Page 41 - You're Hired! Interview Answers

You’Re hiRed! inteRview
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anSweRS awake at night! A quick look at the trade press section in any large news-
agent’s can also pay off in terms of background information. An hour spent
reading The Grocer (retail), Oil and Gas (energy sector), Accountancy Today
(business consulting) and similar journals can go a long way to acquainting
you with the issues, the players and the jargon, particularly if you are applying
for a job in a sector that is unfamiliar to you.
the organisation itself
Don’t hesitate to be pushy in terms of accessing any information that the
organisation itself can provide. Check to see if it is willing to send you the
competencies or criteria it will be interviewing against; ask if there is anyone
you can talk to in order to get a better insight into the job; take advantage of
any offer of a visit or a pre-interview briefing. Asking for these things shows that
you are keen, and the worst that can happen is that they say no!
Do you already know anyone who works for your target organisation? An
informal discussion with an insider can tell you a lot. Failing that, explore any
contacts you have with suppliers of your target organisation, or even with its
competitors. Again, such people can give you a relatively objective view of the
business. For example, a candidate we worked with used a personal contact
in a competitor organisation to get just such a ‘heads up’ on a prospective
employer. The insight they gained included the backgrounds of some key
members of staff, information about their reputation in the sector and details
about a key project that they were currently struggling to deliver. Most of this
information was directly applicable to the interview.
At the end of your research, the questions you should be able to answer
include the following.
n What are the main business priorities at the moment?
n How are they seen by the competition; by the staff; by the industry?
n What are they famous/infamous for?
n What do they hold up as their big successes or failures?
n What kinds of people get ahead in the organisation?
n How do they compare to or differ from similar organisations?
The more you can find out, the better. As we will see later, this information is
not intended to enable you to be a smart alec during the interview; rather, it