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March 2006 ISSUE

INSIGHT

An Interview Isn’t Always About Technical Skills

 

Editor’s Note: The following article is tailored from notes from Ginny Nicholson, CMA, APEGGA’s former Manager of Administration and Human Resources. Although Ginny has moved on to another position, we’ll continue offering her insight on job hunting as space in our Careers section permits.
Check out the June and November 2005, and February 2006 editions of The PEGG Online for earlier stories in this series.


One of the tools in the interviewer’s kit is the behavioural interview. It’s designed to find out what kind of person you are, more than what your actual technical skills are for the job.

There are three main types of behavioural interview, and you should be ready for them.

  • Stressful style — interviewer who wants to test you under pressure (uncommon)

  • Comfortable style — more common — drawing you out in a pleasant atmosphere

  • Team interviews — several people from the organization at once; can be intimidating, even if comfortable style is used.

I prefer the “comfortable style” always, but I tend to add a little spice by keeping the questions coming from different directions and in no logical order. Note that I always start off the interview with an orderly progression of technical questions, to get the person to relax.

Here’s more to consider when preparing for the behavioural interview.

  • Commonly asked questions — probing, attitude testing, how you think.

  • Each answer will need to be accompanied by one or more examples from your experiences. Don’t use the same example repeatedly.

  • You may be asked to fill out some sort of personality-type test.

  • One behavioural attitude that will stand you in good stead in any interview for anything is a customer service attitude backed by examples. Study the customer service approach throughout your career, understand it and apply it to everything you do.

  • Ditto for using the quality approach, with examples to illustrate your understanding of its value.

  • Early in your education and career, read and study good works on delivering good leadership, customer service, and on the quality approach to business until you comprehend the concepts. Keep your own cheat sheets for key, life-long, valuable concepts like this.

Another interview to watch for is the phone pre-interview. It’s not common, but it’s starting to increase in occurrence.

Some companies have someone very good at reading people conduct a 20- 30 minute phone pre-interview.

  • Generally, purpose is to cull 20 positives down to 10 or similar numbers.

  • Often done when a good candidate lives some distance away.

  • Normally, the company arranges a call in advance, but some just call you and ask if they can ask you some questions to help them see if there might be a fit.

  • Questions likely both technical and behavioural.

  • A friend of mine who is high up in sales told me about a recent recruitment process that involved four interviews — two pre-phone screening interviews and two in person interviews. And even then she did not get the job — but the two who did had to go to two more interviews!

Now it’s time for the second or short-list interview. Congratulations — but there’s still work to be done.
This interview is generally conducted by a person higher up in the organization than you saw the first time, sometimes together with your potential boss.

  • Sometimes with co-workers who you would be working with.

  • Sometimes with staff you might be supervising.

  • Might be with a cross-section of staff within the organization.

  • Likely both technical and behavioral questions.

  • More likely that you would be asked to prepare a presentation for a second interview than the first.

  • You now have serious competition. Do not assume that you are “in” now. Work as hard and as smart in the second interview as you did to qualify for the first one.  Expect more senior people to be involved in the shortlist interview.

Never forget body language and behaviour, in any interview. They signal your interest and engagement.

  • Eye contact is crucial.

  • Rapport is very important.  It should be up to the interviewer to make you feel comfortable, but if not, try to “make a connection” yourself.

  • Don’t anticipate the ques-tion before it is finished.  Often, people end up answering the wrong question.

  • Don’t jump into your answers — everyone expects that it takes time to distill the question and collect thoughts.

  • If you feel you have answered the question fully, let silences happen. Many interviewers use silence as an intimidation tool. If there’s a valuable piece of information that’s related to the topic under discussion and you feel it is valuable to share it, then go ahead and fill in a silence period. But proceed with caution — some interviewers have found that if they leave long silences that’s when people jump in with their most revealing statements — I pulled arms off babies last week.

  • Try to avoid distracting habits, such as clicking a pen.
    How do you handle a poor interview — one with an interviewer who just doesn’t get it?


Here are the most common problems.

  • Lack of preparation

  • Interviewer regularly asks questions that call for a yes or no answer.

  • Concentrates solely on technical skills — very common

  • Asks irrelevant questions.

  • Has a short time frame, either by being late or talking too much.

  • Does not know the answers to your questions.
    And here’s what to do.

  • Answer the yes/no questions with a clear answer, adding examples or explanations that are appropriate.

  •   Whenever it fits, include in your answer a reference to a requirement in the job advertisement. Example — if asked an inappropriate question about computer assisted design and you’re an accountant (it happened to me), respond that you have not had to use CAD in any work to date — then explain the applications and processes you are comfortable with and why.

  • If the interviewer asks only questions on your technical skills, try to include in your answer some soft-skill or behavioural information. For example, if you are asked about how do you test for corrosion in a water pipe, try to begin with some project management skills.

  • If a question is too vague to understand what the person is getting at, take your best shot at paraphrasing. “Do I understand that you want me to tell you about widget manufacturing?” The interviewer will then say yes, or, if all goes well, clarify the question.

  • There are some things that you will likely not be able to do anything about — if he/she is late or on a short time frame. You may want to suggest if the time frame is very short that you could come back at a more convenient time. There are also some legal recourses if you feel you have not been treated fairly.

  • If the interviewer is doing most of the talking, at an appropriate time, try tactfully butting in along the lines of “I’m glad you mentioned that requirement.”

  • Help the interviewer discover more about you by the questions you ask.

  • Have a plan for and prepare for the possibility that your interviewer may not be effective. The more prepared you are to have an interview, the more likely you will be able to rescue a poor interviewer and make yourself look very good in the process.