5.6: Interviews

So far, we've discussed the first few steps of the job search process. The next step in this process involves the job interview, which will showcase your verbal communication skills. Job interviews can vary in nature. Some interviews may take an informal approach, such as simply sitting with a potential employer in a casual setting and answering questions. Other interviews may be more formal, with potential candidates arriving at a predetermined location and being questioned by one individual or a panel regarding an open position. In either instance, the main point of an interview remains confirming that the candidate is the right fit for the job.

Advice regarding how to handle a job interview is varied, and there isn’t one particular style that would fit all scenarios. However, a job candidate can use some general rules and prepare for this verbal event. You should be mindful of the location where your interview will take place. Although traditional interviews occur in person, many companies are now preferring virtual interviews. Here we will discuss how to prepare for a successful interview.

Prepping for the Interview

Finally! You’ve received a call from your desired potential employer, granting you an interview. However, don’t begin your celebration just yet. Now is the time to truly deepen your knowledge about the company and polish your verbal skills so that you can ace the interview. Your desired end result: landing the job! Here are a few things that can help you prepare:

Research the company more thoroughly: One of the questions you may be asked during an interview is, “Tell us what you know about our company.” Potential employers are testing you! They want to know if you took an interest in finding out the company’s background, products or services, ties to the community, etc. This means that you should do a little more than just visit the website and access a few tabs. Check into the company’s mission or vision statement and see if it aligns with your thoughts and values. Look into their policies and procedures (if available). Search for their quarterly or annual reports. If you are able to give information about their company, the interviewer(s) will note that you have a vested interest.

Research your position more thoroughly: A great resource for this would be someone who is holding a similar position with the company or someone with knowledge of the position working within the company. You may be able to glean additional information such as working conditions, morale, etc. Another resource for this position involves completing a search of the position on a broader scale.

Anticipate questions and prepare talking points: Start with the most-asked question: “Tell me about yourself.” Begin building and practicing answering basic questions regarding the position. If you are interviewing for a position as a data entry clerk, it would be good to know how many words per minute you can type, which software programs you are familiar with, and how to operate a 10-key instrument, as well as explain their processes. This is also a good time to begin practicing your tone and limiting hand gestures so that you will present a calm and refined demeanor when interviewing.

Rehearse with mock job interviews: Of course, preparing a set of notes is not helpful if you lack time to study and rehearse your responses in a mock job interview situation, so manage your time effectively and schedule mock job interviews throughout the week prior to your actual interview. The more comfortable and familiar you are with the interview dynamic of someone asking you questions and you responding, the more confident and articulate you will be during the real interview. Enlist a family member, friend, counselor, or career coach from your institution to ask questions you anticipated, as well as some of you that you haven’t. Help from a friend or acquaintance who is an employer themselves would be especially helpful because they can draw on personal experience to advise you on what works and what doesn’t from their managerial perspective. Their honest feedback will be invaluable as long as you accept and implement their constructive criticism. You may also get a sense of what works and what doesn’t, but having someone else to talk to about it and work it out will do wonders for your interview preparation.

Arrive early: Arriving at least 30 minutes before your scheduled interview is a good idea. This buffer allows time for you to use the restroom and freshen up. You allow yourself time to try a few deep-breathing exercises in an effort to calm yourself and appear less nervous. Also, during this time, you may be asked to complete an employment application; depending on its length, it may take some time.

Effectively Answering Interview Questions

Tell Me About Yourself

As previously mentioned, one of the most commonly asked questions in an interview is “Tell me about yourself.” This is not the time to give personal information. The interviewer wants to know about you—your skills, your educational background, and your certifications. Although this information is provided on your résumé, the interviewer wants to see how well you verbally communicate. A great way to address this question is to use the Present-Past-Future (PPF) formula. Start by describing where you are currently in your career and mentioning a recent accomplishment. Then, explain how your previous roles and experiences shaped your professional self. And finally, outline your career plans and explain how this role aligns with them.

Behavioral Questions

Behavioral questions help interviewers predict how you will work within an organization based on your past experience. Sharing your past experience often involves storytelling. One method to assist you with answering these questions is to use the STAR Interview Method. STAR is an acronym, which stands for situation, task, action, result. Let’s look at what each letter means.

• S Situation: establish the scene while giving important details of the example

• T Task: describe your responsibilities in that situation

• A Action: explain the actions taken to address the situation

• R Results: share the outcomes your actions achieved

Using this acronym when answering behavioral interview questions is a way of organizing your thoughts while providing a detailed specific answer. Another similar method is the PARL method.

• P Problem: provide an overview of the problem encountered with key details

• A Action: explain the actions taken to address the situation

• R Results: share the outcomes your actions achieved

• L Learning: discuss the learnings from this situation

A major difference between the STAR and PARL methods is that PARL includes a learning element.  This can be particularly useful when describing a situation that could have been more successful. The self-awareness and take-away from an unsuccessful situation can be just as useful in communicating skills and growth. 

Post-interview Follow-up Messages

The day after a job interview, write a follow-up email thanking the employer for their time and interest. Though you may consider this an optional cherry on top of a successful job interview, it’s really more of an expected formality in the modern job interview process. When the hiring committee meets to discuss the five or six candidates who were interviewed, those who neglected to send a thank-you note will look uncaring or neglectful compared to those who demonstrated thoughtful and considerate gratitude by writing a note. The message’s length shouldn’t be minimal but must be well-written and error-free.

Once this message goes out, move on. As good as you might feel about how you did, you won’t have any idea what they decide until you hear back from them. Sometimes the best candidate doesn’t get the job after all, so don’t torture yourself by checking your phone and email every five minutes for the good or bad news. Instead, focus on your next applications. When your job is to get a job, it should be a full-time occupation that you don’t rest from until you accept a job offer.

If you get a follow-up message saying that another candidate is better suited to what the selection committee was looking for, feeling dejected and getting upset are natural reactions to the bad news. What’s really important at this point is that you do two things:

1. Don’t respond angrily by demanding a reason why you were rejected or what the winning candidate had over you. The employer will simply be protecting itself from legal action when they say that they can’t go into detail about their decision, especially because all of the people on the committee will likely have signed confidentiality agreements to not discuss their decisions with anyone outside of the committee. Instead, accept defeat gracefully. Who knows—they may have been impressed enough that they'll have you in mind when they follow through on plans to hire again in six months.

2. Learn from the experience. The more interviews you do, the more you figure out what works and what doesn’t based on reading the reactions around the room and how you feel afterward. Reflect on where you could have improved and keep a set of notes on what you would do better next time. In the meantime, keep applying to other positions, building your professional network, and adding skill sets and educational experience to better position you for the jobs you want.

If you decide on the basis of the interview to withdraw from the competition before the company even sends you their decision, the courteous thing to do would be to immediately send a polite message explaining that you would no longer like to be considered for the position. Courtesy, in this case, is especially important if your reason is that you accepted a job offer from a more attractive company. You don’t have to say that that’s the reason, but you want to keep the door open to the company you’re rejecting in case it doesn’t work out with the company you’re going with after all. You may not get a second chance with the company you’re rejecting, but you definitely won’t if you burn that bridge with a snarky email, and you never know who they might talk to (a future potential employer?) about any untoward behavior.

If all goes well and you get a job offer or if you’re informed that you’re the leading candidate either by phone or by email, of course, you should express your excitement and gratitude for them selecting you. From there, you may have several formalities to follow through on, such as submitting the names and contact information of references and filling out other paperwork, all of which you must do promptly and perfectly lest your success is still dependent on your degree of compliance through the confirmation process.

Attributions:

Content for this section was adapted from

Chapter 10: Interpersonal Workplace Communication Copyright © 2022 by Adrienne Abel is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. 

Content for the STAR method and activity sections was adapted from

Interview Process Training Copyright © 2020 by Sarah Sandoval, Casey Herko, Terri Kelly, and Coleen Morris is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. 

References:

BambooHR. (2018, May 31). What should I wear to a job interview? How to dress for “work” [2021]. YouTube. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YzqFqzpUm6M 

CrashCourse. (2019, April 17). How to ace the interview: Crash course Business - Soft Skills #6 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BssdOyLB2GU 

Indeed. (2020, January 3). Top 10 Interview Questions: Common Questions, Body Language and More [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/HG68Ymazo18 

Muse, Inc. (2024, March 29). 50+ Top Interview Questions and Answers in 2023. The Muse. https://www.themuse.com/advice/interview-questions-and-answers