Interview tip: How to describe what you did at your previous job
Over the years, we at the JobMag Centre have interviewed thousands of candidates from diverse backgrounds. From our experience, the most impressive candidates are those that respond to questions with clear, articulate and result-driven answers. When we ask, “tell us about your previous work experience”, the best responses also contain relevant figures and data to describe their roles, but most importantly, their achievements.
Let’s take an example — we are looking to recruit a Customer Service Officer for our client, an online and offline retail company, and there are two candidates vying for the job: Tunde and Funmi. During their interviews, we asked them to tell us what they did on their prior jobs. These are the responses we got:
Look at the responses we got from both candidates
Both candidates answered the question with using similar points. But the difference is the way they presented their answers. While Tunde’s answers were rather generic, Funmi’s answers were clear, articulate and result-driven.
Quick question: Have you ever thought about it this way before? If you were the interviewer, which candidate would you pick, and why? Share your thoughts with us.
