PART 4, CHAPTER 5: THE NIGHTMARE INTERVIEW FROM HELL

(Okay, I made that last bit up, but the rest of it sounds familiar, doesn’t it?)

... extract

OTHER QUESTIONS THAT ARE FREQUENTLY ASKED
Q: You seem a little overqualified for this job.
A: Situations where this line of questioning could arise include a candidate who is making a career transition and is taking a step back in order to do so, a candidate who has been downsized and has to take the lower level job to survive or the candidate who has been promoted beyond her or his level of competence and just wants to go back to a simpler life …

The interviewer basically wants reassurance. Subtext: ‘You’re not going to walk out to a better job after three months are you?’ OR ‘So why will no one hire you at your expected level?’ OR ‘Are you going to be looking for my job and become a threat to me?’

You’d better be unambiguous as to your reasons on this one, because if you are in any way hesitant in your answer, you will be immediately disqualified from contention. But for the purposes of this discussion, why are you swimming downstream? No one has ever been accused of trying to sleep their way to the bottom, so why are you pitching yourself downwards like this? If you have been asked this question more than once, it’s likely that there is something off-beam with your career plan.

Q: You seem a little underqualified for this job.
A: The smart-ass answer to this one is: ‘So how come you invited me to interview then?’ And therein lies the kernel of your answer. Someone on the other side of the table reckons you can do this job, otherwise you wouldn’t be sitting there in your best suit and shiniest shoes. The person asking the question may have already decided who is going to get the job (obviously not you!) or may be resentful of his lack of input into compiling the shortlist.

If the job is a step up for you, with new responsibilities, you need to provide reassurance as to your readiness level and as to the steepness of your learning curve. Obviously, it would be nice if you were able to point to a similar circumstance from your recent past –

'Well, in my current role, at the time I was promoted I was the youngest member of the divisional team at my level, and I had only three of the five minimum entry requirements for the role. However, I was a known quantity, I had demonstrated my commitment, my effectiveness and my learning curve, so they decided to take a chance on me. As you can see from my CV, that risk more than paid off. I view the role that we’re talking about here as a step up, but it’s a far less risky proposition than my previous one, so while I may not be hitting the ground sprinting, my track record demonstrates my ability to play catch-up very quickly.’

The other line of reasoning you can draw on is that you will be thrilled skinny to get this job, because it is a step up for you, where someone who is already operating at, or near, this level may be somewhat jaded and will attach less importance to this ‘sideways step’ than you will.

Q: If I asked your current boss for a reference, what would she say about you? OR How did you fare in your last performance appraisal?
A: More ‘How would others describe you?’ stuff here. It is likely that, at some point, your new employer is going to talk with your old boss (see page 177, Managing Your References), so lying in response to this line of questioning is a baaad idea. If you work for an organisation that uses a formal, written review process, the interviewer(s) may even ask to see your most recent appraisals at some stage in the selection process. You need to be ready for this line of questioning and your answer needs to tie in with your responses on what others think of you and why you want to move.

If you have been having screaming toe-to-toe rows with your current boss, think about why they have been happening. Is it because she is a useless fossil and her approach is going to bring the organisation to ruin or is it because your approach is rankling and you have not convinced your boss that this way is going to make her life easier in the long run? By the time you are being asked this question it is way too late to mend fences, but you should be sufficiently on top of managing your career that this sort of question holds no fear for you. If not, be ready for some tough follow-up questions.

Q: Tell me about your hobbies.
A: People do asinine things on their CVs like claiming an interest in something that looks impressive, but that they aren’t really involved in and know nothing about. Don’t talk yourself up here – if you are caught out, it immediately and irrevocably blows your credibility. Who are we kidding here? Most of us are couch potatoes – so think very carefully before you write down something that you can’t back up (see page 133, Application Forms).

Q: (Follow-on from ‘Where do you plan to be in five years’ time?’) How do you plan to get there?
A: This is the drill-down that the interviewer will use if he suspects that your answer to the first question was a clockwork parrot job. For someone managing their career, who is working to a plan and has identified the key steps along the way, this question is a doddle. The only problem may be that you will scare the hell out of the interviewer if you reveal all of your intentions. Be ready to talk about further qualifications you intend to gain, self-development exercises and formal training you want to complete, experience you need to gain and then, as the kicker, map that against what you expect the organisation and the sector to be doing in the same timeframe. I would also avoid discussing specific job titles and thus, leave your options open –

'Well at the moment, I want to advance in the Logistics division by doing x, y and z, but I’m certainly not going to be closed-minded about opportunities that may arise in other departments along the way.’

AWKWARD AND NASTY QUESTIONS – THE STRESS INTERVIEW
The stress interview has fallen out of favour as a method of hiring as it has been demonstrated over time to simply not work. That being said, this style can occasionally be useful to make a cocksure candidate squirm under the hot lights just to see how he deals with a high-pressure situation – particularly if the job under discussion is of a similarly high-pressure nature. Platform testing (see page 322) has now largely superseded the stress interview as a means of measuring a candidate’s ability to perform under adverse conditions.

Interviewers may also use these tougher (sometimes bordering on offensive) questions to test your veracity. If you have been ‘flexible’ with the truth and they have discerned conflicting signals from your mouth and body, you can expect a few zingers to be flung at you.

The key thing to keep in mind if you find yourself on the back foot and scrabbling for an answer is that this isn’t personal. The interviewer is merely playing games with you and (unless she’s a complete fool) there’s a reason for the game-playing. One point of solace here – no interviewer is going to waste their time dressing down a no-hoper. If you are feeling the pressure mounting, it is a strong signal that the other side are taking you seriously.

Don’t look at the question head-on. Try and determine why it has been asked. This holds true for almost every question in the interview setting, but it is vital if you feel the interviewer is tightening the screws. So, slow it down, use your breathing (see page 390), look behind the question and answer with the maximum of aplomb and the minimum of flap.

Q: (If the interviewer notices something on your CV that you were hoping to gloss over …) I see you took longer than usual to gain qualification A – why was that? OR I see that you have a gap of X months between job B and job C – what were you doing in that time? OR Why did you leave job D after such a short time?
A: If such incidences exist in your past, assume that someone will know about them, spot them or hear about them through a reference check and be prepared to address them in a positive light (see page 196, Dirty Questions in the chapter on Interview Mapping).

Academic problems
‘I was an immature dolt, but I got a real wake-up call from that failure and I went on to …’ Unless you had a grievous illness or a death in the family, it’s pretty hard to sound convincing about any academic failure. Better to be disarmingly honest and move on. If this was a recent failure, I hope that you are able to show the interviewer the scar, or point to a missing limb ...

Gaps
What is the interviewer thinking? ‘Making license plates in prison? Nervous breakdown? Couldn’t get hired anywhere because of a bad reputation that I don’t know about yet?’ It’s reassurance time again, folks! Hopefully, your CV is not peppered with gaps. Were you considering your options? Travelling? – the ‘much-needed career break’ approach. Doing contract work to fund a job search for a more fulfilling career? What was the state of the market at that time? If it was buzzing and you couldn’t land a job, you are going to have some explaining to do.

Quick departures
These happen and they look just awful ...

See more on interviews here and more extracts from Where's My Oasis here

Extract from Where's My Oasis? (The Essential Handbook For Everyone Wanting That Perfect Job) by Rowan Manahan. © Published by Vermilion (Random House) and priced at £12.99stg (circa €18.00), the book is available at all good booksellers and online through Easons and Amazon. More details here.