manager reduces the 25000 applications down to 6-8 do humans get involved.
Get Interview Ready
Today’s job seeker must possess job interview skills.
The high volume of potential job interviews across their career creates an urgency to upskill for a job interview. The three key areas of growth must be:
The identification of the job criteria and potential job interview questions
The ability to self-promote when stating interview examples and the use a strength-based language
The ability to confidently communicate to ensure positive messages are being received by the hiring manager
In addition, the modern job seeker must be comfortable when being interviewed by an AI bot – the AVI asynchronous video interview system. This includes being confident talking on camera within a set time period while stating enough ‘keywords’ to be granted an offer to attend a ‘human’ interview.
The ability to recall prepared high-scoring interview answers that give examples and data that meet the job criteria during the various interview stages is key to an increase in job offers. Public speaking, therefore, is an essential skill. Professional speakers have learned the skill of crafting a speech (or interview answer) that is engaging, interesting, and relevant to the audience (interview panel).
‘Winging it’ is no longer an option. Having a lucky day may have previously been enough to secure a job offer, but with the introduction of multiple interview rounds it is only a skilled interviewee, one with a positive interview identity, that can beat the competition round after interview round.
Confidence has always been an important part of the recruitment process. Now more than ever, confidence is the golden key to unlocking a new job offer. Confident candidates are more likely to give state the job criteria, give longer answers, use pauses rather than filler words, and to build rapport with the hiring manager.
For very few confidence seems like a natural skill. For most having confidence when being the centre of attention in a job interview, confidence comes from many hours of job interview preparation and practice:
Breaking down the job advert into potential interview questions
Writing, editing, and rewriting interview answers
Mock interviews and practice out loud
Public speaking practice, including storytelling
Researching the interview team to create familiarity – as this reduces anxiety
Preparing for common or cure ball interview questions
Gaining beliefs in ones own ability and experience
Imposture syndrome is the biggest barrier to job interview success. The data proves that a lack of job interview self-esteem is unfounded as any career professional who has been offered a job interview is in fact 97% better than the competition.
Much research has highlighted that the average number of applications per vacancy is around 250 (vastly higher for global organisations such as Microsoft or Google) HR statistics tell us how only 6-8 of the 250 applicants are offered a job interview.
The data speaks for itself. The percentage of 6-8 interviewees out of 250 applicants is around 3% – That means a candidate who has received an interview offer is in the top 3 percent of most ‘suitable’ from the employer’s perspective.
And it’s the employers perceptive that counts.
How an Employers Views a Perspective Candidate
How an employer views a candidate, either via their application or during the job interview, increases the likelihood of that applicant being offered the job role, or not.
The candidates ‘interview identity’ which is formed by the job seekers level of knowledge/experience vs their level of confidence creates 1 of 16 interview identities with only a small number of the ‘identities’ being view as suitable enough to be offered the advertised vacancy.
There hasn’t been a better time to gain a salary increase, by finding a new job opportunity, then now. Employers from across job sectors are looking at creative way to encourage applicants to accept their job roles from offering a blended office/home working option to wage increases.
The fear of career change
With an increase in job opportunities, a potentially high salary with a new employer and an awareness of growth sectors that offer a more secure career, why aren’t career professionals applying for new vacancies?
Even career professionals who hate their job role, those who are stressed out due to workload, or graduates that picked the wrong job sector to work in, don’t make a career change.
The reason is simple. Humans fear change.
In the world of work many career professionals see a career change as a backwards step where they would have to start of the bottom rung of the career ladder. This limiting belief is inaccurate as employers look for a diverse workforce who can bring a new perspective gain from experience in a different industry.
In fact, many employers seek to gain talented team members without direct experience in the sector. An example of this would be a manager – skilled at leadership, staff recruitment, finance projections. Managerial skills are transferable into many job sectors.
Humans fear failure
At a basic level humans have in built desire to ‘belong’. Humans are pack animals. To survive in a pack individuals need to be accepted by others. To be rejected is to die. The same emotional pull happens in all social situations. Many humans avoid asking someone on a date as they don’t want to chance being rejected. People fear public speaking as they fear being ‘laughed’ at. And career professionals hate job interviews because they might be told they ‘are not good enough’.
It is easier to stay with the devil you know than to make a change, even is the current situation is a toxic workplace that is making you ill.
It is time to make a change
A confident career professional with over 10 years industry experience and/or a degree level qualification or above should easily gain a number of job interviews – creating the 3% rule.
This means the competition is now only 6 other applicants. Six people, rather than 250 candidates, doesn’t seem so overwhelming.
During the 45 minutes job interview the average employer will ask 6 job interview questions – often behavioural interview questions (question based on past experiences – “give me an example of doing A”)
The initial question commonly asked is: “tell me about yourself” An easy question to ask, and the final question is “Do you have any questions for us?”
Knowing the structure of the job interview reduces the candidate’s anxiety levels. Lower levels of anxiety increase performance confidence, allowing an interviewee to produce more detailed job interview examples relevant to the job interview question.
Employers will hint towards the job interview questions by sharing the essential criteria of the job role. It is the main duties or essential criteria that is referenced in the job interview questions. This insight can help a job seeker prepare high-scoring interview answers and examples prior to the job interview.
Fear creates procrastination. As a high number of people fear the job interview it is unlikely that each candidate will complete the essential preparation before a recruitment process. If for example only 50% of candidates fully prepare, including yourself, that is only 2 other applicants who are confident enough to give good job interview answers.
From 250 initial applicants, only 3 of the 6 interviewees will be interview ready. This means you only need to give higher scoring answers then the two other prepared people.
A job interview is one of most stressful situations you can put yourself in.
This is because, most people, fear being the center of attention.
It is the fear of being rejected by the hiring manager that creates stress and anxiety. Job interview stress changes the candidate’s behavior which in turn creates a weak interview identity. Answers are weak, lacking detail and filled with an excessive number of filler words and weak language.
This article will explain how to handle job interview stress to create a strong interview identity that results in job offers.
Is a job interview a stressful situation?
Stress happens:
When we experience something new
When something unexpected happens
When we feel we have little control over something
All three stress activators can happen during a job interview. On the other hand, a well prepared career professional will feel confident if they:
Carry mock interviews and/or attend public speaking training – this reduces the ‘something new’ fear
Understanding the job interview process – this helps overcome the ‘unexpected’ fear
Humans are confident in familiar situations. Routine, processes, the norm, are all things that reduce stress. This is why some career professionals who are unhappy at work don’t search for a new job. The fear or something new outweighs the fear of the staying in an unhappy job role.
Do Employers Make the Job Interview Stressful on Purpose?
The myth that all job interviews are difficult, with employers asking awkward curveball questions designed to increase pressure on the applicant is just that – a myth.
Employers may asked: ‘how do you handle stress?’ for stressful positions, or ask problem solving riddles in engineering, IT or mathematical roles but for most advertised vacancies each job interview question will be based on the essential criteria for the job role.
In fact, employers will go out of there way to make the interview an ‘enjoyable’ or at least informative. Think about it, a recruitment manager is looking to hire the best person for the role.
All employers know that job seekers will be attending several job interviews over a short period of time, often with a rival company. It is in the employers interest to hire the best applicant.
If the employer did created an unnecessary pressurized job interview environment it is quiet likely that the 1st choice candidate will take the job offer with another, more friendlier’ employer.
Most employers use a ‘structured job interview’ process, by familiarizing yourself with this process will help you feel more in control and less stressed.
Reduce Job Interview Stress
Some well known basic stress reducers include:
Drink water
Eat healthy
Regular exercise
Learn to say ‘no’ as this increases assertiveness
List your skills and talents as positive reflection increases confidence
Use deep breathing or mindfulness to feel more calm and in control
Use a blackout curtains and a soundless room (no mobile phones, etc) to get a good nights sleep
Negative self-talk
Remove negative self-talk.
‘I’m not good enough’
‘Others are better skilled then I am?
‘I don’t have the relevant experience’
What you focus on you feel.
If you focus on negative statements you will feel negative. Instead focus on your strengths your skills, qualities and what you have to offer the new employer – your unique selling point.
Make a list of your key skill set
Reflect and record key experiences where your ideas, hard work or leadership resulted in a positive outcome
Re-read past appraisals and focus on what a previous manager liked about you
Perception
Perception creates or reduces the power balance.
Viewing the job interview as a life or death situation increases the body’s flight or fight response.
Breakdown what a job interview is. At the bottom level, the interview is you talking about you. And you are the expert on you!
View the interview as a meeting where you are teaching other people about what you have learnt; your knowledge, your experiences, and the techniques you have picked up to get a job done.
Reframing a job interview changes the perceived power balance. Being stress makes you feel you have no power, no influence. Feeling confident about talking about you makes you feel powerful, invincible.
Interview Questions and Answers
Repetition is the key to mastering a skill and practice creates perfection.
The more job interviews you attend (or mock interviews) the more confident you will be as an interveiwee.
This is true with any task. To be a good tennis player, play more tennis. Master chefing by cooking on a regular basis. Learn to speak a second language practice, make mistakes, and learn.
Technical interview to check a candidates competencies – this may include practical tests
Group interview and/or values interview to review suitability/company culture fit
Final interview for shortlisted candidates
A large number of career professionals on platforms such as LinkedIn express their concern over the high number of interview rounds – or ‘hoops’ they are made to jump through to secure a job offer.
So, why do employers have multiple interview rounds?
From the employers perspective, when paying a high salary for a highly skilled role, the hiring manager needs to ensure they recruit the right person. Often a single interview gives an indication of a persons suitability but doesn’t always highlights the individuals temperament, skills, knowledge, work-ethic, and values.
For low to medium skilled roles, most employers will have one or two interview rounds. For leadership positions, high-skilled roles, technical jobs the recruiters must hire someone who can add value, this requires a more in-depth recruitment process.
What does a final job interview mean?
Research shows how the top three candidates in a job interview will only have one or two points between them – the structured job interview is a close run thing.
Having such a close match can result in the interview panel being influenced by an unconscious bias. Rather then being forced into a decision, the recruitment team, often led by a human resources hiring manager, will invite the top performing interviewees to a final interview.
The final interview means that all the candidates are employable, they all meet the essential criteria and can add value to the team.
Only three to five applicants are offered a final interview round. This shortlist of candidates will all hold relevant industry qualifications , many years of sector experience and the confidence to delivery high-scoring job interview answers during the recruitment process. In short, they have a strong interview identity.
Competition, therefore, is high in terms of quality but low in terms of quantity – as the weaker candidates have already been dismissed.
Interview Specifics:
Can you demonstrate the relevant knowledge and experience to pass a final job interview?
Do you give detailed examples?
Do you state measurable data during examples?
Do you reference industry models and theories?
Do your answers meet the job criteria?
Are you a self-promoter?
Are your answers delivered confidently?
Do you use an excessive number of filler words?
Does your unique selling point stand out during the interview?
Check the average pay for your job role.
How to prepare for a final interview?
The biggest mistake most career professionals make during a final interview is not repeating examples from previous job interview rounds.
For all rounds, the job interview panel must score applicants based on the answers given in that interview round. Remember that each interview round maybe conducted by a different interviewer.
Not that all previously used examples will be needed. Each employer has their own way of conducting a final interview.
Some employers, will ask similar questions throughout all the interview rounds (worded a little different) to check that the applicant does possess the required skills and knowledge for the job vacancy.
In this approach, the final interviewers – often trained HR and senior leaders will ask more specific interview questions looking for data and evidence that they can measure.
As an example:
Interview round 1 question: “Tell me about a time when you worked with stakeholders?”
Interview round 2 question: “Tell me about a time when you had to influence a stakeholder?”
Interview round 3 question: “Give me an example of when you have influenced a senior stakeholder to overcome an objective on a collaborative project?”
Interview round 4 question: “Explain the specific steps you took to get a stakeholder with an objective to a project to agree with a proposal you had created?”
In other organisations, the final interview round will be focused on added value. The interview questions maybe open, even informal, to understand how an applicants experience will make a difference in the current team, on a project, and/or to achieve the company vision.
The employer is looking for:
Unique selling points
How an (experience) can be used to improve production or output/increase profit
What industry related knowledge can help progress the company
Specific skills and how they can be used to influence the workforce/achieve an objective
How the (applicant) can raise the bar
Final job interview tips
By the final interview stage, the employer has a high opinion of the candidate. The opinion must be reinforced.
This is because employers value confidence. A self-assured employee gets things done. Humans also associate other positive personality traits to confident people. We believe they are hard-working, skilled, knowledgeable, and that they possess good personal skills; communication, listening, teamwork.
To be viewed as confident:
Be assertive with your communication
Use the power of a pause – don’t rush your answers
Add characters and storylines to your examples – entertain as we as explain
State researched information about the company within the interview answer
Be a master of the basics; eye contact, positive posture, power voice
Be ready to answer scenario interview questions.
Employers recruit for a reason – there is a recruitment to gain a person with the knowledge and experience to achieve a key objective.
The final job interview often focuses on the candidates abilities to achieve these objectives. The questions asked can be both open or closed:
What do you know about X?
What would be your 5 step plan to achieve (objective)?
We are facing a (barrier) who would you turn this around?
Describe the operational plan, over a 5 year period, you would implement to achieve (objective)?
Tell me more about that?
The employer leaves it to you!
In the final interview, don’t wait to be asked follow up questions. If questions are ambiguous:
Tell me more about that (often used in informal job interviews)
Describe your leadership style
Give me an example of success
It is up to the interviewee to provide the detail. Research shows how the higher number of words per answer often results in a high number of job offers.
Give detailed and specific answers as this increase word count. This can be achieved by:
Talk about the pro’s and con’s of a situation, management style, product, machinery, process
Use multiple situations in answers. As an example, to answer a ‘leadership style question’ talk about using different leadership styles in different (sector related) environments
State a theory or model and give an example of the theory/model in use
Embed short metaphors and examples into a longer example, ensuring their is a golden thread
Create a conversation.
Dont wait until the end of a job interview to ask the employer questions about the company.
Ask questions throughout the recruitment process and use the answers to give your own suitable replies. As an example if, by asking the interview questions, it is clear that the company value innovation, ensure you reference times you have been creative and innovative.
Mirror the language an employer uses; build on their metaphors, copy jargon and acronyms. By using a similar level of language a stronger level of rapport will be built.
Final job interview questions and answers
Final job interview question: Tell me what would you do in the first 3 months of working for the organization?
The interviewer here, is checking that the applicant is a self-motivated individual who can get things done.
Explain:
Understanding the vison/project brief
Planning for risk
Reviewing budget spend
Team motivation
Taking action
Being results driven
Final job interview question: How will you motivate the team to achieve the objective?
A leader creates a vision that the team work to achieve. The two parts vision and action(s) come together by ‘motivation’.
Discuss:
Different leadership styles
Staff motivation models
Operational plans
Previous examples of motivating teams
Final Interview Questions: What problems do you foresee?
Nothing is streamless in the world of work.
All managers, senior leaders and project managers can predict and manager risk. To answer the ‘problem’ question:
State potential problems
Discuss risk management models
Give solutions to common industry problems
Explain reactive and proactive approaches
Talk about risk budgets
How competitive is a final job interview?
Final job interviews aren’t competitive in terms of numbers.
The average number of applicants per vacancy is around 250. The average number of interviewees for each role is 8-10. The average number of final interviewees is just 2.
The two final interviewees will be highly skilled, knowledgeable and experienced. In these terms competition is high, because both job candidates are equally matched.
Often, the job offer goes to the candidate who has best prepared, and therefore the most confident in delivering high-scoring interview answers.
For a final job interview, high scoring answers are the answers that give specific and measure data that highlights the candidates competencies relevant to the job criteria and beyond.
