Have a second interview with a massive global company next week as a health/social analyst and looking for as much advice and tips that could help me out as much as possible. This is an opportunity for a major job upgrade and growth. Had one interview with them already, with a single member of the local team, that went very well and was very comfortable, seem to develop a good relationship with the interviewer in that time and in the subsequent phone calls and emails. will obviously be wearing a suit and tie so don't need any fashion tips..... also along the hour long interview (with a panel consisting of members of staff from interstate and one local) will be preceeded by 2 hours working on a research/written task, where i will be given a laptop and internet access. in the phone call about this, he talked about that they get some very high level candidates and they get them to do this task, to see if the can really research and write.....something i think i am pretty good at so hit me with your preperation advice, suggested questions and answer advice would be great. Already planning to spend the weekend comming up with my basic research methodology strategy and come up with an extensive list of websites that are good health/social academic resource websites, plus have been searching the web to get copies of recent project reports to company has worked on. help please, i really want this job
Ask lots of questions framed in a way which make it seem like why should you take the job rather than why they should give you the job. (what are the biggest challenges i will face blah blah blah in the sense that you are looking for something that will stimulate you, what are the best things about this job, etc. Don't hesitate to ask about hte bad parts either) Obviously don't do it in an obnoxious way cause it could backfire ("how much $ are you going to give me!!!") But there's an art to marketing yourself and making yourself seem more selective without coming off as an asshat. Also make sure you have a long list of set piece questions (for each interviewer) cause filling dead air on the fly in an interview can be treacherous.
sounds like to me you got it pretty well handled, but you know me....not exactly the guy who you should listen to when it comes to suitsville. Best of luck Smeggy...I'm sure you will nail it.
Here is from my interview pakcet this past April: DO research the company. DO examine sales books in order to brush up on your sales techniques. DO arrive 10-15 minutes before an interview. DO bring a copy of your resume. DO prepare a copy of references. DO bring a pen and notebook to takes notes before, during and after the interview. DO prepare questions to ask during the interview. DO greet everyone in the office with a smile and hello. DO fill out all applications neatly and completely. DO greet the interviewer with a smile and by his/her surname. DO give a firm handshake. DO make direct eye contact. DO psyche yourself up! It’s O.K. if you are nervous or a little frightened. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. DON’T be unprepared for the interview. You’ll never get a second chance to make a first impression. DURING THE INTERVIEW DO be yourself. People can tell when you are faking it. DO have a positive attitude. Life is good! DO be confident. You are the kind of employee this employer needs. DO represent yourself honestly. DO maintain direct eye contact. DO sit up straight. DO use FEB selling to answer employer’s questions. DO ask questions about the position, company and the interviewer. DON’T ask questions about salary, commission, bonuses, vacations or anything else the company can do for you. Wait until you’ve gotten the job offer. DON’T get too comfortable. Remain professional and on guard. DON’T ever say anything negative. Be careful when talking about past and present employers. AFTER THE INTERVIEW DO jot down notes to help you remember the highlights of the interview (questions, your impressions, your performance). This will help you in the future interviews and writing thank you letters. DO call your Culver Account Executive to provide feedback on the interview. DO fax, email or drop off a thank you letter with-in 24 hours. SALES PROCESS Build Rapport Probe for needs (open vs. closed ended questions) Sell to needs (FEB) Overcome objections Close FEB SELL YOURSELF During the interview it is essential that you SELL YOURSELF. Feature-Example-Benefit Selling, also known as FEB selling, is a fabulous way to do this! FEB selling teaches you to effectively sell yourself by using personal examples. FEATURE: a fact that sets you apart from other people. EXAMPLE: a specific, personal example that supports your fact. BENEFIT: how your fact and example benefit the employer. For example: Feature- strong work ethic Example- while attending college full-time, I worked 40 hours a week to finance my education. Benefit- I’m used to working hard in order to achieve positive results. By using the examples above, we come up with this statement: I have a strong work ethic. For example, while attending college full-time I worked 40 hours a week to finance my education. What this means for XYZ Company is that I’m used to working hard in order to achieve positive results. Below are some additional features many employers look for in their candidates. Examine your background and complete the advantage and benefit. FEATURE EXAMPLE BENEFIT Aggressive Goal Oriented Motivated Resilient Persistent QUESTIONS COMMONLY ASKED Most of us make two mistakes when we are being questioned in an interview. First, we fail to listen to the question. We proceed to answer a question that was not asked or to give out a lot of superfluous information. Second, we attempt to answer questions without preparation. Not even the most skilled debater can answer questions off the cuff without damaging his or her chances of success. Bottom line…BE PREPARED! Tell me about yourself. What is your greatest strength? What is your biggest weakness? What are you looking for in a position? What do you know about our company? Why do you want to work for us? Why do you want to work in this industry? Why do you want sales? What motivates you? Why should we hire you? What sets you apart from others? What qualities do you think a top sales representative possesses? Why are you leaving your current company? Past companies? Where else are you interviewing? What is your biggest achievement? What is your biggest failure? What did you learn from it? Why did you select your college or university? What motivated you to choose your major? What are your goals over the next 3 years? 5 years? 10 years? What do you see yourself doing in 5 years? What position do you see yourself in? How much money do you want to make this year? 3 years? 5 years? In your current or past positions, what features did you like the most? Least? What would be your ideal job? If you had your choice of companies, where would you go? How do you define success? What do you think it takes to be successful in our company? How do you spend your spare time? What books have you read recently? Will you relocate? Does relocation bother you? Do you have a problem with commuting to work? How do you think those that know you describe you? Give an example of a time you had a conflict with a co-worker and how you handled it. Did you every work for a manager you didn’t care for? What did you do about it? Describe the relationship that should exist between a supervisor and sub-ordinates. Give me a specific example of a time when you dealt with a disgruntled customer. Tell me about an important goal you set for yourself in the past and how you achieved it. Give me an example of a particular difficult time you had to be persuasive in order to get your ideas across. Tell me about a time when you worked really hard for something over a period of time and did not get it? SITUATIONAL QUESTIONS RAPPORT BUILDING: A demonstrated ability to establish and maintain positive working relationships with customers. An individual that communicates with others building trust and credibility. Please describe a time when you had to build rapport with a customer or co-worker in a particularly difficult situation. Follow-up Questions: Who was the customer or co-worker? When did you do this? Why was it particularly difficult for you? What did you do to build rapport? What were the results? Can you tell me about a specific time that was important for you to build trust and credibility with another person? How did you do that? Follow-up Questions: Who was the person you needed to build trust and credibility with? Why was that so important? What did you do to attain that? What was the outcome? SALES APTITUDE/PERSUASIVENESS: A demonstrated ability to persuade others to take action in a specific direction. Please give me an example of a particularly difficult time when you had to be persuasive in order to get your ideas across. Follow-up Questions: What was the situation? Why was it difficult? What were you trying to accomplish? What specific steps did you take to be persuasive? Please give me an example of a time when you were having difficulty closing a customer on your product or service. Follow-up Questions: Who was the customer? When was this? Why was it difficult? What did you do to close the sale? Did you make the sale? PRO-ACTIVE/SELF-RELIANT: A demonstrated ability to take action, being responsible for ones own success and failure. Take action to influence events and achieve specific goals. Demonstrates a willingness to originate actions. Please tell me about an important goal you set for yourself in the past and how you achieved it. Follow-up Questions: Why was the goal important to you? What steps did you take to achieve it? What obstacles did you encounter along the way? How did you overcome them? What was the result? Follow-up Questions: Did you initiate any new procedures or systems? How did you go about getting them improved? Are they still being used? How did they increase your effectiveness? RESILIENCE: A demonstrated ability to stick with a goal or desired result when faced with rejection or opposition. Maintain a positive attitude and work through obstacles. Tell me about a time when you worked really hard for something over a period of time and did not get it. Follow-up Questions: What was your goal? What effort did you put forth to get it? What obstacles were in the way? What obstacles get in your way of you doing your job at work? What do you do to overcome them? Follow-up Questions: How do you handle the obstacles? Have you suggested doing anything differently? Do these obstacles still exist? COMMUNICATION SKILLS: A demonstrated ability to present information in a clear, concise, well organized fashion. The ability to listen for an individuals needs and desires and identify hidden objections. Can you give me a specific example of a time when you dealt with a disgruntled customer? Follow-up Questions: Who was the customer? When did it happen? What were the circumstances? What was the result? Tell me about a time when you had a conflict or disagreement with someone at work. How did you handle it? Follow-up Questions: Who was the conflict with? What was it in regard to? How did you approach the person to resolve it?
SmeggySmeg, when they give you the task, and one hour to work, you know the only web address you'll need, right? We'll be here for you. LOL. "This report is... interesting, Mr. Smeg. Where are your references?" "Well, the first quotation is from FattyFatBastard." "Excuse me?" "Well, it could have been KingCheetah." "Are these rap musicians, Mr. Smeg?" "No, LOL, not a cheat-uh. I mean like the animal!" "..." "What? When do I start?"
sam thanks for the advice..... think i know what you mean, but any specific suggestions for set piece questions to ask
great stuff B-bob..... one suspects it would be a reasonable assumption in a research task they will print out the log of the websites I visit, so not sure i will make it hear for the advice on the day..... nevertheles if I have time to spare at the end wondering if checking the MNF score would be acceptable
"What do you like most about working here?" is a good one - "what do you find most challenging" - just a bunch of similar general open-ended questions that you can deploy to anybody at any time. 5-10 of them should be enough.
As per your question to Sam, you could have the following generics on hand, and use them at your discretion. -- ask about the financial health of the firm over the last few years, with a projection forward. -- ask about the biggest challenge the firm sees ahead of it -- ask about the decision-making process that will rule your part of the organization -- ask about the executive leadership's relationship to the organization's board Or leave those aside, but I agree with Sam's take that you do look much more desirable when you look like, in part, you are scrutinizing them to make sure they will provide a challenging, fair, healthy and interesting workplace.
That sounds great. One thing I'd recommend is making all this information readily available to you during the 2 hour test. You could simply make a post here with all your links. btw: this is a premier site for sharing bookmarks: http://delicious.com/ You could also post your research task to the bbs. haha. You could also use the Who Wants To Be a Millionaire's approach of using a Lifeline to a expert friend. Have them monitor this thread while you post the assignment. But of course, the test is mainly about writing. So, at some point your writing strategy/execution is the main thing. btw: what do you mean by "health/social". Like an HSE department. Health, Safety, and Environment. Shell has such a department. Basically, it's their Social impact policy to include employees, society and environment. I know they post a lot of info on their website.
One of the most important parts of an interview is when you get a chance to ask questions. Ask lots of them (job duties, advancement, how to be successful, specific questions about the position, etc..) No vacation, salary, etc.. questions though
Having gone through a second interview today, I would recommend being yourself and being honest. Also let them know that you want the job and are pursuing it. Everyone wants to be liked.
was thinking of taking a flash drive with me, with a list resources and information on it, but will check out delicious as a back-up yeah the writing is the key, hopefully i can find enough and the right info and then pull it in something coherent and of a high standard not so much the HSE you mean, this is more like big consultancy projects for federal and state governments to analyze and assess their work, projects and processes
Worst interview question ever: "What are your weaknesses?" It is absolutely a meaningless question, yet gets asked in 75% of interviews. Be prepared for it. The top answers that they have always heard are always a backhand way to make you look good in no particular order: 1. I work TOO hard 2. I'm a perfectionist. Be prepared with a good answer to this question, that doesn't make you look crappy, but something they perhaps haven't heard before. And no, "No tolerance for stupid interview questions" is NOT a good answer. Even though the interviewer is stupid for asking the question, you don't want to make them FEEL stupid for asking the question. The next worst interview question is "What are your strengths?" Again, meaningless question that is a crutch for almost all interviewers. Excellent interviewers will almost NEVER ask this question. Top answers in no particular order: 1. I'm a team player! 2. I'm a great communicator! Come up with something orginal for this stupid question, and then back it up with specific examples. GREAT interview question: "Why do you want to work for company X?" Well, for money and benefits, duh. This is a question that often gets asked and the answers are almost always bland and generic. To pursue career opportunites, to expand horizons...Bleh. Come up with something specific about the comapany and why you think it would be great to work there. This is your opportunity to show you are knowledgeable about the company and the industry. "Well company X has shown they are a leader in the field of widget production with their release of widget 2.0 upgrades and marketing to overseas widget comsumers and I've always wanted to learn more about the fasicinating world of widgets. I believe my expereince in whatsits will translate well to the production of widgets. An example would be blah blah blah." Show knowlege of the company and show knowledge of the job you are applying for. Sounds excited, but not desperate. Have confidence in your abilities, but don't be arrogant. Strike the balance. EDIT: Also, get one of those nice leather portfolio folders, that you can have a legal pad, pen and extra printed resumes in. Its neat and professional. You can take notes, and be prepared to provide additional copies of your resume. Also tuck in there notes about who you are meeting, phone numbers just in case, and seperate reference sheets in case you are asked for additional references. Not a bad idea to also tuck in there some well thought out examples of projects you've worked on or specific accomplishments. Don't present them unless asked, but they actually make well prepared backups.
it is very much a national travel job, there is a small team in my town, but due to size most of the work is interstate.. not sure about overseas... trying not to think too far ahead
thanks SuperMac, some awesome suggestions in there.... will get my thinking cap on about the weaknesses question and also strengths and the why question, think i answered all three of those really well in the first interview, but will improve before tuesday..... also wondering if they will dissect my work on the task during the interview and ask me to explain if they will straight interview and then assess seperately.....
thanks R2K, good to hear from you.... not sure what email you are using lately, but tried to send you some pics of smeg jnr... send me an email smeggysmeg at gmail dot com
