I work in Human Resources and a lot of my job is conducting interviews, so I have a decent idea of how they work.
I can give general advice, but if you want some real specific advice, I would recommend telling us what the job is so we have a better idea of what the interview will be like.
Otherwise, I feel the best way to give you advice is not so much telling you what to do, but rather, giving you a better idea of how recruitment and interviewing works from the employer perspective.
I say this because every job has a different way to recruit/interview. For example, how I recruit for an Senior Accounts Manager is very different than how I recruit for letâs say a security guard.
To give you a rough idea of recruitment/interviewing:
A good recruiter essentially looks at a job that they need to fill and they try to understand what people suit it and what people donât. They do a series of interviews (usually more than 1) to assess a person to see what they have and what they donât have, and ultimately try to fill the role with a person they most feel is suitable.
Letâs take the example of a senior accounts manager. What would we be looking for? Generally somebody whoâs a really good people person, who knows how to listen and assess the needs of the client, who knows how to sell, and has a solid grasp of business fundamentals. Whoâs not good? Probably somebody who has poor social skills, doesnât really understand how sales work, doesnât really grasp how managing the accounts translates into business objectives, etc.
So if I am interviewing somebody for that job, thereâs a few different things Iâll pay attention to.
Iâll ask them questions about their previous experiences that can potentially tell me how theyâll act in the future, thatâs the theory at least. These are called behavioural questions and they are quite common, so I recommend before your interview, try to have somewhat of a mental list of situations where you faced adversity or tricky situations and specifically what you did to conquer them. I may ask them about a time where they had a difficult experience with a client and how they reacted in that situation. Depending on the job/their experience, I may ask them to recall a very specific scenario, or make it more general. Iâll often ask a situation that would occur in the job I am hiring for. If they dealt with their scenario in a good way that weâre looking for, thatâs a good indicator of how theyâll act in this job, usually at least. They can lie too though soâŚas a recruiter I am always looking out for that because very rarely will people say seriously negative things about themselves.
Iâll also pay attention to how the interview is going socially. Are they easy to talk to? Can they sell me on them? Recruitment is basically how you can sell yourself via an interview. If they are just a breeze and super pleasant to deal with, Iâll take that into account. If they arenât pleasant, just not enjoyable to talk to, etc., I kind of put myself in the shoes of a client and let that take into consideration.
A big part of how I recruit is going into their resume and I ask them about their previous jobs. Thatâs a good indicator of where they are at in their career (does it match this job?), how they have acted in the past, etc. If you have some situations where letâs say you quit a job with zero notice, and that job is on your resume, expect them to ask you why you left that job and have a good reason.
A security guard for example, is a much different role. The job requires a completely different skill set. There has to be a good degree of assertiveness, but at the same time a level of customer service because they are dealing with the general public. They need to have good decision making, and need to be considerate of others. They also need to be able to represent the company well. Thereâs also a physical component in that they are often standing for hours. Plus, they have to deal with crazy hours sometimes, often graveyards etc. So a job like that is a lot more basic and Iâll ask more straightforward questions.
Additionally, you also gotta consider how many people are applying for a job. A big aspect is your region and what the unemployment rate is. If the unemployment is really low, that means thereâs too many jobs and not enough people. That means the employee is in the power position, where they have tons of jobs they can choose from. If unemployment is really high, it means the opposite - too many people and not enough jobs. The employer is in the power position then because theyâll have tons of people applying for their single job and they get to choose the best one.
For example, depending on if your job is more entry level or how competitive it is, the recruitment will generally be more strict or more lenient. If itâs super competitive, expect a grilling haha. Well, a friendly grilling, but theyâll be critical of everything you say. If itâs not super competitive, very often they have to reduce their standards, so theyâll be a LOT more lenient.
So, essentially what you want to do, is look at the job your applying for, and try to estimate âwhat is the recruiter looking for?â. And then you highlight those aspects through interview questions and your behaviour about yourself. And then hopefully theyâll like you and pick you! Haha.
I laugh about that last aspect but itâs very true - thereâs also huge biases and whether the interviewer simply likes you is huge. So if you already know the interviewer, or letâs say itâs a referral, you got a big head start.
Company culture is also huge, and whether youâll âfit inâ with the others (your colleagues). This sounds silly but honestly, itâs probably one of the most important aspects, if not THE most important aspect depending on the job. Being able to get along with other people at your work is HUGE. Iâd argue itâs more important than the actual job, depending on your position. Iâve seen countless people who, had amazing ideas, and were super intelligent, but simply did not get along with others and could not persuade them on their ideas, so they werenât super successful. Iâve seen the opposite too - people who quite frankly werenât that special, but rise up the ladders quickly because of their great people skills.
So if you know what the general âvibeâ is like of a company, or how people act in that company, try to act in a way thatâs genuine and yourself, but in also a way to show that youâll fit in. For exampleâŚare they casual? Formal? Like to joke around? Serious? Etc. You donât need to be a robot that assimilates, but you gotta show that you can get along with people.
Also expect them to ask you questions about interpersonal interactions with others. A VERY COMMON question is âtell me about a time where you had an interpersonal conflict with another co-worker? how did you react and what did you do?â The answer is to tell them about a time where there was a normal disagreement, and you dealt with it in a way that ended up with everybody happy. Thatâs the ideal at least.
Thereâs also general trick questions a lot of companies ask. One big one is âwhatâs your biggest weakness?â. It may also be asked as âTell me something about yourself that youâre working onâ to mask it. Honestly, Iâve contemplated this question for years now and I still donât know the perfect answer because I donât think there is one! Itâs sort of a lose-lose. Many people will try to give you a strength masked as a weakness which just comes off as pre-planned and disingenuous. For example, Iâve heard âIâm so detail focusedâ soo many times that I just know itâs bullshit lol. The best answer is probably telling them a weakness about yourself thatâs not TOO harmful or bad, and saying it in a way that shows your humility. But donât say something that for exampleâŚis required for the job. If letâs say the job requires a lot of detail, donât say âsometimes I forget about the small things and I make mistakes more than Iâd likeâ. Big no lol. Also donât say something that indicates your lack of social ability - because thatâs a huge one. If I get a red flag that the person probably wonât get along with others, I probably wonât hire them. Say something that is a weakness about yourself, and indicate how youâre working on it, but make sure itâs not a huge deal lol.
If you really want some GENERAL basic advice, try your best to relax and be yourself. It sounds silly but itâs true. If youâre not suitable or ready for a job, the recruiter is doing you a favour if youâre not selected. If you are selected, then congrats and you did it! Either way, itâs just a job at the end of the day.
And alsoâŚwhile you may have everything prepped and planned and all good - donât be offended or take it too seriously if you donât get selected! Maybe try to take a small lesson from it but donât harp on it too much. Because sometimesâŚcompanies just may not hire you and you may have no idea why. Sometimes thereâs no real reason!
I find this for me helped me relax a LOTâŚbecause at the end of the day, itâs not 100% in your control. You donât know the interviewer, youâll never know exactly what they are looking for, and you donât know the culture until youâre in it. So what can you do? You try your best, hopefully youâll get it, if not no worries 
I hope this helps and wasnât too long-winded! Feel free to ask more questions as, well if itâs not already obvious, I find this stuff pretty interesting haha.
It was an online interview, in which I was recorded, no human interaction. There were three questions in three different languages, and I only was able to understand one of them⌠jajaja Though I asked them in advance about that and they said that it was ok.
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