Hi guys! This is Cesc Derrill and welcome back to my newest article!
In my previous article I talked about how to prepare for a face to face interview. But now you have to go for it girl! What should you expect? How should you behave? Does your hair look ok? Did you remember to put on clean knickers? All very reasonable questions.
So today I will be giving you tips on how to be ready and perform well in an interview.
Agenda
Before going to the interview you should be given an agenda of how long the session will take and what it will entail. And if you were not, then just ask for it honey!
Usually a F2F interview will last between 2 and 3 hours but that is not a rule, it is anyone’s game.
An example of a typical interview schedule would be:
- Introductions and formalities
- Driving through the candidate’s career history.
- IQ/aptitude tests
- Wrap up and candidate’s questions
But again, this is just an example of what you can find. There are multiple factors that play in the agenda of an interview: the job position, the company, the urgency, the candidate’s experience, etc. For example, depending on the company you might undergo a multi stage interview process or depending on the job position you might be interviewed by different levels of stakeholders.
Tricky questions
In my article about phone interviews I introduced some of what I call tricky questions. Yeah, some. That means there are more! Let’s see some more which I think will cover the most common ones.
Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
This question is far too broad so I recommend that you concentrate on your professional self, on your qualities, and on where do you see your career going. You can throw in some personal details but the main thread has to be around your career.
What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?
This can be one or two separate questions. I recommend that you begin with your strengths which will, OF COURSE, be more than your weaknesses. So mention around 5 of your strengths and then mention 2 weaknesses.
Now weaknesses are not about showing red flags to the interviewer! This is about honesty and self-awareness. Do not be extremely honest and talk about how sometimes you think of how terrible the last MET Gala was and how you were sick and depressed due to the anxiety it caused you.
Just mention minor weaknesses, we are all humans, we have moments of weakness and we have to know how to deal with them. This is what you have to do, mention a moment of weakness and how you dealt with it effectively.
What has been your greatest achievement in your career?
Now if you followed my guidelines to write your CV you will probably already have a nicely written script of your biggest achievements during your career. If you did not (Shame! Shame! Shame! … bell sound), then I recommend you do an introspective exercise and go through your career experience and highlight the most important moments and successes. For instance:
- I got an award
- I got promoted
- I gave a mayor win to my company
- I got a certificate
- I improved my team’s productivity
Tell me about a challenge or conflict and how you dealt with it?
Now the first thing I would ask myself is: what do they mean by challenge or conflict? They want to know if you faced a moment at work in which you had a problem with a person, deadline or any situation in which something has been making it difficult for you to perform your duties and be successful.
What are they looking for? They are looking to understand your behaviour better. They want to make sure that you behave professionally and that you can achieve a resolution or compromise when coping with challenges and conflicts.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
There is a misconception of this question. They do not necessarily want you to say that you see yourself working for that company your whole life. They just want to know if you are planning on keeping a path related to the job position you are interviewing for. So if your plan is to be grilling hamburgers in your food truck in 5 years time and you are interviewing for a programming position, you might want to reconsider your answer.
On the other hand if your plan is to progress and climb the ladder, that is fine, you can say so. As long as you are not overly ambitious:
Interviewer: Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Candidate: In your chair, but asking better questions.
Farewell
Ok guys, this is it for now. As always, if you have any questions or comments please leave them down below and I will try to answer you the best I can.
Have a lovely day and until the next article!