If current job postings in the local press and on online platforms are any guide, companies are hiring and, in some cases, recruiting apprentices. Young graduates who respond to the advertisements could find themselves walking into the first interview of their lives.
Mentally, it’s not easy to prepare for job interviews. Even experienced candidates who battle to get on a shortlist can find the interview process tough. This is because job interviews can be nerve-wracking experiences for quite a number of jobseekers.
What’s even more, the hiring process itself is changing at companies to include on-the-spot requests for presentations or plans relevant to the role. On the sophisticated side, psychometric tests are also used, particularly for Senior Management and highly technical positions. (Psychometric tests are a scientific, standardised measure of a person’s mental capabilities and pattern of behaviour.)
Some research has indicated that the job interview is markedly poorer at accurately predicting job performance than such techniques as personality tests, nevertheless, it remains a popular method of selecting employees. To find the right person for a job here in Guyana, the job interview approach is the overwhelming favourite.
Successfully progressing past the interview requires a combination of things, but an important first step is for you to stay calm and clearheaded ahead of and during the interview. Remember, companies know what they are looking for in a potential employee and there is a strong possibility that one or more of the other candidates will fit the profile. This means that your performance during the interview could well be the deciding factor in rendering you “first among equals.”
Adopt the right approach
Telling jobseekers attending an interview to “be punctual” might seem cliché, but from my experience too little concern is shown for punctuality in this country. Some months ago, I scheduled interviews with five candidates, with the first interview due to start at 9 am. The first candidate turned up an hour late and offered up an excuse about running late due to traffic. When asked whether she had retained the company’s telephone number, which was provided in the vacancy notice, she responded in the affirmative. When asked whether she thought about using it to advise that she was running behind schedule, her answer was “no.”
Regrettably, this is a recurring story among young jobseekers, who constantly show up late for scheduled interviews. Some never use their mobile phones to call and inform us of any potential delay and instead conform to a growing culture of tardiness and discourtesy. Sadly, even more seasoned jobseekers also engage in this practice.
But there’s hope. I recently invited a young woman to an interview and provided her with our Georgetown address. She admitted having no idea where to find us but promptly stated she would do a dry run the next day not only to locate us, but to gauge the time it would take for her to travel from her home to the office. On interview day, she was there 30 minutes early!
Her approach to locating us and being punctual was representative of the way she answered questions during the interview. She didn’t have much experience in the field we advertised for, but she was smart, focussed and her frank and honest responses struck a chord with us, her interviewers. I’m happy to report that she got the job and is still working with us.
Prepare to give details
Most recruiters have experienced first-hand the problem of candidates showing up for an interview unprepared. Preparation does not necessarily mean diving into the company’s archives to tell us when it was founded and whose name is on the incorporation documents. It is useful to have basic knowledge of the company, but it is more important to be able to answer questions relating to the role for which you have applied, your own background and your plans for the future.
Often, you will face an interview panel where applicants selected for interviews or final consideration are evaluated by more than one individual. This is usually done to minimise the potential for personal bias, and you need not be overwhelmed by seeing three or four faces looking back at you. Each interviewer will have specific questions to aid the company in understanding the candidate’s technical and behavioural competencies based on their response to set questions, scenarios and simulations.
Standard questions focus on work history, school background, and hypothetical problem-solving to gauge how candidates might react in certain situations. There are also the behavioural questions, which focus on past events in a candidate’s life. These questions and the insight they provide, offer key information on candidates to help interviewers in the selection process.
Jobseekers with some experience should talk about their past jobs in detail – titles, company names, promotions, gaps in employment, accomplishments etc. When citing examples of achievements, speak to projects you were personally involved with. If you have no work history, describe your time at school or university and mention key courses, what you have learnt from them, how you would apply that knowledge to the role, what motivates you to excel, and so on.
The responses to this range of questioning is important because they allow a company to understand certain core behaviour traits in candidates, such as, initiative, competency, drive and thinking skills.
One of the easier questions that usually comes first in interviews is, “Could you introduce yourself?” This simple question allows the candidate to open about who they are, beliefs, work or student experience, and so on. When introducing yourself it is important to be able to make and hold eye contact with interviewers. However, people struggle with this, and many first-time candidates have trouble expressing in simple terms what they are about and what is going on in their lives.
First impressions are good, competency is even better
Making a good first impression certainly counts for something and young people seem to have “gotten the memo” as, save for a few, most candidates attending our interviews are dressed appropriately. (However, just recently, a candidate turned up with his jeans sliding down his waist, but after spotting the professional appearance of the other candidates, he left to purchase a belt.)
There are candidates who walk into the room with a lot of confidence and seem to think that the interview is an opportunity for a personal PowerPoint presentation. While some of this is good, recruitment is performance-based and, as a result, the interview process will focus on finding candidates with the attributes and behaviours needed to succeed in the specific job. What this means is that even quiet candidates who are reserved stand a good chance of securing the job, even though they lack the showiness of other candidates (if being reserved is a desirable character trait for the position to be filled). This is because interviewers are trying to find the candidates who appear competent and capable of doing the job required. Often, perhaps, the best person for the job may not be the one who gets hired; the one that makes the best presentation does.
Therefore, to find the right fit and determine suitability, some recruiters will check off on their lists which candidates meet all the job needs. The job description is a good guide when building the checklist for required skillset.
If you’re a confident jobseeker with good presentation skills and you possess a particular skillset for a specific role, the interview process will likely be a breeze for you. On the other hand, if you are reserved, quiet and now learning how to get through an interview, you should work on building a skillset to match the role you desire.
Of course, not all interviews fit into the categories outlined in this article.
In closing, I should reiterate that it is useful to be aware of the basic requirements for the role for which you are interviewing, and timeliness, good appearance and good presentation skills will put you in good stead. When uncertain of how to answer a question, honesty and frankness may work better than trying to be evasive or make up answers that you are unsure of. Most importantly, know what your strongpoints are and be prepared to sell yourself as suitable for the job for which you applied.
Iana Seales is an HR Professional and a Society for Human Resource Management Member. She currently leads the HR Team at Guyana Industrial Minerals Inc. You can email her comments at ianaseales@yahoo.com