Mar 30, 20174 min read

Interview Types & How To Smash Them For Six

Are you bored at work? Does the job not mean as much to you as it did in the past? If the answer if yes, it’s time to change jobs. Changing jobs is a scary prospect, especially if you have worked there for years, but it’s necessary. Only when you leave your comfort zone will you start to feel the emotions that make a career so fulfilling. Until then, you will stagnate and slip into monotony.

But, before you can wave adios, there’s something you have to do first. It’s not easy, but it’s vital to the process: an interview. In fact, you’ll have to take a variety of interviews, all of which could be different and challenging. To make sure you don’t bomb, below you will find a selection of interview types and how to handle them. Good luck.

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Standard

As the name suggests, this is the most common form of an interview. The employer doesn’t have one technique, so they ask generic questions to give them insight. A typical question is something like ‘where do you see yourself in five years?’ It’s such frequent question that it’s almost a cliché, but it’s still important to nail the answer. There are two options: tell them what they want to hear or tell the truth. In this case, as in most cases, honesty is the best possible. A lie will catch up with you in the end and make the relationship unsustainable. Plus, the average person is ambitious, so there’s no need to lie.

Behavioural

Behavioural interviews are different because they focus on the past (your past). They are a new age technique, but employers place a lot of emphasis on their effectiveness because a person’s behaviour is cyclical. An example is something like ‘tell us about your biggest professional failure.’ Then, they might ask you to detail what you did to turn the situation around. In simple terms, they want to see how you react to pressure and failure in equal measure. The trick is to focus on one example and talk them through it in detail. Lots of candidates flit between examples and end up muddling their answer as a result.

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Situational

Situational interviews are becoming more and more popular because they are real life examples. So, the employer knows what the right answer is, and they can compare your answers to the scenario. Unlike a behavioural interview, there is no need to concentrate on the past to look into the future. So, they might your boss is out of town and a problem arises – what do you do next? Your answer should be honest, and it should also address the root of the problem. It’s amazing how many candidates babble on about a topic that is unrelated. Also, add examples from your previous job to give you credibility. As well as problem-solving skills, they also want to test your expertise.

Case

Talk to a credit control recruiter or anyone in the finance industry and they will tell you these are the most common type of interview. Why? It’s because case studies relate to business, so they can test your business acumen and your ability to work analytically. For example, a trendy question at the minute is how many fries does Burger King sell each year or something to this effect. Although you won’t get the answer spot on, you will show them how you work to find solutions to tough questions. You might start by figuring out how many they sell in a day, and then times that by 52. But, you will also need to minus the times they aren’t open and subtract the meals that don’t include fries. As you can see, it’s a tricky case, but one you can attack if you think analytically. A tip: always talk aloud as you solve the equation. They want to see how you deal with the question, so show them.

Presentation

Now, this is the sort of interview that everyone will have come across at some stage. People of a certain age might only have had interviews that involved a presentation such is their popularity. The format is simple: they will present a question or problem and ask you to provide solutions. Usually, the candidates get fifteen minutes to prepare and fifteen minutes to execute. As there is a time limit, it’s essential to work quickly. So, start brainstorming the solutions within the first five minutes and concentrate on the main ones. Then, flesh them out to provide more detail and don’t forget a final section that focuses on the future. One last thing: try not to be fancy if you have to use Excel as there is no time to be creative.

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