Page 181 - You're Hired! Interview Answers

You’Re hiRed! inteRview
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anSweRS In the great majority of interview situations that you will encounter you can
– and should – assume professionalism and goodwill on both sides. To do
otherwise is to risk turning the occasion into a game of hide and seek, rather
than a meeting where two (or more) people are exploring mutual ‘fit’ in terms
of a potential job or role. Our guidance in this book has been focused on
helping you to understand the kinds of process that interviewers use, so
that you can help them to come to the best decision. Thankfully, this same
guidance is also likely to enable you to present yourself in the best possible
light.
Human social interaction is a highly evolved and sophisticated activity. Our
ability to present ourselves well to others has evolved in parallel with our ability
to detect characteristics such as trustworthiness, authenticity, credibility and
so on. All of these highly developed interpersonal skills come into sharp focus
in the interview situation, where the interviewer – whether explicitly or not – will
be evaluating you in terms of some of these less definable characteristics, as
well as in terms of specific competencies and job criteria.
Competency-based interviews – the focus of most of our examples – have
been developed to help interviewers better focus on the attributes that matter,
without being distracted by personal or irrelevant preferences – though, as
mentioned above, it is difficult for anyone to fully ‘switch off’ the results of
60,000 years of social evolution! Our task has been to help you to recognise
both the impression management and the more structured elements of tough
interviews, and to prepare yourself accordingly.
Potentially, the greatest barrier is lack of
understanding of the structured interview process
and the characteristics the interviewer is looking
for.
Our parting message, then, our best advice, is to be yourself – to be as
authentic as you can and to use our tips to help remove any barriers that
may prevent the interviewer from seeing you as the talented and valuable
prospective employee that you are! Potentially, the greatest barrier is
simple lack of understanding of the structured interview process and the
characteristics that the interviewer is looking for. Armed with the information