Interviews - Is there a right or wrong way?
Category: Tips and Advice
Publish date: 30/06/2016
There is so much advice available around interviews, so we wanted to ask
a question of the process. Are there right answers, are there wrong
answers? Are there just our answers? CTP's Dave Hornsey provides his
advice on how you can prepare for that all important interview...
Be prepared
When preparing for an interview we spend time pondering what we are going to be asked. Well there is every chance that we know the answers to over 50% of the questions without needing to do very much preparation at all.
When we apply for a job we submit a CV or an Application Form, which is sifted based on the basic information. The company if interested will either call and conduct a Telephone Screening or arrange a Face to Face meeting as a first interview.
Working with what they already know, the interviewers are trying to learn more about us! It is their judgement of our fit for the role and company, which decides success or failure at this stage.
How we answer the questions is what makes the difference between us and other candidates.
As someone from a military background this can be where we need to pay extra attention. Let’s face it the question of ‘Give me an example of when you have worked in a team’ should be straight forward.
“I was the JNCO of a Movs Team, deployed to a FOB in support of a MERT extracting an EOD operative on a Casevac back to Bastian”! Whoops, we lost the interviewer at JNCO, so the rest of what was said was white noise!
Could we have said something simpler?
“Working within a small logistics team, in remote locations, I supported the Emergency Evacuation of injured personnel by helicopter. This involved loading to helicopters all necessary equipment and personnel under very tight time constraints” The language begins to sound familiar to the companies involved in Civil Aircraft Operations... and provides a clear example of solid teamwork.
Do your research
So what about the percentage of questions that we don’t know the answer to?
When we apply to Company X we researchthem and also the job that we are applying for. Okay, we don’t know precisely what they are going to ask us but in general we can demonstrate that we have looked into their plans and news, history and ethos. This is going some way to answering those questions immediately.
Some companies have principle beliefs which we may recognise and they may resonate with us based on our Military Ethos –
Integrity, Teamwork, Excellence, Respect; would that be something from the Ministry of Defence or Balfour Beatty? Why not go and check the answer.
With the confidence that we know as much as we can, then the questions left to worry about are those which are possibly bad interview questions anyway. The likes of ‘What is your greatest weakness?’ Really it is a tricky question and we may need to be a little careful answering that.
Or of course the question which has nothing to do with the company or job at all “Why does a Zebra have stripes?” Which brings us back to; “
there is no right and no wrong answer; it is just our answer”.
Please take some time to review the types of interview as discussed in the CTP Career Transition Workbook and on the website. Consider using the Interview Simulator in myPlan for some of the tricky questions. Check for any Hints and Tips on the company Employer Focus Pages or company website as further preparation.
Remember, approach interviews with a confidence that you already know some of the answers and have researched the others; so you can be yourself during the actual interview.