HR Interview Tips for Candidates
The interview is one of the most crucial parts of the recruiting process. As they say, it’s not the CV but the interview that gets you the job! This is because, for a recruiter, it gives one a better opportunity to assess the qualifications and skills of a candidate. Bear in mind that most CVs are loaded with buzzwords and sometimes unverified information. Most people will do or say almost anything to get a job considering the high unemployment rates. This means for the candidate, an interview is your chance to prove what’s on paper and why you’re the best candidate for the job. The structure of an in-person interview(these days even video) follows different formats but mostly, the questions fall into these 4 categories:
People
Questions posed here are aimed at understanding your interpersonal skills and self-awareness. Whether you will be dealing with servers or not, the reality is no job is a one-man show so this requires you to acquire certain skills to enable you to work well with others. Some questions here can include;
i. Tell me about a time you disagreed with your manager/supervisor and how did you handle it?
ii. Are you a team or solo player?
Business
The recruiter wants to know that you have done your research about what the company is about. You may be asked here about the company mission, vision, values, etc, and how you feel they integrate with yours. Sometimes a recruiter will even want someone who’s worked in the same field/industry as the company so if you’re interviewing in a bank and you’ve worked in a bank before, this can be a great value add to your candidature. So don’t forget to highlight this and more importantly how it will make your work easier in the new job as you have prior knowledge and understanding of the intricacies involved in that industry.
Role
Have you properly read the job description or advert? Like seriously read it? Make sure to take your time in understanding the role. Don’t overlook anything. This does not mean the job ad is a checklist where you need to tick off all the duties. Some candidates even dismiss themselves in this part because they feel they can’t do 100% of what the ad requires. Especially female candidates. Here’s a Harvard Business Review Article on this topic entirely. We just mean, you should show a deep understanding of the job and how you’re the best person to perform it.
Having read the terms and feeling confident about the role responsibilities, be prepared to answer task-related questions to evaluate your grasp of competence level i.e. can you get THIS job done? For instance, if you’re an accountant, some questions will be about accounting principles, how you’ve implemented them before, budgeting, reporting, and proper bookkeeping techniques.
Challenges
As recruiters, we also understand that no job is perfect so we want to know, have you thought of what can make your new job harder? What kind of problems can you expect in the execution of your duties? And of course possible remedies to those problems.
Check out our series on CV writing for more job search tips like https://medium.com/jobonics/what-every-candidate-should-consider-when-writing-their-cv-part-2-6a397855fae7
