Peter: What are the areas you point candidates to, to make sure they’ve researched the company?
John: Ensure they’re familiar with the website for a start. If you’re going for an interview at Noel Leeming do not ask what their brands are, or if they have any other brands or how many stores they have. You should know the answers to things like how many stores they ‘ve got. If you’re going for an interview at Cadbury, you should know all their brands, or most of their brands. Certainly, you should know their local brands. It’s things like that. The website is a good start. Another mistake people make is leaving their mobile phone on, or even worse, answering it, which does happen … unbelievable!
Peter: Excuse me, I’ve got to take a call – only kidding there.
John: Exactly what I mean. People actually do it. That and not being prepared to answer CV related questions. A common reply to those particular questions is “That’s in my CV”. There’s no use trying to be arrogant about it. You need to be ready to answer those questions such as “How long did you work in such-and-such company?” or “What was your involvement in that company?”. Answering with “That’s in my CV” does not help your chances at all.
Peter: It’s almost being purposely evasive, isn’t it?
John: Yes, or just being too overly proud of themselves. But there are candidates who do make the mistake of not acknowledging themselves enough for their work, or worse, acknowledging themselves too much. Just remember to blow your own trumpet, thats what you’re there to do.
Peter: If there’s a medium point, a low point and a high point, you’ve got to be careful to be perceived as being too confident.
John: It’s just being honest. If you’ve turned sales around yourself, then by all means say it, but also be prepared to talk about how you did it. If you’re part of a team, say you’re part of a team, but if you did something great, don’t play it down either. If you’ve any crack at that job, you might as well do your best to get it. Be prepared for questions, certainly to answer them. People say, ‘what are your strengths.’ They’ll go, ‘Never thought about that.’ Assuming this isn’t the first interview you’ve been to and assuming you get asked this at every one, it pays to answer the question in detail. There are certain questions that you get asked at every interview. It’s amazing how many people will feign ‘oh, that’s interesting, I never thought of it,’ when of course, they should have thought of it. They should have been asked it before, so they should have an answer.
Peter: There must be some standard interview questions, ones that are asked at most interviews.
John: Ah yes, there are. What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? They all get paraphrased in more ways than one. ‘What things do you think you need to work on?’ is basically another way of asking about ones weaknesses. There are many ways of paraphrasing that question. Another common one is about why you left companies. Be honest about why you left. If you were made redundant, then just say you were made redundant. Those are probably the main ones.
Peter: Thanks John – I’m sure our readers will appreciate the important information listed here.
