Handling Interviews with Confidence

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Handling Interviews with Confidence
Susan Butts, Ph.D.Director, External
TechnologyStaffing Leader, RDThe Dow Chemical
Company
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An Interview is a Two-Way Street

• The employer evaluates the candidate
• The candidates evaluates the employer
• Nothing is off the record
• Social interactions are part of the evaluation,
  too

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Employers Use Interviews to Learn About
Candidates in a Competitive Selection Process

• Skills, knowledge and ability to perform in the
  job successfully
• Research Skills ands Ability
• Teaching Ability
• General intelligence and aptitude for the tasks
  required for the job
• Communication skills, interpersonal
  effectiveness, ethics
• Educational background
• Reasons and desire to have the position
• Fit with the department culture

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Job Candidates Use Interviews to Learn About
Employers in a Competitive Selection Process

• What are the responsibilities of the job?
• What are the departments other expectations?
• How healthy is the institution, the department?
• What is the environment in the department?
• How well do you fit with the department culture?
• Salary, benefits, important institutional policies

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Before the Interview

• Good preparation is the key to success
• Prepare your research seminar be ready to
  justify your decisions, explain why things did
  not work as expected, where you would go with the
  line of research and why
• Prepare to answer questions about key topics
  decide what things you want to showcase
• Prepare to ask questions about key topics
• Prepare questions about things of
  interest/concern to you

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At the Interview

• The key is to be professional, courteous and in
  control
• Ask questions to understand the plan and format
  for the interview process
• Keep control of the situation
• Make sure to talk about the skills, interests and
  experiences that are your strong points even if
  you are not asked!
• Make sure to ask questions about the job that are
  important to you
• Make sure to find out what happens after the
  interview

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My Best Advice

• Be Prepared
• Be Relaxed
• Be yourself .but with your best foot forward!

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Handling Questions with Confidence

• Why do employers use various types of questions
  in an interview?
• How to recognize the question types and be
  prepared to handle them.
• What are common ways in which employers set up
  interviews?
• Why are the various formats used and how can you
  get the best result from any of these formats?

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Types of Questions

• Behavioral
• Situational
• Brain Teaser
• Stress Tester
• Clueless (the interviewer, that is)

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Behavioral Interviewing

• Gather and evaluate information about what
  candidates have done in the past to predict how
  they would handle future situations. Questions
  based on key job requirements or competencies.
  There are preferred or right responses.
• Indicators Questions that ask for examples of
  how you handled situations in the past
• Key to Success Behavior in situations similar to
  those encountered on the job..a good predictor of
  future behavior

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How to Prepare for Behavioral Questions

• Identify likely key competencies or key skills
  for the job (e.g., research ability, creativity,
  teaching ability, leadership, interpersonal
  effectiveness, problem solving)
• Look back over your own experiences and identify
  those that demonstrate these competencies or
  skills
• Decide key points to relate to demonstrate the
  competency or skill

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Situational Interviewing

• A forward looking approach requiring candidates
  to describe how they would deal with situations
  that may be encountered on the job. There are
  preferred or right responses.
• Indicators what would you do if questions
• Key to Success Ability to apply knowledge and
  experience to handle challenging situations

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How to Prepare for Situational Questions

• Identify likely key competencies or key skills
  for the job (e.g., research ability, creativity,
  teaching ability, leadership, interpersonal
  effectiveness, problem solving)
• Look back over your own experiences and identify
  those that demonstrate these competencies or
  skills
• Decide key points to demonstrate the competency
  or skill and why you would handle the situation
  in that way

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Brain Teasers

• Brain-teasers are questions that attempt to see
  how well candidates can think on their feet.
• Are a good indication of how quickly candidates
  can think in a pressure situation.
• Indicators questions that involve a puzzle or
  problem to solve
• Key to Success ability to outline an approach
  to the problem coming up with a solution

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How to Prepare for Brain Teasers

• You cant prepare for the specific question so
  focus on how you will work through a solution
• Ask question to fully understand the problem
  being posed
• Take time to think dont rush
• Outline your approach to the problem
• Propose one or more solutions if you have some
  sound ideas

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Stress Interview

• Used to assess candidates ability to deal with
  high pressure job or environment
• Indicators interviewers deliberately interrupt
  candidates, remain silent for extended periods of
  time or become hostile
• Key to Success how you handle the interview
  situation. Keep your cool and be professional!
  Dont take the bait.

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Clueless Interviewers

• Interviewer is inexperienced or unprepared
• Indicators irrelevant questions, conversation,
  interviewer talking about him/herself
• Keys to Success
• Take the pressure off the interviewer
• Be prepared to take charge of the conversation
  and highlight your qualifications

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Interview Formats

• Single Interviewer
• Typical for early screening
• saves time money for the employer
• important to create rapport with the interviewer
• Board Interview
• Several interviewers at the same time
• Multiple Sequential Interviews

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Board and Multiple Sequential Interviews

• Using more than one person to interview increases
  accuracy of assessment
• Personal biases and random errors are cancelled
  out
• Multiple interviewers give a range of
  perspectives
• Discussions after the interview will reduce
  importance of poor judgements made by individuals
• One major downside for the employer is the cost
  of using the time of so many employees. This is
  an investment in the selection process.

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Recommendations

• Before you go for the interview
• Determine what interview format will be used -
  ask your host or contact in advance
• Prepare yourself for the format (e.g., focus on
  creating rapport with the single interviewer -
  practice interpreting body language, polish your
  examples for the board interview)
• Research the employer and prepare a few good
  questions specific to the department/institution

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Recommendations

• During the interview
• Listen to the questions, decide what approach the
  employer is using then frame your answers
  accordingly (e.g., showcase your creativity with
  brain teasers, your experience with behavioral or
  situational questions)
• Dont forget to ask your questions!