Published on 12, July, 2020
There has been quite a bit of chat on here in recent weeks about job interviews so I thought I would put together a topic on interview questions to generate some discussion, education and enlightenmnet for those who are job hunting or considering it.I have spent a lot of the last 10 years consulting for companies who had issues with their IT support / service teams and have conducted hundreds of interviews to get the right sort of staff in to fix the issues the teams were having. I've also been interviewed for lots of positions due to the project based nature of this work meaning it lasted 6-12 months at a time.I've also mentored and coached other inexperienced managers in techniques with this and attended numerous training courses on the subject so can offer insights from a range of perspectives.So think of what you want to ask and I'll be as candid as I can be.Your starter for 10 comes from an article I read today:https://www.ladbible.com/community/matt-higgins-ceo-question-never-ask-job-interview-693297-20230813 there's one question you should 'never ever' ask at a job interviewIn summary:You should always have a relevant question to ask towards the end of the interview when the interviewer asks "do you have any questions for us?"."If you’re a job seeker, here’s a piece of advice you likely won’t hear from anyone else: Never ever ask an employer what their remote work policy is during the job interview."I know as autists most of us want to know about this option, but be aware this will not go down well. This is a question best saved for when you actually have the job and assume you will be 100% office based.If you want to know what questions will be received well, have a look at:www.indeed.com/.../questions-to-ask-in-an-interviewRemember to write these down - best to print them so it looks more professional than a handwritten note, although it is good practice to scribble down any questions you have about what is disclosed in the interview (eg they may talk about other offices and you want to know if you have to travel to them). We often forget in the heat / pressure of the interview so this will help earn points towards getting the job.My favourite is "Ask the interviewer about their experiences with the company". For example "how did you find it during the covid crisis with regards to companies approach to flexible working?". You see how you can get an insight into the remote working question without actually asking it?
It also gives the interviewer a chance to talk about their personal experiences so you can get a feel for them as a person rather than as an interrigator.
One of the hardest questions to answer for me has been "tell me about yourself?". I literally never know what to say, which might be why I never get anywhere.
My gut feeling and first reaction to that question would be to tell them to mind their own business and storm out of the interview.
Robert124 said:My gut feeling and first reaction to that question would be to tell them to mind their own business and storm out of the interview.
If you want a job you are going to need to learn not to react that way - the company are about to take a big chance on hiring you - costing many tens of thousands of pounds a year in the hope that you are not some incompetent chump or psychopathic customer abuser.
They will naturally want to know what you think about yourself - this reveals a lot about how you think, how you value yourself and gives them a possible insight into whether you will work well with others in the team.
Once you learn to see it as a bit of horse trading (they need to sell the job to you as you need to sell yourself to them) then the interaction makes a lot more sense and you can put yourself in a better frame of mind to respond.