To show you are an exceptional candidate, you must be prepared for when going into your interview. Questions start rolling in from the moment the interview starts, ranging from inquiries about your qualifications, career interests, and experience to your personality. Here are some examples of general interview questions:

1. Tell me about yourself. This is the mother of all common interview questions. Have a short statement prepared, but be careful not to sound rehearsed. Limit it to work-related topics and talk about what you have done and jobs you’ve held that are relative to what you are applying for.
2. Why did you leave you last job? It is important that you stay positive no matter what circumstances you’re in. Don’t mention major problems with management and don’t badmouth supervisors, co-workers or the organization. Mention an opportunity, a chance to do something special or other positive reasons for leaving.
3. What do you know about this company? This is one reason why you need to do some research on the company prior to the interview. Find out as much as you can about the company, where it’s been and the direction it is going. Know the current issues and the major players in the industry.
4. Why do you want to work for us? This will take some thought and should be based on the research you did prior to the interview. Be sincere and relate it to your long-term career goals.
5. What are your experiences in this industry? Be specific in talking about past experiences relevant to the position you are applying for. Get as close as you can if you do not have specific experiences. Be honest.
6. Are you applying to other companies? Be honest but do not linger too long on this subject. Stay focused on this job and what you can do for this company.
7. Are you a team player? Of course you are. Have specific examples of how you often perform with the team in mind ready. Say it in a matter-of-fact tone though, it is important not to brag.

No Matter What, Stay Calm

Try to stay calm as much as possible during the interview. If you’re not sure what your interviewer is asking, ask for clarification. Keep in mind that it is perfectly acceptable to take your time when framing your answers to the interview questions. Thank your interviewer afterwards for giving you the opportunity. Follow these tips and soon your dream job will stop being just a dream.

Job interviews can be pretty stressful, regardless of whether you have been to interviews more often than you can count. You’re always meeting new people, selling your skills and yourself, and getting drilled on what you know. Proper preparation will help ease some of the stress in general job interviews. Before you know it, you’ll be telling your friends & family “I aced my interview!”

Preparing for the Interview

Your first step in preparing for your interview is to do research. A crucial factor in successful interviews is gathering background information on the company you are applying for. It just might be what you need to separate yourself from the rest of the applicants.

That said, most candidates don’t have the slightest clue on where to start looking for company information. Some even make the mistake of calling the company and risking their number being matched up to their resume or the receptionist recognizing their voice when they come in for the interview.

Instead, you should be looking to the World Wide Web in researching your company. Depending on the position of the department that you will be interviewing for, you may want to familiarize yourself with the company’s mission statement, product lines, employee code of conduct and general company information.

During the Interview

First, it is important to stay calm, cool and collected. While this sounds cliché, getting stressed right before or during your interview will do nothing but hurt your job chances. Instead, employ stress relieving techniques such as deep breathing and simply keeping a smile on your face. While the summary something your mother told you to do in fifth grade, it really does loosen up the atmosphere of the interview, allow you to relax and ultimately demonstrate your skills and show your full potential.

If you have not already, take a look at some other of my posts and familiarize with your so with common interview questions and answers. While you might not know if your interview will be a behavioral or competency based, I assure you that being prepared for any type of question will not hurt your chances.

After the Interview

No matter how you feel the interview went, make sure to send a thank you letter to the interviewer. Also be sure to follow up about a day or two later to make sure that the interviewer knows you are serious and excited about the potential position. Depending on what the interviewer tells you, you often want to follow up another 2 to 4 times before you give up your hopes on the position.

In Closing

While this is a good general overview of how an ideal interview process would transpire, it is important that you find further information. Specifically, I offer a plethora of information on this blog and also have an exclusive, yet completely free Interview Newsletter to all potential job candidates. To sign up now, either click the link below or sign-up between the orange arrows to the right.

The following are some of the competences that companies might look for in competency interviews, followed by sample questions.

• Communication: Give a situation where you had to explain something complex to a co-worker or customer. How did you make your message clear? How do you know they understood you?

• Creativity and Innovation: Give occasions where you believed an orthodox approach to a project or task wasn’t suitable. What objections did you face? Was your idea implemented? How did the outcome turn out?

• Teamwork: Has there been a time where you have had to deal with conflicts in your team? What did you do to resolve the conflict? What was the outcome?

• Team Development: Tell me about a time when you shared your knowledge with someone less experienced. How did you share your knowledge? What happened afterwards?

• Decision making: Share with me a time when you had to make a quick decision with out having all the information available. How did you decide? Was it the right decision?

• Flexibility and Adaptability: Give a situation when you had to modify your plans in the middle of the project given new information. What was the new information and what was its implication? What was the result?

• Leadership and Management: Tell me about a situation where you encountered resistance to the direction you were going from your team. What were their reasons? How did you overcome the resistance?

• Commitment: To ensure a goal was achieved, have you ever made a personal sacrifice? What was the goal? What sacrifice did you make? How did you feel afterwards?

• Delegation: Give an experience where you delegated a task to the wrong person. How and when did you realize your mistake? What did you learn from this experience?

• Sensitivity: Tell me about a time when you had to make a decision that was unpopular. How did you implement it?

• Legalities: An employee approaches you with a legal matter such as they were hurt on the job or were harassed by another employee. How to you handle the situation? In general, what would you advise they do?

The sample competency interview questions provided above offer a very good basis to start your preparation. Simply make sure you have comprehensive answers to all the questions and you will be on your way to a great interview.

Competency based interviewing is a style of interviewing which is being increasingly used in large organizations. It is often used to evaluate a candidate’s knowledge, especially when selection based on technical merit is difficult.

Why use are Competency Interviews used?

Competency based interviews are used more and more these days in the selection process for experienced recruitment. That is because it gives valuable insights into an individual’s preferred working style, possible behaviors in future situations and level of expertise. There are commonly two approaches to this kind of interview:

1. A series of questions are asked, targeted at each of your core competencies.
2. In-depth probing questions which the interviewer listens to for clues that provide evidence the candidate possesses the necessary skills.

Traditional vs. Competency Based

Knowing the difference between a traditional interview and a competency based interview will allow you an easier time in acing your upcoming interview. By taking the questions you’re used to and modifying them into competency based questions, I guarantee that you will feel comfortable in your upcoming competency interview.

Traditional job interviews do is focus on questions that relate to the interviewee’s past industry experiences, which often have straight forward answers. In a competency based interview however, industry experience is even more crucial.

In a competency based interview, interviewers will instead ask questions that will determine whether an applicant has a particular skill or competency they are looking for. This will be done by asking applicants situational examples from past experiences, and demonstrating their personality, skills, abilities and attitude to the interviewer.

Five Easy Steps

1. Ensure you know exactly what the employer is looking for. Study the job description and even take a look at the company’s website.
2. Make a quick list of past experiences that both you have thrived in and also examples in which you could have made better decisions. Know how to follow both of these up with further explanation.
3. Document your previous work experience and make sure that you can answer any irregularities. These include, but are not limited to, under qualification and any gaps in work history.
4. Prepare with sample competency interview questions and know how to answer each and every one of them before going into your next interview.
5. Have a friend or family member read over your examples and give you some tips on ones you may not have thought of.
6. Compile a list of 3 to 5 selling points that you can end the interview strongly with.

Candidates who prepare for their behavioral interviews are much better prepared to face the interviewer. So what is the best way to prepare for an upcoming behavioral interview? Here are some tips:

• Try to remember specific situations or projects that you have dealt with. Refresh your memory on these and prepare stories that show how you have solved problems successfully or performed excellently. These will prove useful in helping you respond expressively in your interview.
• Keep a mental tally of accomplishments before you walk into the interview.
• Have a predetermined list of workplace and industry of accomplishments that you can easily rattle off to an interviewer.
• Keep future goals in mind, and ensure that they relate to the workplace. You do not want to bring in personal or family goals into an interview. Ever!
• Think about the job description in the job posting or classified ad. You will get an idea about what kind of skills and characteristics the employer is look for. Once you understand what they are looking for, you can begin to reflect on specific experiences where you have demonstrated these skills. Consult with an adviser in career services if you don’t have a job description.
• To your preliminary research on the company you will be interviewing for an insure you know their needs and wants
• Recognize your top selling points and think about how you will express these points during the interview. Quantify your results whenever you can.
• Have a few personal selling points on hand that you can use as a closing statement for your behavioral interview.

In the End

Keep in mind that no matter what you say, ensure it is all 100% factual and you are not fabricating anything. This includes schooling, degrees or any other industry or vocational experience.

Also keep in mind that it is important to bear in mind that there are no right or wrong answers to behavioral interview questions. The interviewer just wants to find out how you behaved in a given situation.  They are trying to find out if your skills match the position they are trying to fill. So, listen carefully to the questions being asked, give clear and detailed answers, and finally, be honest.

How interviewees act in specific employment-related situations is the basis of behavioral interviewing. The assumption behind it is that how you will behave in the future depends on how you behaved in the past. It primarily focuses on job-related experiences, behaviors, knowledge, skills and abilities. So how is it different from traditional interviews?

The Difference from Traditional Interview

Questions which normally have straight forward answers are asked in a traditional interview. Example questions asked in a traditional interview are “Describe a typical work week” or  ”What are your strengths and weaknesses?” or “What challenges and problems have you faced? How did you handle them?”

In contrast, during a behavioral interview an employer decides what specific job/industry skills he needs in the person he is hiring and will ask questions to find out if the interviewee has those skills. In a behavioral interview, he will ask how you behaved instead of how you would behave. The interview is all about how you handled a situation rather than what you might do in the future.

Behavioral interview questions

Compared to traditional interview questions, behavioral interview questions will be more specific, more prying, and more pointed. Here are some behavioral interview questions.

• Have you made a decision that was unpopular in the workplace? How did you handle its implementation?
• Give an example of a situation where your schedule was interrupted. How did you handle it?
• Give an example where you had to convince a team to work on a project they weren’t enthusiastic about. How did you do it?
• Was there an occasion where you had to handle a difficult situation with a co-worker? How did you deal with it?
• How have you effectively worked under pressure?
• Describe a situation where you were faced with a stressful situation. How did you cope with it?
• Give an occasion where you developed preventive measures in anticipation of potential problems.
• Elaborate on a difficult decision you made in the last 6 months.
• Tell me about a time when you lead a group of coworkers onto a successful project.
• When dealing with conflict between coworkers, what is the first thing you do?
• If you have an employee that is habitually late, how do you handle the situation?
• How would you handle an issue between yourself and a superior?
• Explain a time when you successful sold a proposal to a boss.
• What is your technique for daily prioritizing?

You might be asked about how you reacted, how you felt, what you did or what you said in various situations. Follow-up questions can be even more detailed, so be prepared to give detailed answers.

What are Interview Mentors?

Interview mentors help job applicants in preparing for their job interviews. They guide the interviewees through the dos and don’ts of taking an interview. They also help provide the applicants with all the possible questions and guide them to providing the most appropriate answers.

What Do They Do?

As the name itself implies, interview mentors coach applicants in preparation for their interview. They help build up an applicant’s profile by providing them with the right tools to sell themselves successfully to companies. They may also help the applicants in building up their resume since this will be looked at by the company prior to the interview.

Most importantly, interview mentors will provide what is appropriate in an interview. They will provide you with possible questions that may be asked by the interviewer(s). They will help you find the right words to say in building up your previous work experience. If this is your first job you will be advised on how to highlight your accomplishments, tell you what to avoid, and provide general info that would be appropriate for the job that you will be applying for.

Most interview questions focus on situational experiences where you will be asked about a problem you have recently handled, your reaction to that problem and the result of your actions. This type of interview is called a behavioral interview. In addition, you might also be asked some questions about these situations on how you could have handled them better.

An interview mentor will help you to provide answers in these situations that will be based on your previous experiences. They will tell you what to highlight as important and what not to. Interviews are a way of selling yourself to the company. As so, knowing what to highlight and what not to is an important point to remember when answering the questions in an interview.