Interviews Can Be Nerve
- Some of the most recurrent mistakes job candidates make are not following up, checking in too much and arriving late to the interview.
- Hiring managers also make mistakes, such as allowing social media to influence their decisions, talking too much during the interview, or not stating their objectives.
- If you do make a mistake, the best thing you can do is acknowledge it quickly and rectify it.
- This article is for job candidates preparing for the interview process and interviewers looking to make the right impression with candidates.
Interviewing can be an anxiety-inducing experience for job candidates. More often than not, this anxiety can cause prospects to make avoidable mistakes before, during and after interviews. Not that interviewers are perfect either they can fall into common traps that lead to poor hiring decisions. Read on to best prepare yourself for the interview.
What The Experts Say
This waiting period between your interview and the companys decision is so stressful because often, you and the organization do not share the same sense of urgency, says John Lees, the UK-based career strategist and author of Get Ahead in Your New Job. While youre singularly focused on whether or not you got the job, they have plenty of other things to deal with. Lees warns that during this time, youre at risk of counterproductive behaviors, including doubting your own abilities, coming across to your prospective employer as desperate, and perhaps worst of all not pursuing other jobs. While the hiring decision is out of your hands at this point, youre not powerless, according to John Sullivan, a professor of management at San Francisco State University and author of 1000 Ways to Recruit Top Talent. There are some immediate actions after an interview that can provide a candidate with a competitive advantage, he says.
Tell Me About A Time You Made A Mistake And How You Corrected It
Tips for your response
Sample response
At my former company, my team accidentally sent out an incorrect order to one of our accounts. It was a bit of a logistical nightmare, but we worked hard to correct our mistakes promptly while providing clear, consistent communication. Its important to prioritize delivering exceptional customer service and maintaining positive relationships with our accounts. Due to this, with management permission, we offered our account a modest discount.
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Your Stage In The Hiring Process
For starters, your stage in the hiring process is often a major determinant of how long it will take to hear back after an interview. Waiting to hear back after interviewing with the recruiter, for instance, will look different than waiting on a final hiring decision.
Consider the fact that moving to the next round in the interview process often only requires the sign-off of one or two people, while extending a job offer can necessitate the approval of multiple departments.
What Challenges Are You Lacking In Your Current Job
While I liked my last position, I wanted to work for a company with a bigger client base. I am excited to work at a company that has world-renowned clients in the industry all over the world.
Underneath the surface, interviewers are asking one thing: Why are you leaving your current job? Remain diplomatic when answering this question. In other words, dont mention terrible coworkers or incompetent bosses. Those types of comments reflect poorly on you rather than your previous team. Instead, focus on your future and opportunities.
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For More Information About What To Do After A Job Interview:
- Turning Rejection into Opportunity IF you dont get the job, but you did like the employer
About the author
Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. A veteran of the United States Marine Corps and a recent Visiting Scholar at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Susan is a two-time layoff graduate who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. Since 1998, Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt.org. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg and on , .
What Are The Best Questions To Ask At A Second Interview
The initial round of interviews is useful for establishing a shortlist of candidates, before you spend more time drilling into the detail of whether they would be the right fit for a role. The second interview questions you ask can offer the insight you need to decide the best candidate for the role and your company but only if you ask different or at least more detailed second interview questions.
Here are a few second interview questions to ask your short-listed candidates to better assess whether the individual is the right fit for the position and for your company culture.
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Your Interest In The Job And Organisation
In a second interview, your interviewer wants to ensure you are still interested in the opportunity now that you know more about it. Your level of enthusiasm often directly correlates with how well you would perform if offered the role, so make sure you show the interviewer that you really want the job by being enthusiastic. Explain what you enjoyed learning about the organisation during your first interview and why youre so interested in this role specifically.
Dont forget about your non-verbal communication be aware of your body language, smile and make eye contact throughout your interview to express your interest.
What Are Your Short
Again, this is an attempt to figure out if your career path and the companys goals overlapone of the companys goals being that this role stays filled for a long time. So its not surprising that theyll be wondering how likely it is youll want to stick around for a while. Onboarding and training a new employee, even if they have relevant skills, is a labor intensive and costly process. Hiring managers are generally not that interested in investing in someone who plans on leaving in the next year or two. Goals that indicate a strong match and your willingness to stay put could be the things that give you a leg up over the other candidates brought in for a second interview.
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Tell Us About A Time There Was A Problem At Work And How You Helped Solve It
How to Answer “Tell Us About a Time”:
- Situation: Set the scene, what is the story youre trying to tell
- Task: Describe the problem youre trying to solve
- Action: Explain how you went about solving the problem
- Result: Share what outcomes your actions achieved
Example Answer: Pro Tip:
Tell Me About A Time You Demonstrated Leadership Skills
Companies want to hire employees who can take initiative and have confidence in their ideas. They also want to hire team players. This is a great question to practice beforehand.
Tips for your response
Use a specific anecdote if possible. Avoid generalizations and vague statements. This is your opportunity to share a meaningful experience with your potential employer. Do your best to demonstrate your leadership style. Why is leadership important? When and why are you willing to rise to the challenge?
Sample response
During my last job, I demonstrated consistent leadership abilities by training new hires. Due to my friendly, outgoing personality, I find that I am well-suited for welcoming new employees to a company. I am approachable and eager to answer questions and help foster a positive work environment. I have strong interpersonal communication skills and am passionate about maintaining healthy company culture.
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Remember Youre Always Being Scrutinised
Its common during second interviews in NZ for candidates to have a tour and meet their prospective team mates. Sometimes this could even involve having lunch with them.
While you want these people to think youre fun to be around, remember your interviewer will ask them for their impressions of you later on. So dont totally let loose.
There’s a chance you’ll meet the rest of the team during a second interview
Prepare Anything They Asked You To Bring
Chances are you were notified about your second interview email by phone or email. If they asked for samples of your work, or for you to prepare a task beforehand, make sure its ready to go at least the day before the interview.
Reliability is something all employers crave so its a really bad look if you leave this stuff at home.
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What Does A Second Interview Mean
If you get a second interview, does that mean you’re going to get the job or is this just the regular interviewing process? Spencer J.
Congratulations on acing your first interview round! Take a second to pat yourself on the back you’ve earned it. However, don’t start celebrating just yet.
A second interview is a great sign, but it does not mean you got the job. Every company is a little different when it comes to their hiring practices. Some organizations require multiple interview rounds before extending an offer to anyone, while others only require a second in-person interview to seal the deal. The number of interview rounds can also depend on the type of role that’s being filled. For instance, if an employer is hiring someone for the C-suite, you can assume the interview process will be quite lengthy.
The second interview means that the employer believes you meet the core job requirements and seem interested in the opportunity. The next round or rounds of interviews will be spent determining whether you are the best fit for the team.
At this point in the interview process, you may be asked to meet with additional members of the company, including peers, potential direct reports, and even your prospective manager’s boss in order to gain their approval.
Having trouble getting past the first in-person interview? An interview coach can help you overcome this hurdle.
Why Does It Take A Long Time To Hear Back After An Interview
There are many potential reasons why it takes so long to hear back after the job interview. Hiring managers go on vacation, team members needed for the hiring decision go on vacation or become busy with other obligations, and sometimes the entire team, department, or company will need to shift their focus to other priorities or even emergencies
So dont panic if youve been waiting a few days and havent heard any news from the employer.
People in the company need to find time to meet, compare notes and discuss your interview after youve left. Even if just one person met with you, theyll probably share their thoughts with their team, their boss, HR, etc.
And they need to compare you against the other candidates theyre considering. So it always takes some time to do that too.
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What Is Your Decision
Tips for your response
Sample response
In my previous position, I often had to make decisions about the companys marketing budget. Each time I was presented with a new marketing opportunity, I made sure to do my research and crunch some numbers. Its important to have a full understanding of the marketing potential of each opportunity in relation to its return on investment. During my decision-making process, I often make charts and graphs, as well as discuss pros and cons with my coworkers and managers.
Tips For Getting Top Candidates To Accept Your Offer:
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How To Prepare For A Second Interview
Now that you know the topics of focus for your second interview, you can prepare. Begin by building on the information you researched for your previous interview about the industry, company and role. As part of your research, read industry publications, news articles, the company’s website and annual report to get to know the business, its mission, goals, philosophy and management style.
Make sure you thoroughly review the job description, so you can relate your skills, interests and experiences to whats required.Then, think back to your first interview. What main areas did the hiring manager concentrate on? As mentioned, you should be prepared for an even more intensive focus on these topics this time. Preparation produces stronger responses, so think of new examples and information you can share when talking about your achievements.
Also review the information that was shared with you in your first interview. Research any topics of particular interest further. Be prepared to answer questions based on this information.
Tell Me About A Time Where You Failed Repeatedly And What It Taught You
This a great question to see the type of character the candidate possesses. Does the potential employee have the confidence to share something personal about themselves?
If they give a short vanilla answer, ask them about a second failure they had, if they cant admit to failing, they may lack self-confidence or it may reveal they have never taken risks.
Did they purposely stay away from challenging themselves? Do they have the resilience to try new approaches to succeed or do they give up too quickly when challenges arise?
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Things That Could Be Happening While You Wait
While this job interview is the biggest thing on your mind right now, the people who interviewed you have real jobs that they are doing. And, their jobs are usually their highest priorities. Interviewing job candidates usually falls under the heading of other duties as required for most of the people involved.
Job seekers always seem to assume that the process works perfectly and smoothly on the employers side. But, speaking as someone who has been on the other side of the process, that assumption is often totally wrong. The reason you havent heard from them may have very little to do with you.
Without intending, the employers plans for the timing of the next step in the hiring process are almost always too optimistic.
Technical Questions You May Face Them In The Second Interview
Your answers to behavioral questions tell us a lot about you: how you approach your work, your colleagues, how you would act in various work related situations.
But they do not tell us much about your readiness for a particular job, especially for a technical aspect of itwhether you can cook whether you can design websites , whether you can actually manage people, design a marketing campaign, etc.
Only your answers to technical questions will tell us something more about your readiness for the jobwhether you can really do it, or can just talk about doing it. Of course, in some cases you will get on-job training, and they do not expect you to know how to handle this or that. You will learn it in the job. In such a case you may not get any technical questions.
As you can probably guess, technical interview questions vary from one position to another. If you want to see questions that are specific for your position, navigate to this section of our website, choose your job field and a position you apply for.
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Is There Anything Youd Like To Discuss From The First Interview
This question offers all parties the opportunity to build off the success of the first interview and share new insights that surfaced in the time since.
To form potential answers, reflect on your first interview experience and jot down the questions you asked and answered, the highlights of your performance, and what you learned about the role and the company. Use these notes to identify details youâd like to discuss further, such as the typical workflow, expectations of someone filling the role, and professional development opportunities.
Build Interviewing And Job Skills With Coursera
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What Were You Responsible For In Your Last Job
This is one of the most common questions youll hear in any second interview.
Be ready to explain your key responsibilities and accomplishments over the past few years, and always think about the job youre interviewing for so you can highlight the pieces of your work that are most relevant to this employer!
For example, if you supervised and trained a few people in your last job, but it was only 20% of your duties, you should still mention that VERY early in your answer if youre interviewing for a Supervisor or Manager position now!
Employers may also ask you, What was your greatest achievement?
So review what you accomplished and did in your most recent job. Maybe its been a while since you reviewed the results you got for the company. You want to be ready to give a clear, confident answer when asked, so practice ahead of time.
Also expect similar questions in your second interview, like, What did a typical day at your previous job look like? or, How did you measure job performance?
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