structured job interview Archives - Job Interview Coaching

July 29, 2022February 22, 2023

No More Face-to-Face Job Interviews

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’

July 20, 2022February 22, 2023

Sweaty, scared, and ready to scream? Just another job interview

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.

The first rule of a successful job interview is to identify the job criteria. Appropriate examples, appropriate answers, simply score well.

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

June 30, 2022June 30, 2022

The Barrier of a Structured Job Interview

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.

October 7, 2021October 7, 2021

How to Answer the Interview Question ‘What can you bring to the team?’

The ‘what can you bring to the team’ is one of the best job interview questions any experienced career professional can be asked.

Why?

The openness of the question allows a skilled interviewee to sell themselves by discussing a skill, quality or experience that would be hard to embedded into an interview answer for a more specific recruitment question such as a ‘give me an example of….’

Open job interview questions, which include:

Tell me about yourself?
What are your strengths?
Why should we hire you?

The barriers and pitfalls to the open interview question

One of the most common mistakes when answering ‘open’ questions, is the tendency to list items.

As an example, for the ‘why do you want to work here?’ open interview question, an applicant may reply with the following list: “Because I like the company, it has a good reputation, and I have always wanted to work.”

It is similar with the ‘strengths’ question: “My strengths include teamwork, the ability to get things done and my work ethic”.

‘Listing’ is a technique that works when embedded into a more detailed job interview answer. As a solo technique it often doesn’t result in a high-scoring answer.

The second pitfall that many nervous job applicants fall into, is the unintentional rambling problem.

Unintentional rambling is common in a job interview because the interviewee knows that they should be giving a longer answer.

As an example, when asked ‘why should we hire you?’ the nervous applicant panics as they search for a high-scoring interview answer.

Initially, they reply using the listing method: “I am highly skilled, experience and qualified.”

Realizing that they need to add more meat to the bone, the candidate adds a second list: “..Also, I’m good with people, a strong communicator and a good listener.”

At this point panic takes over, firing the flight or fight mode, with the interviewee splurting out irrelevant information: “…I am also good at administration, tidying up and making cups of tea!”

You may have done this yourself. You return from an interview and think: ‘What was I saying in there?’

The key to avoid rambling is having a interview answer structure.

Interview Answer Structure

Getting back to the interview question in-hand, before I start going off topic as well!!

Open questions allow the applicant to state whatever it is they want to discuss.

It is key, then, to be a self-promoter during the answering of this question. In fact, all three rules of a successful job interview come into play during the ‘what can you bring to the team?’ interview question.

To plan a high-scoring answer, think about:

What does the current employer need, or what problem are they facing (and do you have the solution, skills or expertise?)
What is the culture of the company?
How can you frame your unique selling point and expertise to be relevant to the interview panel?

To answer the interview question, each applicant must discuss the following three points during the interview answer:

An understanding of the job role/duties
Sector related experience/knowledge
Personal qualities

Below is a breakdown of the interview structure, which needs to be edited to fit the job sector and experiences of each individual job applicant:

Start the answer by referencing a key area of the job role. name a specific duty or industry problem.

Second, explain how you have experience in this area or highlight a relevant skill set.

Finally, end by focusing in on your personal skills and qualities.

Interview Answer Template:

Interviewer: “Tell me what you can bring to the team?”

Interviewee:

“After working in this industry for X number of years, one of the most common problems we face is (add sector related problem) The (problem) is an issue as it (add the negative effects of the problem)….”

“….My experience in (job role/dealing with the problem) has taught me (explain in detail what actions are required to overcome the problem) This is one of the things I can bring to the team, the ability to (summarise how your expertise/experience can overcome the industry problem)….”

“….In addition, I am able to (add second skill or experience relating to the job role/duties). An example of this was when I was working for X organisation and we were tasked to (achieve a goal). To meet the (objective) I (explain steps taken/actions took) which resulted in (outcome)…”

“…To summarise, I can (point 1) and (point 2). And my (add personal qualities/skills, ideally relevant to the company culture)”.

What makes an interview answer effective?

Research has shown what elements help to create a high-scoring interview answer, tehy include:

A structured interview answer
A higher number of words per answer
Varying tonality during the interview answer to help maintain interest
A confident delivery style
Positive language (nervous applicants will self-disclose weaknesses)

August 25, 2021August 25, 2021

How to Answer the Interview Question ‘What are your greatest strengths?’

The ‘greatest strengths’ interview question is one of the most commonly quoted job interview questions, used across all job sectors.

Why is the ‘strengths’ question utilized so often? Because of the open nature of question.

Employers pick specific interview questions to help gained an understanding of the applicants knowledge, experience and potential.

Specific interview question will be directed at a key competencies:

“Give me an example of doing X?”
“How would you handle Y situation?”
“Have you ever used Z?”

Competency based interview questions are easy to cross-reference against the job criteria, which is why employers favor the structured job interview.

The barrier, when asking very specific job duty related questions, is that the applicant doesn’t have the opportunity to promote their additional skills, knowledge and experiences.

This is one of the reasons why employers ask more open-ended interview questions such as the famed ‘tell me about yourself’ or the ‘strengths’ interview question.

The article will explain how to approach the ‘what are your greatest strengths?’ job interview question. How to create a high-scoring answer, and how to make the high-scoring answer relevant to the job role.

Preparing for the Job Interview.

The key to answering the ‘greatest achievement’ interview question is in the applicants pre-interview preparation.

The barrier with an open question is the high probability of the applicant going off topic.

In a structured job interview, all interview answers receive points based on the number of job criteria referenced in the job interview answer.

Research shows that the higher number of words per interview answer, equates to a higher number of job offers. But, the answers have to be relevant to the job position.

When preparing for a ‘strengths’ interview question, applicants need to plan to talk about strengths required for the advertised position: an eye for detail, for a quality control officer, or calculations expertise, for a civil engineer.

A good exercise is to list of the essential duties for the advertised position, and in a second column write down a list of strengths, that the applicant possesses, that are required for each duty.

This exercise is to generate ideas, so details aren’t required at this stage. Applicants may list skills, qualities or experiences.

Example – Project Manager Job

Essential Duties	Strengths
Stakeholder management	Communication Able to influence and persuade Relationship building Having industry related connections Collaborative working
Project planning	Experienced in achieving project outcomes Analytical and logical approach Report writing Collaborative working
Cost projection
Risk assessments
etc

Next, look at the common skills, qualities and experiences that have been repeated throughout the list technique, in our example this is ‘collaborative working’.

Breakdown the reason why the quality, skill, or experience is a strength:

What do you specifically do?
What is your approach?
How is what you do better the a general approach?
What is the common result from your actions?
Does your attitude/work ethic part of the strength?
Do you plan or use intuition?
Is this a team effort or is the strength a personal achievement?
If a team effort, what is your role within the team?

Finally, think about a real-life (work) example, that will be used during the interview answer.

Make the Strength question strong.

To summarise the post so far.

Employers are likely to ask the ‘greatest strength’ interview question as it is documented as one of the most commonly asked job interview questions.

The interview question may be phrased as:

“Tell about one of your greatest successes?”
“What can you bring to the team?”
“How would you have an impact on the team/project?”

The ‘strengths’ interview question is open to interpretation, which requires the candidate to focus the interview answer on the essential criteria of the job role, to ensure the answer scores high.

The strength question needs to state strengths!

The applicant must talk about their unique selling point, relevant to the job role. The answer should show added value, high achieving examples, and the applicants work ethic, motivation as well as a high level of sector related knowledge and experiences.

Mistakes and mishaps.

There are three common mistakes that career professionals make when answering the ‘strengths’ question.

The wrong path.

Taking the wrong path, often comes from a lack of pre-interview preparation.

The unprepared interviewee is nervous and anxious, coming across as having an ‘incompetent’ interview identity.

When asked a question, the lack of confidence leaves the applicant pleading for an idea – anything to create an answer. Whatever random idea pops into their mind becomes the talking point, the main message of the interview answer.

In many cases, the unprepared interview answer lacks detail, is short, and most importantly doesn’t relate to the job criteria. This results in a low-scoring interview answer.

Self-disclosed weaknesses.

Consistently successful job applicants, in the main, aware of their skill set and possess a good level of confidence.

Being confident increases self-promotion.

Whereas, a lack of self-esteem, or having imposture syndrome increases the number of unprompted self-disclosed weaknesses.

When asked a question, the low self-esteem interviewee will initially list weaknesses before picking a ‘strength’. This self-disclosure, is often outside the awareness of the applicant. It is like they are externalizing their thought process:

Interviewer: “What are you greatest strengths?”

Low self-esteem interviewee: “What are my greatest strengths? Well..urm..im not vey good at IT…urm…I don’t work well under pressure…urm, my greatest strength is my ability to (strength)”.

Bragging.

Some applicants are highly confident, but lack industry experiences.

Highly confident applicants feel comfortable with communication. A high level of self-esteem increases self-promotion.

Confidence without knowledge can create a pretender interview identity, where the interviewee attempts to manipulate the employer by exaggerating their skill set.

Self-promotion is expected in the job interview, but when the applicant lacks experience and sector knowledge they rarely know what examples would meet the job criteria.

Instead of giving specific industry related examples, the candidate will self-praise using generalisations:

Interviewer: “What are your greatest strengths?”

Interviewee: “Everything!”

Other examples include:

“My passion, my attitude, my work ethic”
“I’m a good team player, I finish tasks and I am loyal.”
“In all my roles I put on 100% of effort. My previous managers often tell me that I am an excellent member of staff and that I have a positive impact on the team.”

Some of the examples sound positive, and indeed they are, but they lack the specific data the employer requires to cross-reference the interview answer against the criteria on the interview scorecard.

How to answer the what is your greatest strength interview question.

A simple structure to answer the ‘strengths’ interview question is:

Barriers + strengths + summary

Relevance is key here.

Employers working in the same sector will face similar barriers. By stating the industry barriers at the start of the interview questions creates relevance. It also helps to build intrigue, as the employer will presume you are going to state a solution, which you will do by highlighting your strengths.

“As we all know, one of the biggest barriers we face in this industry is X. This barrier can lead to (add additional negative consequences)…”

The body of the interview answer will state the applicants strengths. The exercise above has resulted in a list of relevant strengths relating to the job criteria.

Don’t fall into the trap of just listing strengths, as this technique doesn’t result in a high-scoring answer.

Instead, give an example of using the listed strengths in a workplace setting.

Initially start the body of the interview answer, by stating a generic selling point. This could include the duration in the industry, a high-level sector related qualification or having worked on a well-known project that may impress the interview panel.

“…My (duration, qualification, experience on project) has taught me that (give the solution to the stated problem or an indication that you have the solution)…”

The example follow the opening statement.

Examples must include the situation, actions taken (highlighting strengths, positive outcome).

“…To give you an example of this, when working (at company/on X project) we faced (problem relating to the initial stated barrier)…

…my ability to (add first strength) allowed me to (state outcome). I achieved this by utilizing my (add second strength) which allowed me to (outcome). Throughout the task I faced (add additional barrier) but I was always able to overcome this by (state third strength)….”

“..the end result was (add positive outcome)….”

Conclude the interview answer by summarizing your key strengths.

A summary reinforces the applicants strengths, and clarifies any ambiguity from the example given.

“…To answer the question, my key strengths include (strength one, two and three).”

January 2, 2021

3 ways to answer ‘give me an example…’ interview question

One of the most common job interview questions, that comes in many guises, is the ‘give me an example of……? question.

‘Example’ questions are asked in behavioural job interviews. Behavioural job interviews fall under the ‘structured’ job interview family. During a structured job interview, each interviewee is asked the same set of questions (for behavioural job interviews, many questions will be ‘give an example of…’).

The applicants answers are captured, ideally verbatim, by a panel of job interviewers, who, whenever possible, will be the same personnel interviewing each candidate for the same position, as this is a fairer process.

Each recorded answer, for each of the interviewees, is then allocated a score from a scale that was predetermined prior to the interview start.

Scores are allocated to each interview answer based on the number of job criteria, which is an indication of the applicant’s level of sector knowledge and experience, referenced during the interview answer.

The more detailed the answer is, for each criterion, the higher the score is likely to be.

If, for example, the interview question is about risk assessments, a candidate may answer by giving an explanation of what a risk assessment is.

A second interviewee may state proven models for carrying out risk assessments. And a third applicant could highlight their knowledge of risk assessments by giving an example of previously using risk assessments in a past job role.

Each of the answers show competencies for the required criteria, but each answer may be scored differently, as the interviewers perception of each applicants level of knowledge will vary depending on the answer format the candidates have chosen.

Employers who preference behavioural job interviews believe that past behaviours are the best indication of how an interviewee would perform if offered the advertised role.

With this in mind, the applicant giving an example of using a risk assessment in a past role is more likely to be hired then the other candidates.

Behavioural Job Interview Questions.

All behavioral job interview questions, even though each question is framed slightly differently, are asking for ‘examples’ of the required skill set needed for the position being advertised.

Example behavioral interview questions include:

Give me an example of planning a project from the initial project brief through to the project closure?
Have you ever had to remain calm during a crisis?
What experience do you have working in stressful environments?
Tell me about a task you wished you had approached in a different way?
How have you previously handled conflict between two colleagues?
Describe a time when you had work with a senior manager that you didn’t get on with?
When you are working on multiple projects how do you prioritise your workload?
How have you dealt with past failures?
Which previous job was the hardest and why?
Give me an example of when you have increase income for the business?

Behavioural job interview questions are easy to spot as they generally start with:

Tell me a time when…
Give me an example of…
How have you…
Describe a time when you…

Even though each question is worded differently, the behavioral interview question is designed to encourage an interviewee to highlight their competencies through a past experience and each answer requires a real-life ‘example’.

Beware, as some employers embed the ‘example’ question within a longer worded interview question: ‘Everyone has learnt from a mistake, what mistakes have you made that has helped to improve your skill set?’

In the main, the phrasing of the interview questions naturally encourages an ‘example’ answer.

Using example answers in a job interview.

Generally speaking, real life examples is one of strongest interview answers an applicant can give to help highlight their industry knowledge and skill set.

Example answers often take the format of a story . Storytelling creates an emotional response in the job interviewer, often helping to increase rapport. In addition, a story or example, rather then just stating facts, models and theories, makes the interview answer seem more relevant to the position being applied for.

This is because a story sharing an example of using an industry skill makes it easier for the employer to associate the example with the job role that they are recruiting for.

Even with story interview answers being naturally powerful, many candidates adopting this approach fail to score high during the job interview.

The problem here is, not everyone is a great or even a good storyteller.

Stories, as do job interview example answers, require scene setting, intrigue and a conclusion.

From an employers perspective, they ideally want everyone to give a detailed answer highlighting their level of industry competencies, this way the interviewer is better equipped to predict the applicants future job performance more accurately.

If 5 job interview answers highlight how one applicant has a creative approach to problem-solving, whereas another interviewer shows a more logical approach for overcoming problems, the interviewer, knowing this, will choose which candidate will fit in with the culture of the company.

In truth, many career professionals who are skilled in their desired job role fail to highlight this unique skill set as they lack the ability to tell stories through the expression of their examples.

Most, failed, applicants when giving an example will quickly state the situation, summarise the actions they took and finally mumble the results they received from the actions they took.

It is this lack of detail that is the undoing for highly skilled and experienced industry professionals, who fail to be successful on a regular basis during job interviews.

3 different approaches for answering questions with examples.

I will share 3 ways to answer the ‘example’ job interview question. In behavioral job interviews it is advised to use a mixture of the three approaches as this ensures that each answer structure is different, which helps to keep an employers interest.

Each approach will answer the same question to help highlight the variations of each interview formulation: ‘give me an example of being successful?’

Start with a question.

Asking the employer a question at the start of the interview answer creates a pattern-interrupt.

A pattern-interrupt is a process where the mind expecting a certain response to an action, becomes, initially, confused when the response is not as expected.

A non-interview example of this would be an adult putting their hand out to shake another adult’s hand, but instead of accepting the handshake, the other adult presents the first adult with a welcome dance. This interruption of what is the norm creates shock.

In the job interview, asking the interviewer a question when the interviewer presumed the applicant would simply answer the question creates intrigue, especially when the question is designed as a ‘hook‘.

An example could be: ‘would you be interested in knowing how a computerised system saved over 35% of the overhead cost of one of your competitors, through the use of a simple algorithm that I created?’

Any bold statement that references increasing profits or saving overhead cost (this can be framed as increasing production, reducing staff turnover or building a customer base) helps to create interest.

After the opening question, that has resulted in the employer wanting to hear the story, the applicant can simply start the example from the beginning.

How to structure the example answer.

When using examples it is important to set out the problem or barrier the organisation was facing and how, if a solution wasn’t found, this barrier was going to have a negative impact on the business.

As an example, stating that ‘the increase in online shopping on competitors websites was going to result in the loss of a large workforce that would cost a predicted £x in redundancy fees, which would put this business model back by 5 years’ sounds more disastrous than simply saying ‘more of our customers were shopping on competitors websites.’

The lesson here is to give the negative outcome to any potential problem, not just the problem itself.

Once the situation has been explained fully, which also adds to the intrigue, the next step is to state any actions that needed to be carried out for you to be ‘successful’- these actions must highlight your thought process, any unique skills you possess and the solution.

‘I knew we had a short period of time to create more income. As an experienced manager, with 20 years of industry experience, I knew that simply improving the website wouldn’t be enough. What was needed was an activity that would put our brand on everyone’s lips – we needed to create something that would go viral, increasing hits to our webpage.’

‘My process was A, B and C..(add the steps you took to create a success)

Don’t focus on the idea process, the ideas you thought about and disregarded. Instead, discuss the idea that you took forward to create a success
Reference only 3 main tasks, steps or actions you undertook, as a longer answer can become boring breaking interviewer rapport
When discussing each task, step or action summaries what it was you did, as you don’t want to confuse the employer with too much information

Once the detailed description of the steps you took has been discussed, the interveiw answers need to end with a positive outcome.

‘The result from these actions was (add positive outcome)

Start at the end

The second approach to answer the ‘example interview question is to start the answer by stating the outcome:

‘My greatest success was when I single handedly gained the largest sales contract.’

This power statement, again, creates interest. How? the employer is thinking.

An intrigued interviewer will listen more intently to the interview answer. The more intently the employer listens the more details they will record on the interview scorecard, increasing, if the criteria have been mentioned, the interview scores.

The second part of the interview answer, giving an example, follows the process mentioned in the above example.

Using industry models and theories.

The final way to answer the example question is by stating a sector-related model or theory at the interview start.

By stating the steps required within a model or theory, the applicant, is likely to meet many of the job criteria on the interview scorecard.

‘My success comes down to my ability to be well organised. When faced with competing deadlines, new project starts and month end reports, it is easy to become overwhelmed and stressed. To combat this I used the ‘time management matrix’ model. The model…(explain whichever model or theory you are discussing)’

This section should be kept relatively brief, highlighting the key elements of the theory or model being explained.

Next, give the example which reaffirms that you have met the job criteria for the high scoring interview answer.

‘3 months ago I had two competing demands from two high profile customers. To decide the urgency and importance of each demand I compared the pros and cons of working on each customer’s demands first. This allowed me to collect the data required to use the time management matrix model, allowing me to choose logically what actions to complete first…’

To end the ‘model’ example interview format summaries the power of using well-established models.

‘Using the model in my day-to-day tasks ensures that I am able to confidently meet any new challenges head-on without having doubt in my own abilities or without becoming stress, as others do when unforeseen situations present themselves. ‘

Job Interview Advice

December 18, 2020December 18, 2020

Understanding strength-based interviews

Human resource interview research is designed to find the best way to predict job performance by reviewing predicted performance of a job interview applicant to actual performance within the workplace.

To date, the most successful interview format for accurately predicting job performance is the structured job interview. The flaw of the structured interview is the design of the interview questions.

A structured job interview uses behavioural and situational interview questions. This set of job interview questions, in the main, focus on competencies, asking if the applicant can complete the business-as-usual job duties.

Only asking questions based on job duties, does not take into account motivational factors within the workplace. A career professional may perform better in one organisation over another due to the culture of the company.

Interviewer’s, therefore, need to ask questions relating to the company culture and the personal values and motivational traits of each applicant to better predict the potential employee’s job performance.

The aim of strength-based interviews.

Strength-based job interviews, which focus the interview questions on what an applicant ‘enjoys’ within a workplace, help an employer to cross-reference the company culture and job duties against the candidate’s answers.

Strength-based interviewers ask questions to help to uncover a candidate’s interest and best working styles. Whereas situational and behavioral interview questions, in the main, have a focus on the applicant’s ability to complete the required duties recorded on the job criteria form.

Initially from the field of positive psychology, the idea is an employer, by identifying an applicant’s strengths required for the advertised role, will hire a high-performing team.

By focusing the questions on what the applicant enjoys should result in an employer recruiting an applicant who will enjoy working within the culture of the company, thus, hiring a highly motivated employee.

Strength-based interview questions then ask;

‘What do you like to do?’ instead of ‘What can you do?’

How to answer strength-based job interview questions.

With strength-based interviews, there is no right or wrong answer, instead, employers are looking for honesty to create a good match between employee and culture.

Strength-based interviews should be two-way. If the applicant answers truthly and is then rejected for the job role, this, long-term, should be a positive outcome, as it is unlikely that the candidate would have responded well to the company culture.

Interviewees still need to present answers confidently, highlighting a high level of knowledge and experience for the job role in question. Being ‘honest’ still requires self-promotion.

The ‘can-do’ vs ‘enjoy to do’ interview both have advantages and disadvantages, for both the employer and interviewee.

What is important for a career professional is to be able to recognise the type of interview question being asked.

Strength-based interview scoring.

All interviewers, to help predict job performance, require applicants to give an honest answer.

A frank applicant has to be careful. Even though an interviewer’s objective is to hire the best candidate, in terms of job performance for a ‘typical’ day, an interviewee, answering questions with a ‘typical’ behaviour answer will be scored lower than a competitor who only states ‘best’ performance answers confidently, due to the interview scoring system.

This is true with strength-based job interviews. Even though strength-based job interview questions ask ‘preference’ questions, each answer, to showcase the candidate’s level of knowledge and experience, often include an ‘example’ of the preferred approach.

Each real-life example needs to show how energised (or motivated) the applicant is by what the job entails.

Some employers use a blended approach, with a mixture of behavioral or situational interview questions and a set of strength-based questions. Whereas other employers use only one interview format.

For all options, interviewers allocate a score for each applicant’s answer.

For blended strength-based interviews, the interviewer will either score the answer in a similar way as they do for the structured job interview, as each strength-based interview answer should be accompanied with an ‘example’.

When all questions are strength-based, many interviewers will ask additional questions to pin down an applicant’s motivational factors, using the combined answers to help them score the applicant on a large sliding scale.

In addition, the employer will ask multiple questions, framed differently, based on the same criteria or strength.

Strength-based interview question examples.

‘How would you respond in X situation?’

‘Do you prefer to be told what to do or to do tasks in your own way?’

‘How would colleagues describe you?’

‘What do you use to measure your success?’

‘When working to a deadline, do you prefer to make decisions or to be told what needs to be done?’

‘Who do you look up to and why?’

‘Describe a perfect day?’

‘What task do you most enjoy doing?’

‘What task do you always start first?’

‘Do you prefer starting or finsihing tasks?’

‘Does this position play to your strengths?’

‘What would you dislike about this role?’

‘How do you prefer to be managed?’

Job Interview Advice

November 5, 2020February 22, 2023

What is a structured job interview?

The most common barrier to a successful interview, its the applicant’s lack of understanding of the job interview process. The equivalent is like entering a baking competition and not knowing a recipe.

This article will explain the job interview process with a view to helping career professionals prepare, and therefore, pass the job interview.

99% of employers use a structured job interview as the main element of their recruitment process. The structured job interview, research has proven, has the ability to predict job performance.

Structured interviews can be a face to face or a virtual job interview.

An explanation of a structured job interview

A structured job interview is the process of asking the same interview questions, based on the job criteria of the advertised position, to each applicant.

Each interview question, referenced in an interview scorecard, is allocated a point system. Depending on the applicant’s answer, and if the applicant references enough of the job criteria, the interviewer will score each answer a point(s). The highest number of total allocated points, or scores, results in that applicant being offered the advertised role – as long as the totaled score is above the minimum score required to be offered a contract of employment.

Interview scorecard

An interviewers scorecard will state each of the interview questions, allowing the interviewers to ask each question in the same format, to help create a fair recruitment process.

Each question is then split into, on average, 4 levels of answers with 1 = negative, 2 = good, 3 = effective 4 = expert, with each employer having their own numeric scoring system.

Under each interview question an example of what a 1-4 socirng answer would look, to assist the employer in allocating points to interviewees answers.

Common practice is for interviewers to write verbatim the candidates interview answers during the job interview, and once the interviewee has left to review the answers against the criteria on the interview scorecard with a final review of all applicants taken place once all candidates have been interviewed.

Interviewees, at the stage, will discuss and compare answers and scores with one another before adding a final overall score to each applicant.

Structured job interview questions

There are two types of structured job interviews; behavioural job interview and a situational job interview.

Behavioral job interview.

Employers using behavioural interview questions will frame the interview question on past behaviours.

The idea is that past behaviours best predict future job performance.

Behavioral job interview questions:

Give me an example of being successful in a job interview?
Have you ever had to negotiate a salary offer?
What experience do you have in this job role?

Situational job interview.

Situational job interviews frame the questions as a future scenario.

The belief is job performance can be predicted by an applicant stating how they would go about the task.

Situational job interview questions.

If you were successful in a job interview, what would you be doing?
How would you approach a salary negotiation?
Tell me how you would achieve your targets?

How to pass a structured job interview

No matter how the job interview question is framed (behavioural or situational), the answers, if they reference the job criteria, will be scored high, therefore, increasing an applicants chance of being hired.

In addition to simply referencing the criteria job, applicants need to show their level of industry knowledge and experience. Using industry language, sector-related abbreviations and quoting models relating to the job role can increase the allocated points given to an applicant.

Even though a structured interview is a logical process, the use of stories and examples often score high marks, as long as they are relevant.

The use of a structure with the interview answer, listing key requirements and making comparisons makes the understanding of the interview answer easier for the interviewer to digest.

Finally, an applicants confidence levels and their communication, tonality and if they sound passionate about the position increasing scores; in this sense the same answer can be scored higher depending on how the answer was delivered.

2 types of interviews

The 2 most common job interviews are

A structured job interview
An informal (unstructured) job interview

A structured interview can be 1-2-1 or a panel interview. The structured interview can be a situational or behavioural interview, or often a blended version of the two types of structured job interview questions.

The informal, unstructured, job interview is a conversation between the interviewer and applicants. Unlike the structured job interview, in an informal job interview there are no set questions and the questions that are asked aren’t graded on a interview scorecard. In fact the outcome of an unstructured job interview replies mainly on intuition.

The end of a job interview

At the job interview end, the employer will ask each candidate if they have any questions?

It is important to prepare questions to ask the employer. The questions should be unique and insightful. Don’t ask about salary, number of holidays, as this information come sup during a final job interview.

Good topics to ask about include:

Professional development
Company growth
Sector related information

Chris Delaney