Tag: job interview

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Interview Questions and Answers Are you willing to put the interest of the organisation ahead of yours?

When an employer ask you an interview question similar to “are you willing to put the interest of the organisation ahead of yours?” the employer is asking are you willing to do whatever it takes to achieve KPIs, deadlines and last minute vital task.

This may include canceling your own social activities to attend an interest of the organisation.

In this article we have broke down what the interviewer is looking for in a perfect job interview answer and to help you create the perfect answer we have recorded an example answer.

Video explaining how to answer the interview question

Job Interview Question “Are you willing to put the interest of the organisation ahead of yours?”

This is a test of employment loyalty; the interviewer is looking for someone to put there all into the company, employers may want you to come into work at a drop of a hat. If asked this question, answer using a confident voice. 

Example Job Interview Answer

“Yes, I want to put my all into this job and organisation. An example of this was when I…(add example)”

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Interview Question and Answer Would you be willing to relocate?

Before going to the interview for an organisation who wants you to relocate you first need to think about the pro’s and con’s about relocating as it is easy to say yes in the first instance when you are offered a job, but the reality is you may miss friends, family and local interest.

If you are happy to relocate make sure this answer is said in a clear confident voice.

In this article we have broke down what the interviewer is looking for in a perfect job interview answer and to help you create the perfect answer we have recorded an example answer

A video explaining how to answer the job interview question

Interview Question Would you be willing to relocate?

Often when employers need you to relocate, they would have stated this in the job specification. Before the interview you need to think about your life and how it would change if you relocated, look at both the positives and the negatives before making a decision. Once you have done this, you can give your answer at the interview and the reason why. 

Example Interview Answer

“I have researched your company and I feel we would work well together. I have no ties where I am currently living and I am happy to relocate”

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Interview Question and Answer Do you have a flexible attitude to your working hours?

Interview questions are asked to uncover a particular skill, quality or experience from the interviewee. The reason why many job applicants fail during the job interview is because they don’t understand what it is the interviewer wants to hear.

In this article we have broke down what the interviewer is looking for in a perfect job interview answer and to help you create the perfect answer we have recorded an example answer

Interview Video Explaining How to Answer the Job Interview Question

Interview Question Do you have a flexible attitude to your working hours?

Employers ask this question when their work/duties often need employees to be flexible with their working hours; starting work early, finishing late or even working bank holidays, Christmas time or weekends. Unlike the overtime question, if this is a big part of the role, saying no to this question may have a negative reaction. 

Example Interview Answer

“Yes, I worked on a flexible pattern in my last role and enjoyed that you started and finished a different times each day”

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Interview Question and Answer Are you willing to work weekends/nights?

Employers ask this interview question “are you wiling to work weekends?” or “are you willing to work nights?” when the organisation needs a flexible workforce. They don’t have a shift pattern but when business demands require it they need staff to “muck in”

 

Interview Question Are you willing to work weekends/nights?

you need to be honest, if you can’t let them know, if you can then great, the employer would only ask this question is there is a possibility of weekend/night work. 

Example Interview Answer

“Yes, I am happy to work at weekends”

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Interview Question and Answer What are you looking for in a job?

The interview question “what are you looking for in a job” is asked to check the you the employee preference the skills and duties required for the advertised position.

If during the job interview you over and over again show that you are passionate about the role, skills, duties you are applying for the employer make a positive generalization – that you are passionate about this role and sector

In this article we have broke down what the interviewer is looking for in a perfect job interview answer and to help you create the perfect answer we have recorded an example answer.

Interview Answer Video “What Are You Looking For In a Job?”

Interview Question What are you looking for in a job?

Think about the main job duties, skills and qualities needed for this position, which of these would you enjoy? Job Satisfaction, Team Work, Varity, Seeing the end result from your work, Helping others, Etc.

This way you are being honest while discussing relevant duties and qualities. Don’t say the obvious:

Example Interview Answer

 “This job” As you will quickly lose credibility and the interviewer may doubt other answers to the interview questions.   “It’s important for me to see the end result from my work; I like to know that I have done a good job and that my customers are satisfied”

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Why did you leave your last job? Interview Question and Answer

Why did you leave your last position? Interview question is particularly hard to answer as the question is easily framed in the negative. To answer this question you need to re-frame the question by using 3 key steps.

The video and technique below will give you a real insight how you can shine when answering this tricky interview question.

In this article we have broke down what the interviewer is looking for in a perfect job interview answer and to help you create the perfect answer we have recorded an example answer.

Interview Question “Why did you leave your last position?”

Be positive with this answer and smile – employers like to hear that you left for a good opportunity or reason, a chance to do something special or for a good career move.

  • Start the answer with a look back
  • Explain what you enjoyed about your previous role
  • Give a Positive reason for leaving

Video – How to Answer; “why did you leave your last job?”

 

Example Interview Answer

“I enjoyed working at Company Name and really enjoyed the interaction of working with a wide range of individuals-I feel I gained a lot of transferrable skills from this experience, which I can use in this role. It was a hard choice to leave but I felt that this great opportunity is the next obvious step for me”

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Are you applying for any other jobs? Interview Question

To answer the job interview question “are you applying for any other jobs?” you have to first show your skills and talents to make the employer want you and then use scarcity to increase desire.

Job Interview Question: Are you applying for any other jobs?

 

Explanation of the Job Interview Question:

Of course you are, every interviewer knows you are looking for work and it’s highly unlikely that you only have one interview lined up.

Explain why you are looking for other work and follow this up by telling the interviewer how much you want to work for their company. Employers like to offer jobs to people who will accept them and/or not leave after a couple of weeks for a better job offer. Why? Recruitment can cost companies around 33% of their profits!

Example Interview Answer

“Yes, I am looking at other jobs in this industry as I know this is the type of work I will excel in. I have researched your company and feel this is the type of company I would really fit into”

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Have You Thought of a Career as an Energy Efficiency Advocate?

As our natural resources are getting fast depleted with time, there are major concerns about energy conservation and energy saving.

You should aim at energy efficiency for savings at home, city, businesses, and state as well as federal governments on a much larger scale.

You can pursue a career as an Energy Efficiency Advocate in an energy saving company as you would get tremendous job satisfaction.

Job Description of an Energy Efficiency Advocate

Energy Efficiency Advocate needs to secure federal policies for promoting energy efficiency in appliances and buildings.

Statistics reveal that the building sector is responsible for almost 40 per cent of yearly greenhouse gas emissions in the USA. So, the energy efficiency advocate is expected to play a vital role in shaping the federal policies that would cut down the emissions thereby reshaping the economy.

They are also, responsible for setting up and implementing carbon pollution standards especially in power plants.

Job Responsibilities of an Energy Efficiency Advocate

Your job responsibilities are promoting the adoption and implementation of the strongest ever cost-effective appliance energy saving methods and efficiency standards; as well as the procedures and methods of tests followed by the US Department of Energy.

This may include taking part in public hearings, and technical workshops, participate in stakeholder negotiations, drafting public comments and participating in other types of advocacy activities and efforts.

You have to perform legislative; advocacy and policy development work on building efficiency policies, incentives for highly efficient buildings, building energy codes and come up with policies for promoting appliance and building efficiency.

You may require promoting grants and tax incentives for supporting high-efficiency appliances, buildings and equipment.

Job Prerequisites

This job entails a lot of innovative thinking and creativity as the job is multi-disciplinary. However, an energy efficiency advocate needs to possess the following skills and qualifications:

  • A professional degree or graduate in any of these streams namely engineering, science, business, economics, law, environmental policy or other related discipline.
  • Sound knowledge, experience and expertise on energy policy and energy systems.
  • Strong analytic and quantitative capabilities.
  • Brilliant team-building, leadership and project management qualities.
  • Superb and convincing oral and written advocacy skills.
  • Ability and willingness to create and work with coalition. Must be able to participate in complex negotiations involving a number of stakeholders.
  • Capability for interpreting complex economic and technical analysis and conveying its meaning to media and other non-technical audiences and even experts.
  • Prowess to manage several assignments, work diligently and meet deadlines.
  • Energy Efficiency Advocate enjoys excellent benefits, competitive salary and a wonderful working ambiance. Usually salary is according to a non-profit scale and as per experience.

Author Bio:

Matteo Burke is a retired engineer who has worked for a top company for several years in the past. In his free time, he peruses several sites online ranging from Wikipedia to TexasElectricRates.com.

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Finally an Explanation To Odd Ball Interview Questions

Job interviewers are asking more odd ball interview questions than ever before.

These odd ball questions on the face of it “why are manhole covers round and not square” sound ridiculous, and it is the uncertainty of the meaning of the odd ball interview question, that creates fear in the job interviewee.

The answer is in the job specification. All questions asked in the job interview are asked for a reason; there is a skill or quality the employer, through the odd ball interview question, is trying to dissect.

What An Odd ball Question!

To prepare for odd ball interview questions you first need to read the job specification for the position you are applying for. Breakdown the skills required for this role; creativity, logic, communication. Employers also know the importance of hiring someone with the right fit and it is these odd ball job interview questions that uncovers your personality type, your values and your skills and qualities

5 odd ball interview questions

“How many hamburgers were consumed in the UK in 2014?”

This isn’t a question for a McDonalds team member! The question is designed to uncover your thought process and how you can handle complex problems.

What you need to check via the job specification is: does the employer want to recruit a creative thinker or logical problem solver?

There is no right answer in terms of the number of hamburgers as only the directors of McDonalds know this, but the interviewer wants to understand how you approach complex problems.

“If you could be a character from a book or film who would you be and why?”

Questions asking you to pretend to be a famous film star, what animal would you be or which well know political figure best represents you, are designed to uncover your personality traits and values.

Before answering this question, profile the job role and list the skills and qualities required to fit in with this particular organization. Answer the question by saying “I would be X, as X is (add skill/quality relevant to the role….”

“If you won the lottery what would you spend it on?”

No-one cares how you spend your money, rather the employer wants to find out how reasonable you are and what you value.

You could answer that you would invest, that you would treat your friends, that you would spend it on silly things, give it to charity, split it between several options or hide it under your mattress.

The job sector you are applying for can give you an insight into the best suitable answer – I financial role would want to hear how you would invest, whereas a job in the caring sector are looking at your values.

“If you could take 5 things with you to a desert island that you were stranded on, what would you take?”

Your answer (water, food, knife, fire starting kit) doesn’t really matter compared to your thought process. This and similar worded interview questions, are designed to test your logic.

When answering logic based question give explanations behind your reason “a fire lighting kit because fire can be used for 3 things 1…..” To answer this question focus on your reason for picking an object.

If you were in the Army and you had recently returned from a failed mission how would you explain your failure to your senior officer?”

Situation questions can be hard as your brain searches for the meaning of the question but first needs more detail “what was the mission” “who was on the mission” “what went wrong” because the more of an understanding of the situation you have, the better placed you are to answer the interview question.

Stay away from this train of thought and instead think about the reason why you are being asked this question. This question is looking at how you reflect on your work, how you take feedback and what steps you take to learn from past failures.

When answering the question discuss the 3 steps.

Step 1  Discuss the build up to the mission as this give detail to the generic question

“Prior to the meeting with my senior officer, I would review the mission objective, the resources and equipment we had available, what went well and the overall reason for the failure.” In step one, you are showing how you reflect and learn from experiences, as well as how you prepare for situations

Step 2 In step 2 explain your approach would you take charge of the meeting? Would you let the officers opinions go over your head? Would you negotiate? The best approach is the approach that would need to be adopted in the company you are applying for

Step 3 Here show how you learn from mistakes, explain what steps you would take in a future mission.

With all interview questions, the employer has an agenda – they want to uncover a desired skill or quality or to check if you don’t possess these essential criteria. With all odd-ball interview questions, ask what skill or quality does the employer want to uncover?

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5 Ways To Influence The Job Interview

One of the most important skills while interviewing a job candidate is doing proper assessment.

The candidate’s resume may look fantastic to you as they must have made all the efforts to look their best on the big day but all candidates are equal up to this point.

As an interviewer, it is up to you to use your special skills from this point onwards to determine whether or not the person in front of you is worth hiring.

There are generally a special set of advanced interviewing skills that can help you figure out if you’ve got the right man or woman for the job. If you are not too sure how to hire the most deserving candidate for the job post, then take a look at the following tips that can help you make a good decision:

Observe The Candidate’s Emotional Condition

Go above and beyond the physical appearance of the person sitting in front of you. Does he or she look flustered or unprepared? Is he or she fidgety? Both these factors could indicate lack of experience or confidence.

In contrast, a candidate who is confident, comfortable and relaxed most likely means that he is sure of himself and his skills. However, you need to be very careful of over-confidence.

Any candidate who appears to be over-smart may just be using this as a facade to cover up for his lack of skills.

Candidate’s Eye Contact

It is generally believed that a liar will never look you in the eyes. In order to prove that they are honest, many liars will deliberately seek eye-contact to defy this belief.

If you find that a candidate is trying to look you in the eyes, over and above what is normal, this could be a red flag. However, a truly honest person would also maintain the eye contact with you; this is where you have to go with your gut instincts and judge the person accordingly.

Look Out For The Pupils

Take a good look at the candidate’s pupils. Wide pupils indicate that they are interested, whereas the smaller ones indicate the lack of interest.

The candidate generally cannot control pupil expansion and contraction, so you can generally rely on this method, unless they are suffering from an eye condition. Note, however, that it will fail you if the candidate has dark irises; since you will not be able to tell the pupils and the irises apart.

Test The Candidate By Remaining Silent

Use silence strategically in order to gauge the candidate’s response. After getting a response from the candidate, try to stay silent for a bit before moving on to the next question. If he or she appears uncomfortable, this is generally a sign of insecurity.

A candidate who uses the opportunity to explain his or her points further or when a candidate inquires whether you require further explanation is generally a good bet.

Watch Out For The Rapid Breathing

If the candidate is not suffering from a health condition, rapid breathing is yet another sign that he or she is not being entirely honest with the information being discussed in the interview. This generally means that you will need to perform a more thorough background check on the candidate or decide if it is even worth the trouble.

Most importantly, remember that these techniques are not entirely fool-proof. You need to use your own best judgment before reaching any conclusion about any candidate. Also remember that your judgment may go wrong at times.

About the Author:

Alastair Trot is a fresh college graduate currently doing internship for a prominent assignment writing service in the UK. When not working, he loves to spend his time researching current education trends and how they can integrate into the conventional academic realm.