What We Really Want to Learn About You in Your Interview

Walking into a job interview can feel daunting. You know you have so much to offer, and you’ve probably done a lot of thinking about how to convey that.

But what you don’t have is the ability to read minds: There’s no easy way to know what your interviewer is thinking — and what they really are hoping to learn about you in your interview.

We can’t offer you any super powers, but we can provide some insights from a few of Chick-fil-A Corporate’s senior Talent Acquisition experts. We asked them what they are looking to glean about candidates during the interview process.

“Whenever a candidate is in the interviewing process with us, we really want to know who they are as an individual: What is their character like? Is this person aligned with who we are as a business, with our corporate purpose? Do they know us?” says Terri Ford, a senior lead staff selection advisor who works with Chick-fil-A’s Digital Transformation and Technology department.

Ford and her colleagues are always seeking to understand whether candidates are aligned with the company’s core values and Culture of Care.

“We look for those individuals who have a servant mindset,” she says. “We, as a company, have a servant mindset: What we do day in and day out is serve Chick-fil-A franchisees and the community. So we ask candidates about how they volunteer their time and what they do in their downtime. We ask them about what's important to them as individuals.”

Andrea Spoerke, a Chick-fil-A senior recruiter, says that she’s always looking to learn about candidates’ experiences and how they’ve been shaped by them.

“Chick-fil-A is very focused on servant leadership, caring for others, putting other people first, and going above and beyond to serve others,” she says. “So I’m always wondering, ‘Are those values that resonate with you? Are you someone who's going to showcase humility, teamwork, taking responsibility, working well with others, and being able to be both a leader and a follower?’”

Perhaps the best way to help an interviewer answer those questions is to share authentic stories about your experiences. While you should speak from the heart, you should also be clear and concise. And even though the video interviews made necessary by COVID-19 can be challenging, it’s worth putting in extra effort to speak about your experiences in an engaging way.

If you’re a candidate interviewing at Chick-fil-A Corporate, Spoerke offers a few suggestions about types of stories you might want to think about before your interview: Examples of times that you've gone the extra mile to serve someone; stories that illustrate the connection between your career interests and ways that you serve your community; and instances when you've employed creative problem solving.

For those applying for a highly technical role, telling stories can also be an essential part of establishing your competency, says Ford.

“It's hard for you to tell me about a project that you've worked on without giving me some meat about that project,” Ford says. “So I ask: Start me from the beginning to the end. Tell me about some of the technologies that you've used. Tell me about some of the stakeholders who were involved with that project. Tell me about your portion of the project. What exactly did you do?”

Through questions like these, Ford says, she can quickly draw out an understanding of a candidate’s level of expertise and depth of experience relevant to a specific position.

Interviewers often want to know about candidates’ experiences with leadership — but perhaps not in quite the way you’d expect. In interviews with early-career candidates, Spoerke says, she’s far more interested in hearing stories about when an applicant created impact without being in a formal leadership role.

“I’d love to hear about it if you were not the leader and you were still able to influence a team towards a decision or a goal,” she says.

In Chick-fil-A interviews, candidates’ experiences with servant leadership are especially important, Ford says.

“I listen to the way they talk about leadership and describe being a leader,” Ford says. “I ask myself: How do they speak about caring for others? Do they speak about putting people first?”

Interviewers can only answer questions like that when candidates are being open about their true selves — not just rattling off a laundry list of KPIs they’ve reached and accomplishments they’ve stacked up.

“Do some soul searching before the interview about what makes you you,” Spoerke suggests. “What are the experiences that led you to this career path? What led you to the choices you’ve made? Answering those questions will help you hone in on what experiences to share in your interview.”

We’re looking for tenacious thinkers with big hearts who bring diverse perspectives and a natural curiosity to their work. Learn more about us at www.chick-fil-a.com/careers/corporate.