5.1．Prenting Yourlf Successfully - Before, During &After Your Job Interview
Before Your Job Interview:
•Learn all you can about the company or organization; learn as much as you can so that your questions are sophisticated and knowledgeable during the interview.
•Be prepared to answer and ask questions. (e our sample questions)
•Prepare your clothes for your interview,
•Prepare a pen and notebook for taking notes during interview,
During Your Job Interview:
•Arrive 10 to 15 minutes early.
•Treat all people you encounter with professionalism and kindness.
•Maintain a professional image.
•Don't chew gum or smell like smoke. Don't take cell phone calls during an interview.
•Never interrupt the interviewer,
•Be aware of your non-verbal behavior
•Be enthusiastic, confident and energetic, but not aggressive, pushy or egotistical. That fine line is important. Be confident and reassuring and calm.
•Don't make negative comments about previous employers, professors or others.
•Listen very carefully and give thoughtful, to-the-point and honest answers.
•Establish a follow-up plan
•When the interviewer concludes the interview, offer a firm handshake and make eye contact. Depart gracefully.
After the Interview:
•Make notes right away so you don't forget critical details.
•Write a personal thank-you note to the person who interviewed you and nd itwithin 48 hours of the interview.
•Don't call the employer back immediately, they will contact you when they have madetheir decision
5.2．Successfully Answer Behavioral Questions in Your Job Interview
The "behavioral" interviewer will ask you open-ended questions that will cau you to describe real circumstances and your respons to them. General answers about behavior are not what the employer is looking for. You must describe in detail a particular event, project, or experience and you dealt with the situation, and what the outcome was. The premi behind behavioral interviewing is that the most accurate predictor of future performance is past performance in similar situations.Although it will be more difficult to prepare concrete answers in advance to the interviews (as oppod to traditional ones),
you can and should take some time to review your understanding of yourlf, your past success and concrete examples of your accomplishments. Work on honesty, sincerity and candidness. When you start to tell a behavioral story, the interviewer may try to sort out the details by understanding your behaviors. The interviewer will probe for more depth, detail or understanding with questions like:“What were you thinking at that point?” or “Tell me more about what you discusd with that person.” If you’ve told a story that’s anything but totally honest, your respon will not hold up through the probes.
If you have a spou or friend that can po as an interviewer for you, it can be helpful for you to practice answering open-ended questions, such as the following. Have your friend probe further:
•Tell me about a time that you demonstrated initiative?
•Describe a situation when have you motivated yourlf to complete an assignment or task that you did not want to do?
•Think about a difficult boss, professor or other person. What made him or her difficult? How did you successfully interact with this person?
•Think about a complex project or assignment that you have been assigned. What approach did you take to complete it?
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Tell me about the riskiest decision that you have made. What were your considerations in making that particular decision?
•Can you tell me about an occasion where you needed to work with a group to get a job done? What were the challenges and difficulties and how did you face the?
•Describe a situation when you or a group that you were a part of were in danger of missing a deadline. What did you do?
•Tell me about a time when you worked with a person who did things very differently from
you. How did you get the job done? Would you work with that person again if given the choice?
•Describe your three greatest accomplishments to date.
•Tell me about a situation when you had to learn something new in a short time.How did you proceed?
•Can you tell me about a complex problem that you solved? Describe the process you utilized.
•Give me an example of a time when you had to make a split cond decision.
•Give me an example of a bad decision that you made and what you learned from that mistake?
•Tell me about a time when something you tried to accomplish and failed. What did you learn from that failure?
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Tell me about a time when you misd an obvious solution to a problem. What
did you learn from that mistake?
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Tell me about a challenge that you successfully met.
•
Describe a situation when you had to go above and beyond the call of duty in
order to get a job done.
•
Plea tell me about one or two unpopular decisions you have made. What were
the positive and negative outcomes of tho decisions?
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What leadership positions have you held? Describe your leadership style. What
aspects of your leadership style have you changed or deleted once you learned
that the aspects were not successful?
•
Give me a specific example of a time when you ud good judgment and logic in
solving a problem.
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Summarize a situation where you successfully persuaded others to do something
or to e your point of view. Tell me about a time when you had to u your
