Interviewing 101

As a recruiter with over 20 years of recruiting experience in small, medium and very large corporate environments, I have been involved in so many interviews that I cannot begin to count how many. Having observed, and having led interviews, I know that it can be a struggle for some to go through interviews. Many candidates are ill-prepared for what they may face the day of their interview. It is often easy to walk away from an interview, saying to yourself "if I had answered a question this way...", or "I think I totally bombed that interview...". What if there was a way that you could build your confidence before an interview and interview process tools that could allow you to stay focused and really excel during the interview?

What I am going to share with you is what I call the basics for Interviewing 101. Believe it or not; Employers, Recruiters and Interviewers are not your enemy when it comes to interviews. Each of these have an important role in identifying and hiring the best talent for their company. Hopefully, this information will help you better prepare for, and master your interview when the time comes.

Congratulations, you have been selected for an interview for a position with a company that you applied to. This is quite an accomplishment in itself, given that typically there are a large number of applicants that applied to the same position; however, you were recognized for being one of the best fitting applicants for the position.

Your interview date, time and location have been set. So what should you do to prepare?

1.      Gather Intel: Continue reviewing the company web page, scanning for details that provide insight to not only their primary business but other information that eludes to their culture, what are their core-values, information on clients, testimonials etc. This information will help you prior to the interview, while you are thinking about how the interview might be structured, to include what kind of questions they might ask and the relevancy of those questions as they align with their business model, core values and company culture. Review their company information and reviews on LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Indeed. Use web search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo to search the company name and skim through the search results. The answers you provide to certain interview questions that evolve around their core values and culture should align with what they project through their information that they share on their company website.

2.      Research Key People: Be sure to identify whom you will be interviewing with prior to your interview, what is their role in the company and in their teams. Utilize networking tools like LinkedIn to review their information; how long have they been with the company, what is their role there, where else have they worked at that you may know someone that also worked there or may know the person you will be interviewing with. Confidentially speak with others you know that may have insights on details about the company and the interviewers you will be meeting with. It is always more comfortable stepping into a meeting with people that you know something about, rather than meeting with someone you know nothing about. This provides a little more self-confidence than going into an interview completely blind.

3.      Review the job description continually: The job description will provide you the key details of what their perfect candidate will look like. These details include what the role will do, what are the duties this position must be able to perform, what are the base skills a person must have to perform these duties or responsibilities, what are the skills and education a person should have in order to be successful in this role. Print the job description and then highlight the duties and responsibilities – skills and education that align with your capabilities; these should be clearly mentioned in your resume. If you have performed these duties in some capacity but it is not mentioned in your resume, you may want to consider adding those to your resume. Often times, we put the very basic information into our work history on our resumes; omitting certain details that we take for granted that is just a daily routine or part of the work we perform. If the company you are interviewing with placed enough importance on the duty or skill to list it in the job description, then be sure to mention that specific duty or skill in your resume. Constantly compare the job description to your resume and consider changes to your resume that will align what you have to offer with what the company is looking for. Be careful not to over-embellish on duties or skills where you believe you may be weaker in, as this weakness will come out when they ask an interview question that you cannot fully answer.

4.      Rehearse your presentation: The more you practice something the better you are prepared to when it comes time to perform the task. You should look at potential questions that an interviewer might ask in order to identify your skills, what type of culture you can excel in, your focus on safety, integrity, commitment, customer service and other areas that may have been mentioned in their core values. Again, the first place to look to develop these questions will be the job description. Create a list of these questions and then role-play with a friend, your spouse or a partner. Have them asking the questions and you answer those as if you were actually interviewing. Remember that interview questions may often begin with: “what experience do you have with..”, “tell me about a time when…”, “how would you handle…”, “give me an example of a time when you…”. The person that is role-playing as your interviewer should try to use these type of questions while you practice answering them truthfully.

5.      Types of Interviews: If you have not already discovered, there are different types of interviews that you may encounter. For example: Direct Supervisors and Managers are typically more focused on questions that relate more on the experience side, skillsets, work and roles you have performed in. Human Resources and Recruiters may focus on some of the skills questions but they often include additional questions that deal more with the behavioral, culture attributes and core values, and what is it the person interviewing is looking for in a good fit for them and how they will fit within the team. Again, here are a few examples of these styles:

a.      Skill based questions:

• Tell me about your experience working on Natural Gas Engines and Compressors..
• How do you connect your computer to the Engine’s ECM…?
• How do you perform your Lockout-Tagouts…..
• Do you have any experience working on control panels? If so, what type and to what extent?

b.      Behavioral based questions:

• Give me an example of a time when you were performing a JSA and other people were on-site without their PPE. What did you do? What were the results of the actions you took?
•  Tell me about a time when you had to work with a co-worker who was difficult to deal with. How did you handle that?
•  Have you ever had to work for a client that could never be satisfied? Tell me about that time, what you did to smooth things out with the client and what was the result of those actions.

So now the day has come for your interview and you are primed and ready to go. Confident that you will knock this interview out of the park and get an offer from the company you are interviewing with, right? If you are not 100 percent confident, that is okay. You must realize that no matter how much you’ve rehearsed your presentation there are still questions or situations beyond your control and that is okay also. Let’s look at some of the things that you can do that will help to strengthen your chances for success.

1.      Dress For Success – Dress For The Role: Whatever the position you are interviewing for, it is very important that you dress for the role. If the role is in a corporate office environment, what would you be wearing to work every day? If you are interviewing for a Field Service Technician position, you would not wear a tie and sport coat or dress slacks and polo shirt to perform your work in would you? Of course you wouldn’t. When scheduling an interview, it is best practice to ask whoever is scheduling the interview, who you will be meeting with and what will the dress attire for this interview be. Some key points to keep in mind about whatever you wear:

• Ensure your clothing is clean and in good order – no holes, no stains, no wrinkles, present yourself as someone who has pride in their appearance. Shirts untucked, muddy boots, shirt pockets bulging with cans of skoal or cigarettes; these all portray a lackluster attitude and may be observed as to how you really take care of your work, job sites, tools, relationships with others etc. 

2.      Be On Time: Being late to in interview can be the most awkward way to present yourself as the person they should hire as their next employee. You will struggle for the rest of the interview; in knowing that one key thing is still going through the interviewer’s mind, and it will be a mental block for the rest of the interview. You have heard the saying: “if you are on time, then you are already late”? It is okay to be early but do not be too early. Try to arrive at least 15 minutes prior to the interview start time. This allows you an extra couple of minutes to rereview the job description if you would like, think through how you will answer questions and to push any last minute jitters out of your mind – psych yourself up for this. Remember, while it is rude to be late, it can also be rude to be too early. Most Managers and Interviewing Staff have schedules that they work from and seeking their audience 45 minutes or even 15 minutes prior to the interview start time interrupts their work cycle and business at-hand. A good rule is 10 minutes prior to the start time, inform the receptionist or whomever greets you, what your name is and that you are there for an interview with…and provide the names of whom you are to meet with.

3.      What To Bring: Always ensure you bring copies of your most current resume and enough copies to hand to your interviewers. It is also recommended to bring a tablet or notebook and pen in order to make any notes during an interview. Making notes during an interview can be tricky and you will not want to try to write down every little detail but may want to write in bullet-points on key talking points. Prior to the interview, you may have taken time to write down some questions that you have regarding this position. There should be an opportunity at the end of the interview to ask any questions that were not answered during the interview.

4.      Interview Ettiquete:

• Greetings:  When you are first greeted by an interviewer, extend a handshake to the person greeting you, while making direct eye contact with the individual,  remember this is not the time to exert power and muscle in your handshake; you are not there to overpower an opponent so your handshake should be met with the same amount of pressure as that being given by the interviewer.
• Where To Sit:  If you are interviewing with one person or interviewing with multiple people at the same time, it is best to sit directly across from your interviewer when the situation allows and if there are multiple interviewers sitting across from you, try to center yourself so that you have a direct line-of-sight with each of them. Allow your interviewers to direct you where to initially sit. Before you sit down, this is a good time to hand a copy of your resume to each interviewer and then open your notebook to show your intent to take notes during the conversation. 
• Body Language: Body language is often watched by interviewers. Does the candidate slouch in the chair? Do they sit there with their arms crossed in front of them? Are they not really making eye contact when listening or speaking? Are they kicking back in their chair with their hands behind their head? These are all negative signals being portrayed by your body language. Some positive signals that your body language can portray are: sitting erect in your seat shows confidence, leaning forward somewhat can show that you are interested or engaged in the discussion, direct eye contact with the interviewer when they are speaking or you are replying to their question can show that they are important and what is being said is valuable. If you are taking notes, be sure to balance how much time you spend looking at your notes with how much eye contact your are giving with your interviewers. If you are interviewing with multiple interviewers at the same time, be sure to direct your eye contact initially with the interviewer asking the question. When you respond to the question, direct your eye contact to the person that asked the question, and then you can also make eye contact with the other interviewers.

5.      Pitfall Questions: While not everyone is trained in interviewing candidates, you may be asked questions that seem a bit awkward, leaving you with the question: “how should I answer that one?”. Here are a few tips that may help prevent you from stumbling in your response to those questions.

• Tell me about yourself: This question is usually one of the first questions that some select to start an interview with. What are they wanting to hear? What do you want to share? The best way to answer this question is to keep it strictly professional or business related, do not bring your personal life matters into an interview. Form your answer into a simple paragraph format that outlines: What you are and how long you have been doing your job or “in the business” – this is the first sentence of your paragraph. The second sentence should include an “impact statement” some key point about your career or your work that will cause the interviewer to maybe want to ask more details surrounding that. The third sentence to your response should make a statement that you want this job and can be phrased like this: “I am looking for a challenging position with a leading company in Natural Gas Compression (or whatever the business is), that is always on the leading edge when it comes to technology and equipment, and that has a real focus on the value of exceeding their clients expectations and satisfaction”. This can be pretty-tricky to formulate a paragraph like this on the fly, so you may want to build and rehearse a response like this before you go to an interview.

Why did you leave your last employer, or employer “x”:  Not every relationship ends the way we had hoped, and our former jobs or employers are no different. How you answer this question can make a huge impact in what the interviewer thinks how you will be at this company. Here are some things to consider.

My supervisor and I didn’t get along: This answer is sure to create doubt and says that perhaps you do not take directions well, may be insubordinate to supervisors, may have difficulty in working with others.

I got fired: If this did occur, it may be best to simply state “I was let go” and stop there. More than likely the interviewer will ask “why were you let go?” and then you can provide a short explanation. If you do have to explain, it is best to keep from laying the blame on someone else as this does really send a negative message that perhaps you do not work well with others, are a constant complainer and fault finder. Be as honest about the event as you feel comfortable being. Example: “I was let go for violating company policy because I failed to do a 360 walk-around of my work truck before pulling out of a parking spot and I ran over one of those yellow poles that I didn’t see on the passenger side” and “I learned a very valuable lesson as a result of that incident and have now implemented doing a 360 walk-around on my personal vehicles as well to help ensure this becomes a behavioral safety trait that stays first in my mind ” This type of response will take a situation that has a negative sound to it and end it with a positive note – lessons learned.

I left for more money: This one reply will put much doubt into an interviewer’s mind almost immediately. It will be like saying “I’ll take your position being offered but if someone offers me more money – I’m out of here”. You may want to restructure this response to something a little more strategic like: “another company approached me because of my experience, and provided an offer that included more professional growth and developmental opportunities than what I had experienced at my employer that I was with at the time.”

What would you say is your weakness or areas you can improve in: This question can put any candidate interviewing, scrambling to find one thing they need to improve about themselves. We all like to believe we are absolutely perfect, and it can be hard to quickly identify that one trait or that one thing that will make us better. Again, this is the time to keep it professional and not personal. If you know you are weak in one thing professionally then offer that as your answer: “I am really great with troubleshooting mechanical failures with compressors and I am pretty good with troubleshooting and tracing down electrical problems but I believe if I had the opportunity to get a little more training on the new Murphy C5 Touch Screen Control panels troubleshooting, I could really add more value to a company”.

 What was your compensation:  While it is not against all state laws yet to ask this question, some states do prohibit employers from asking this question. At the time of writing this guide, Texas is not one of those states. Again, it is best to be honest and this is not a negotiating time. I would recommend that you also mention any bonus that you received, any 401K company match contributions, the value of any stock options if you received those, paid time off, sick leave etc.  Provide your interviewer with a realistic expectation of where you need to be at if an offer is to be made.

Give me an example of a time…: This type of question is going to be a “Behavioral” based interview question. To keep from over answering or repeating yourself in your response, structure your answer around the acronym PAR: Problem, Action, Results – or – STAR: Situation, Task, Action, Results. An example of this structure is: “I was working as the lead technician on a PM team and when we pulled up to that site, as I was getting ready to start my JSA, I noticed that the clients operator was on-site but he did not have his four-gas monitor on him. I stopped everyone from proceeding to the equipment and I call the owners representative over to my truck so that I could have a one-on-one conversation with him about the danger involved of being around our compressor without having proper PPE on at all times and that if there had have been an H2S leak with him being right beside the equipment, then it could have cost him his life. Surely he has family waiting for him to return every evening and his employer needs him to be able to do his work everyday and keep things running smoothly and he needs to remember his four-gas monitor is the most important piece of protection that he has. The young operator apologized and said that he didn’t realize that it must have fallen off his shirt when he got out of his truck. I helped him find his monitor and I showed him the proper way to secure it to prevent it from falling off again and then I called everyone else over to go through our JSA together, starting with a PPE check of everyone.” In this response you can easily determine each component of PAR.

What other questions do you have of us: This question opens a wide door and many interviewing applicants will either say “I think we covered just about everything, I don’t have any questions” or they will start asking questions about Pay or PTO. This is a great time to show your professionalism and ask questions that may not have been covered about the role and responsibilities, the companies focus on Safety, the companies core values. “Can you share with me why this position is available?”, “What do you find as the most important skills or experience that I have to offer that will be a success factor in this role?”, “If I am offered this position, what is the first thing that you will expect me to accomplish that can help to increase customer satisfaction within my assigned area? I would recommend staying away from questions such as: “How soon are you looking to hire this position?” their response will always be something to the effect of “yesterday” or perhaps “when we find the right person” This will also be a great time to ask any questions that you may have jotted down during your interview, or an opportunity to further clarify or jump back to a question which you may have later realized you didn’t answer properly and you would like to clarify.

6.      Wrapping Up The Interview – Asking For The Job: Just as you did during the interview greetings, shake hands with your interviewers and genuinely thank them for their valuable time. The best way to wrap up the conversation is by asking for the job. Okay, you are not going to just ask “did I get the job?” or “do I get the job?”. Instead, take a more strategic approach by stating “I truly enjoyed our meeting and getting to know you. I appreciate the time you took to further explain to me, the role this position will have and what you are looking for. This sounds like an opportunity where I would be able to excel and I would look forward to the opportunity of working with you”.

7.      The Follow-Up: Always try to get the interviewers email addresses if possible, either from them or from the recruiter or HR Business Partner that you may have spoken with. It is best that you at minimum, send a seperate email to each individual that you interviewed with, again thanking them for their time and offer your availability to answer any questions which may have arose after the interview ended and close the email by “asking for the job” similar to that which you stated during your interview wrap-up.

I hope that this information will assist you when you are preparing for an interview. Should you have more questions about interviewing, please feel free to reach out to me at: [email protected] or my personal email: [email protected] and I will be happy to answer any that I can.