Page 172 - You're Hired! Interview Answers

DON’T PREPARE ANSWERS – tRouBLeShooting
PREPARE ExAMPLES

In our experience, one of the things most guaranteed to undermine
performance during an interview is answering the question you
anticipated rather than the question asked. Referring to a written, pre-
prepared answer puts you at a real disadvantage here, as you then have
to rethink how you can fit the prepared answer into the question that
has been asked. This is difficult and is usually done in a clumsy way that
undermines the quality of the response.

Don’t do it!

Focus instead on identifying some broad examples that fit into the areas of
task, thought and people.

how far back will they go?

Typically, in a competency-based interview the questions are not time bound.
An interviewer is unlikely to focus on a particular job and ask for examples
from that role. Instead, they will leave the choice of what examples and from
what role to you. You would be well advised to use recent examples, as these
are most likely to be of the level required for the role.

However, there may be instances in an interview where your CV is very
carefully explored (see Chapter 7). Some of the financial institutions, for
example, are required by FSA regulations to ensure that people really do have
the experience they say they do. They’ll often do this by exploring your CV and
covering every single job and role you have had in your career. This type of
interview is commonly called a ‘chronology interview’. By definition, they will go
back a long way.

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