Where Do You See Yourself In Five Years
This can seem like a heavy question during an interview, especially when you havenât prepared for it ahead of time. Keep in mind that youâre in an interview settingâso you donât need to go into all the details about what your personal life goals are for the next five years. Focus on your career goals and be realistic.
If you plan to work at this company for five years, make sure you understand who would be working above you and what potential career growth there is. The hiring manager asks this question to find out if you set realistic goals, if you are ambitious, and to confirm that the position you are interviewing for aligns with these goals and growth.
If this position isnât exactly a job with a lot of future opportunities, you can simply answer this by noting that you are not certain what your future is going to look like, but that you believe this position is going to help you navigate yourself in the right direction.
Why Do You Want To Work For
When a hiring manager asks this question, not only do they want to know why you want to work for them, but they also want to know what you know about the company. This question tests how well you know what the company does and how passionate you are about the work they doâso make sure you know the company well and can speak truthfully about your desires to work there.
What Is Your Biggest Management Weakness
A candidate who acknowledges a weakness recognizes that theres an opportunity to improve. An answer to this manager interview question should reveal a trait that the candidate feels they can work on and perhaps how it has affected their work in the past.
Part of the answer should also indicate how the management candidate is working to improve.
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Write Notes To Refer To Later
During the interview, take notes of the candidates answers to help remember important information or crucial details. For example, consider writing answers that impress you or thoughts on a candidates body language, confidence level, and appearance. Notes can often give you assurance when its time to decide on which candidate to hire. Remember to balance note writing with active engagement during the interview.
Prepare Specific Questions For The Role In Advance
Its easy to get caught up in conversation during an interview. Having interview questions prepared in advance ensures you cover all the bases you wanted to cover.
Most companies have a base set of questions they ask every candidate and then specific questions for each role. Giving the same base questions to every candidate allows you to compare candidates more directly to each other.
To make sure you elicit answers that help drive your decision-making, use a mix of question types. Use a variety of close-ended questions, open-ended questions, hypothetical questions, and behavioral questions.
For example, asking a behavioral question like tell me about a time you dealt with a challenging manager is more likely to dig into how the candidate deals with conflict as opposed to asking them directly how they deal with conflict.
And while its good to be prepared, leave room for organic questions that come up naturally. If theres something in particular that stands out , dont be afraid to ask follow-up questions.
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Exude Warmth And Friendliness
Smile and look excited without seeming awkward or overeager. Look people in the eye when you are talking to them. Respond with a confident handshake when greeted. Offer genuine compliments, but stay away from remarks about personal appearance, which may offend or cause embarrassment. Relate compliments about the organization, which shows you are observant and can connect the dots.
Example:
I really like the bold, vibrant colors of your office. You have great taste! I am guessing that was an intentional choice to reflect the companys mission to disrupt the status quo and venture into new frontiers.
Interview Essay Vs Research Paper
Interview essays allow you to use people as your sources rather than books. What is especially helpful in this sort of paper is that you are able to get a first-person viewpoint on a subject, whether this is about a person’s life or something in which they are an expert.
Make the Essay Meaningful: These sorts of papers can be especially meaningful if you write them about family members or interview people who do a job or activity you would like to try yourself.
Where You Can Find Interview Essays: These papers are familiar to anyone who reads a newspaper or magazine. While people often interview actors, musicians, or politicians, excellent essays can be written by talking to ordinary people. Essays that record the life history of ordinary people are called oral history.
What is friendship?
Cherylholt, CC-BY via Pixaby
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Common Interview Preparation Mistakes To Avoid
When it comes to preparing for an interview, the biggest mistake you can make is not doing it at all. Even if youre a highly-skilled professional overflowing with potential and natural poise, you cant assume that is enough.
On average, it takes five job interviews before youll land a job.
Wow, right?
Plus, 57 percent of professionals say theyve had a job interview go poorly. Thats more than half of all professionals, people who know their jobs well and are likely at least reasonably successful.
An interview isnt like a normal conversation with a colleague. Instead, youre being tested, put on the spot, and asked to defend your resume. Some questions are designed to put you back on your heels. Others are so open-ended, that its easy to drift off-topic.
Preparation allows you to be at your best when that fateful interview day arrives. Youll have great answers just waiting to be deployed, and a strategy that can help you navigate the unexpected. In turn, youll be more likely to succeed, making all of the effort worthwhile.
However, thats not the only misstep aspiring new hires make. Choosing the wrong mock interview questions can also hurt you. For example, some candidates spend all of their time on generic interview questions. Sure, you need to be ready for classics like, Tell me about yourself and What motivates you? but you also need to be prepared to face off against field- or job-specific ones, too.
MIKE’S TIP:
Why Do You Want To Work With Us
This question is an ideal follow-up to, What do you know about our business? because it goes directly to the candidates motivation for applying for the job.
Asking this question and the answer the individual provides gives you insight into the benefits they perceive theyll gain by working for your company.
If they reply with something about your stellar customer service or your business strategy, thats a good sign. If they indicate that their interest is because your business pays the highest wage of all your competitors, thats a bad sign.
If the candidates answer is vague, ask a follow-up question or two to get to the heart of the matter.
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Interview Essay Outline: Mapping And Formatting
Besides the main parts of your essay, including the introduction, body, and conclusions, we recommend you start preparing your paper with an interview essay outline, which will show the logical structure of your work, and help you with maintaining the main idea throughout the whole paper. So, what is the basic outline for an interview essay?
When you have decided on what you are going to write in each particular part of your paper, or even before that, there is one more important thing to consider – you are to choose your interview essay format. There are at least three main types: narrative, conversational and Q & A.
Choose a format that will make your essay perfect and exciting, and embark on writing an “A” grade interview paper.
Gauging The Candidates Level Of Self
As you try to determine a candidates awareness of themselves and how they fit into organizations, consider opening your interview with a question like:
- Walk me through your progression in your career leading me up to your current role.
This is a good way to get a candidates job history as well as their view of their progression. Once you have their answer, follow up with questions such as:
- How have you had to reinvent your job in light of your organizations changing needs?
- What makes you stand out among your peers?
- What would your most respected critic say of your strengths, areas for development, and future potential in your field?
In addition to probing an individuals assessment of themselves, you also want to ask questions about how they assess their organizations, with questions like:
- How many employees does your company have?
- Whats your organizations annual revenue base?
- How is your department structured in terms of reporting relationships?
- How exactly does your company make money, and what are its two biggest expenses?
Depending on the level of the candidate youre interviewing, their responses can provide excellent insights into their level of business acumen and self-awareness.
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Get Some Questions Ready
At the end of every interview, you typically have a chance to ask the hiring manager a few questions. Make sure you have a few ready to go. That way, you wont be at a loss when that moment arrives.
If you dont know where to begin, ask them to describe a typical day in the position. You can also ask if theres anything preventing them from considering you the top candidate, giving you a chance to address any concerns head-on.
Check out our article for more questions you can ask the hiring manager!
If Hired What Would You Do In The First 30
This is a good question to ask to get a sense of how well the candidate understands the responsibilities of a manager.
The successful candidate will explain what they need to get started and what parts of the company they would need to get familiar with. They might even give a specific example of where they would start .
In the end, you, the interviewer, might do things differently and the candidate, if hired, might as well but being prepared to answer this question reveals that the prospective manager knows your business, knows their job, is able to get to work on day one, and is excited to start.
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Need More Tips For Interviewing Someone
The hiring process is hardly a walk in the park, and the job interview may very well be the trickiest part. But the good news is that you have an expert whos willing and ready to help. With Monster, you can get free access to cutting-edge hiring resources from interview insights to job market trends, and more to ensure that your business is attracting and hiring top-level talent.
Write Down The Outline Of Your Interview Report
This report outline will help you write your paragraphs in both narrative and Q& A format. Below is the sample outline to follow:
I. Introduction
Start with a humorous or interesting anecdote or fact that the person told you. Detail out who was interviewed, what are they are known for, and the main purpose of the interview. Think of the question what do you plan to tell your reader about this person? This should be included in the introduction. Make sure you got the correct spelling of the interviewees name and the correct information about the interviewee.
II. Paragraph 1: the questions youve asked and first big idea you learned
III. Paragraph 2: second big idea you learned from the interviewee
IV. Paragraph 3: third big idea you learned from the interviewee
V. Conclusion: wrap the report by summarizing and putting down a concluding observation about the person
And now youve mastered the art of gathering information from interviews, its time get down to it and write. As youve done the process, you will be amazed at how much youve learned from your interviewees. Conducting an interview is a good way to get to meet people and know more about them.
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It Defines The Energy Level
Interviews that are dynamic, engaging and energetic can leave a lasting impression on both you and the prospective employee. Often, great interviews happen naturally, with little interference from the interviewer. If you and the interviewee have a great connection, it can ensure conversation flows and that you develop a holistic sense of their personality. Other times, those connections don’t come as organically. If the candidate is nervous or if you can’t get a sense of their personality right away, the energy level for the rest interview might feel lower than you’d like.
To combat this, approach interviews with high levels of energy and positivity. Seem genuinely happy to see the candidate and sound excited when you ask your initial questions. This can help elevate the confidence and energy of the person you’re interviewing, making it easier for them to feel comfortable and share their personality.
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Schedule Enough Time For The Interview
Once youve shortlisted your best candidates, its time to schedule the interview!
Depending on the role, youll have to decide between an interview thats in person, over the phone, or over a video call. Youll also have to decide how much time to allocate for an interview. Junior roles may only take 30 minutes, while more senior roles may take over an hour.
Its best to have more than one person interviewing the candidate, so be sure to invite a co-worker too.
Tip: Leave yourself enough of a gap in your schedule before and after each interview. You want to be in the right headspace to give your full attention to the interview, and you also dont want to risk being late. Remember, youre also trying to impress the candidate.
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Focus On Your Qualifications
Your introduction should be concise enough to hold the interest of the interviewer. Generally, a quick recap of your most compelling qualifications will suffice. You could also mention a couple of tidbits that aren’t essential to the job but reflect your persona, like the fact that you are an avid skier, have performed at comedy clubs, or collect African art.
This is your opportunity to sell yourself to the hiring manager, so take advantage of it.
Of course, your initial comments should show your enthusiasm for the job and organization. However, don’t overdo it or spend too much time talking about yourself. The interviewer has an agenda and time is limited, so keep your introduction brief so you can move on to the next question.
Preparing & Conducting Interviews
Being well prepared and then conducting an interview methodically will help you make the most of this important recruitment tool.
When interviewing job candidates, you want to determine what sort of people they are, how good their interpersonal skills are, how they might react under stress, whether they have the skills for the job, and whether they have been honest in their resumes.
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What Is The Start Method
The START Method is a technique that helps you craft replies to behavior-based interview questions in a manner that provides the interviewer with a clear answer. Answers structured in this manner resonate with the interviewer who is trained to ask such questions. This is how trained interviewers have been conditioned to listen to interview answers.
STARTis an acronym for:
- S/T SITUATION or TASK
- R RESULT
- T TAKE AWAY
The ability to tell a good story helps you to communicate more effectively. This is especially true in an interview setting. When you successfully convey your story in an interview, you are able to effectively communicate your key skills, talents and experiences. In doing so, you are more likely to be perceived as the best candidate for the job.
The key to telling a good story is to have a clear beginning, middle and end. This is true of interview answers as well. A common mistake that candidates make is to ramble and not have a clear flow to their answer. Actually, another common mistake is just the opposite. Some applicants do not offer enough detail for the hiring manager to get a clear picture of their talents and experience.
The candidate who best paints a picture of success in the interviewers mind has an advantage over other applicants. Its the ability to tell a mini-story that will make you a more successful interviewer. The START Method helps you do just that.
Why Do You Think Youd Perform This Job Well
An answer to this question gives you insight into what the candidate has to offer and is essential for making an informed decision.
Asking why they think they would perform well as a manager in your business helps you understand their unique strengths, skills, and level of experience.
Armed with that knowledge, you can choose the best candidate that most closely matches the unique needs of your company.
The valuable thing about this question is that it often elicits a response that, while similar to the biggest management strength question, is different enough that it provides a more complete picture of the individual you are interviewing.
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