Probably the best answer is to just say you don’t know and maybe how you would go about finding out. If you try and fake it, I’ll probably know and it will just make things worse. I’m looking for how you answer questions as much as the answer themselves.
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Ah, I phrased that badly: I’m asking after how to recover from a question that’s thrown you after you’ve answered - and likely got it completely wrong.
I do. That’s why I still try to interview them for the entire half hour. Sometimes my opinion changes.
When I interviewed for a division of a large corporation that would eventually be split off and become a large multinational corporation, I was asked why I wanted the job. Since I was an active helicopter pilot at the time, my answer was ‘To support my hobbies.’ (I got the job anyway.)
Msmith537, you quoted my question but didn’t answer it.
Can I borrow $186?
But the truth is surely that you want the job because it’s a reasonable amount of money given the amount of lost time and unpleasantness one will be required to suffer. And the answer to why I should be hired is that I would do the job moderately competently for a reasonable fee.
You seem to interview for jobs that require skills of some sort. Degree and that. Have you ever been interviewing for a job that could be done by a trained chimp? Have you ever found yourself basically tossing a coin to decide between various competent candidates?
I need to do mock interviews to get feedback.
I feel like I exude something offputting for some reason (I get rejected a lot for dates and jobs). I say that because it took me a year of trying to get my first job out of college. And my manager kindof said she gave it to me out of pity (she said she knew it was really hard to get a first job out of college and basically implied she hired me because she knew how hard it was. She told me this a year later when she was letting me go due to the economic slowdown). A lot of the other people at the place I used to work only looked for 2-5 months to find their first job.
However, once I got the job I was one of the best workers there. My productivity was higher, I got along well with everyone, I caught mistakes other employees were making (including those who’d been there for 20 years) and brought them to their attention w/o rudeness. As a result I got along well and everyone who I worked with (both of mangers & all 3 coworkers, not including the recent grads but just including those who’d been there for 15+ years) offered to be a reference. There were 2 different QC teams, and they actually fought over which one would get me to work on their team.
Like I said, I need to get to the bottom of why. I make friends easily. But getting my foot in the door is hard. I have had friends tell me they have gotten every job they’ve ever interviewed for. Personally, I could never begin to do that. I think there is something ‘off’ about me that pushes people away until they get to know me. Could be the weird life I’ve led making me come across as weird. Probably. I don’t know.
So, I have some questions along those lines.
If someone is ‘offputting’ somehow but they have good references, which would you go with? For example, I think/believe I make people uncomfortable in person which may push them away. However I have references from several people who each have decades of work experience in my field. So which would you go with, the references or the personal impression? What can an interviewee do to persuade you to pick one over the other?
If someone has something negative, and they bring it up does that affect your view of them? I read a job interview book which said you should always ask at the end of the interview ‘is there anything about me you feel would prevent me from getting along well here or doing the job’ because if you don’t they’ll hold that against you. Do you prefer the people you interview try to bring up their shortcomings? I had a job interview once where I knew I wasn’t going to get it. I could tell by the guy’s body language. However I didn’t ask for feedback. Not so I could get that job, but so I knew what to change for the next interview.
I was let go due to the recession, but when I told my manager I had taken most of my money to pay off student loans (rather than buy luxury items), she said I should bring that up in job interviews because it shows long range planning and responsibility. But how would one do that w/o it being awkward for interviewer and interviewee? Would you find that manipulative
Do you or anyone else have books or ideas on how to give a good impression via body language or snap judgements? I need to get a copy of blink, but I’m sure tons of other books and ideas are out there.
FTR, I’m not normally this insecure but I’m really concerned, especially in this economy, if something about me pushes people away at first and what I can do to rectify it.
Well, clearly your attitude would make it difficult to get hired at nearly any job.
This particular job pays reasonably well but has the potential to lead to jobs that pay extremely well. Partners and directors at my firm make several hundred thousand a year and up. Simply having the company name on your resume opens many doors much in the same way having Google, Microsoft or Goldman Sachs does. But if you work here, you will often have to work long hours and weekends and travel extensively. You’re expected to come up with creative solutions to client’s problems and they are paying a lot of money for you to do so.
Basically, we are looking for people who are ambitious and driven. People who are looking for a joby-job just to pay the bills aren’t a good fit. They’ll probably either get frustrated and quit or underperform and get fired anyway.
References are clearly important. But ultimately an interview is about connecting with the interviewer. How are you making people uncomfortable? Do you make offputing comments? Do you give off a “creepy” vibe? Are you stiff and awkward?
I’ll often specifically ask them what they feel their shortcomings are. What I want to see is that they are self-aware enough to realize they aren’t awesome at everything and that they are taking steps to address those shortcomings.
As an interviewee, I wouldn’t delve too deeply into them. It’s enough to say "
I would consider it an innappropriate topic for an interview and disregard it.
There are plenty of books. Really the best advice I think is to practice interviewing with someone who is professionally more senior than you who can give you good feedback. If you have access to a videocamera, that might help as well.
**
Lakai ** - Generally I’m impressed by non-technical responses that show some sort of leadership or demonstrate character.
Say nothing?
Bump.
I’m generally trying to figure out what kind of person you are. Are you a loner or a team-oriented person? Do you like to take charge but can you also take direction?
Keep in mind a lot of these questions don’t have a right or wrong answer. How you answer is often more important than what you answer. Do you show passion, but with a restrained professionalism? Are you trying to impress me with rhetoric and false enthusiasm, or can you provide concrete examples?
Let me give an example without being too specific. I’m interviewing a candidate who swore up and down he is a “fast learner” and a “creative problem solver”. Well, when I asked him about his GPA, it was well below a 3.0. That doesn’t scream “fast learner” to me. It’s also well below the minimum for even interviewing with us. I asked him to provide an example of a time he came up with a creative solution to a problem and his solution was essentially the simplest, most obvious approach, just with more people tossed at it. So immediately with both these examples, I felt he was basically feeding me a lot of lip service and interviewing guide BS. It’s easy to say you are dedicated, motivated, and hard working. Show me an example.
I generally view military service neutrally to favorably. My particular area of expertise is in computer forensics and fraud investigation and it attracts a lot of ex-law enforcment and ex-intelligence agency types.
I don’t think anyone ever actually reads the application forms. They just get filed with HR.
I’d be careful with funny comments. I generally like to see a bit of humor, but other interviewers might not. You have to be careful your comment isn’t interpreted as bitter sarcasm.
You skipped this question entirely, and I was interested in your thoughts on it:
If you ask me “What is your greatest weakness?” and I pretend to reflect, then say “I’m not saying.” Is that a good response, or would you find that inappropriate?
Would you hire an aged 50+ person, newly out of college?
What *is *an acceptable answer to 'why do you want this job?"
What *is *an acceptable answer to 'what can you do for the company?"
I think that any *truthful *answers would be
Q. 1. For the money. If they want self actualization, they will have it with the money, and
Q. 2. “Account.” which, to me translates into, ‘be a drone’. Which is no answer, so, what’s the real answer? Because, other than a drone for which any one of a million accountants would be qualified, can anybody do anything out of the ordinary ‘for the company’ until they reach the company’s stratosphere level?
So, can you give good examples to the last two questions, as well as the ‘weakness’ questions?
Oh, smokin’ hot babe w/ 4.0 gpa, or swishy dweeb w/4.0 gpa. Who gets it, if a choice is necessary?
Thanks,
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IANTOP, but some of the things my brother (former treasurer, now controller(international)) has done to improve his company’s performance have been triggered by something the type-the-data-in accountants had detected. One of them would say “we’re paying different commisions to different banks for the same operation, and we have similar volumes with those banks”: bro would grab the data, research why and when was each bank being used (to know what his margin of manoeuver was) and negotiate lower fees.
So one thing you can do is “be alert for improvement opportunities for the company and act upon them” or some such. Depending on the exact position, the “act upon them” will mean “bring them to the attention of Those Who Can Do” or it will mean something else.
Re: Greatest weakness question:
I don’t think it’s a great questions because people always try to come up with a canned answer in order to make themselves look infallible.
I generally phrase the question as “what would you like to improve about yourself professionally?”. To a certain extent, I am trying to determine if you are aware of the weaknesses that I have already gleaned from your resume and our conversation so far. For the interviewee, this is an opportunity to bring up any reasons I might already think they are not the best candidate and then convince me that it is something they are working on.
For example, if you changed jobs every 18 months for the past 3 jobs, that indicates a weakness. If you are applying for a job that is radically different from your education, that is a weakness. This is your opportunity to show me how you are turning it into a strength.
Do you think being intentionally vauge or argumentative is a good interviewing strategy?
Would you be comfortable being a new associate where the average age in the firm is like 28? Would you have a problem taking direction from a 35 year old manager?
It depends on the position and your experience. At 50, you may just be out of college, but I assume you have 30+ experience years working at something.
I can tell you what will hurt your chances is the “I’m older and smarter than these dumb kids” attitude if that’s how you come accross during the interview.
All jobs pay money. Be more specific. Why did you choose this industry? If it’s just about money, why aren’t you looking for jobs as a stockbroker, trader or investment banker? They tend to pay more money.
Consulting tends to be an industry for people who have an interest in business and problem solving.
Again, I have a dozen candidates all with accounting or MIS degrees who can “account” or “program” or whatever. This is your chance to convince me I should choose you over them. In your case, you have 30+ years experience doing whatever it is you did before your degree. Convince me that is an asset.
We don’t hire “drones” although many associate tasks can be drone-like at times. Another aspect of consulting is that it attracts people who want to get a wide variety of experience in a lot of different areas.
Looking around my office, apparently it’s the dweeb.
Hey, I’m a consultant: I get hired on a project basis. The majority of my job changes have been due to “end of project;” the others all took place within the probationary period.
The last time I stayed in one job for 18 months… well, if you ask the Government(s) involved, I actually had three sequential jobs with three companies of the same Group, in two different countries.
Thanks for the interesting thread, msmith537.
Do you think it’s ever a good idea to mention being a member of Mensa, or would it come across as braggy?
That isn’t the same. I’m referring to full-time positions. We generally recognize when someone is a consultant / contractor and that the nature of their engagements is short term.
I might ask you to “do something smart” during the interview.
I used to work for a Big 4 Accounting/Consulting firm. Is there a code word we can use to see if we worked at the same place?
I was in internal operations (HR), not accounting or consulting, so I’m pretty sure you didn’t interview me.
So…do you have any additional questions about what we do here?