Hello World! I hope
that you guys are having a terrific week!
Things continue to move at a fast pace here in the Thompson world. We had Ava’s birthday party this past weekend
and I’m proud to say that we can now be nominated as the coolest parents in the
neighborhood. Why? Check out Ava’s final birthday present!
 |
| We are one toothless person and a dunk tank away from having our very own carnival!!! |
It’s pretty fun. I’ll tell you a secret though. Adults can go down…but the landing isn’t long
enough and most times you end up five to ten feet away in the grass.
Today I’m going to go back to interviewing and talk about
some of the mistakes that people commonly make.
Interviewing is almost like a fine art or craft rather than a
skill. What I mean by this is that you
will never, ever get one perfectly right.
Below are five mistakes I see people commonly make. Take a look and let me know your thoughts.
1. Answers Questions with Yes/No Answers
You’d be surprised but this is a way too common problem. When companies interview you they are looking
for substance and depth. In contrast
they are not filling out a survey. So
when someone asks you a question you have to give more than just yes or no
answers. Truly you need to give more
than one sentence answers. How do you do
this? It’s really pretty easy.
When you are preparing for your interview you need to
brainstorm and come up with five accomplishments that you are proud of from
your career – that’s the easy part. From
there you need to think about what these accomplishments say about you as an
employee and person. After that you need
to practice talking about them. It doesn’t
need to be a five minute story but it needs to be detailed. Familiarize yourself with these examples and
then be prepared to throw them in when you answer questions.
2. Assumes that the Interviewer Knows about your
company/industry/career?
As a culture we are very egocentric and often times we
assume that the person you are meeting for the first time already knows all of
your basic information. Here’s the scoop
– they don’t. In a perfect world
interviewers would devote the same amount of preparation to getting ready for
your interview that you do. They would
research your previous companies, study your resume and look you up
on-line. When you are asked to discuss
your career you should operate under the assumption that they have not read
your resume before meeting you (they probably haven’t), that they know nothing
about your industry and that they don’t know what someone in your position
does. Don’t be condescending or
patronizing – just explain the basics to them before getting more in depth.
3. Hijacks the Interview
OK – so I understand that I just got done talking about how
you should give additional information and be very detailed. This is true.
However, there is always too much of a good thing. A great interview typically resembles a conversation instead of a
presentation. Here are a couple of
things to keep in mind:
·
People have a short attention span – keep on point
·
Keep your answers to 2 – 3 minutes at best
·
Ask questions of the interviewer – people like talking
about themselves
4. Doesn’t follow Interview Protocol
I’ve written extensively on this one in the past and will
continue to. For some reason there are
people out there that either think they are better than everyone else or don’t
think that the rules apply to them. This
line of thinking will submarine your interviews. There is a laundry list of items but some of
the most common ones are:
- Wear a suit
- Show up five minutes early
- Send a thank you note
- Don’t chew gum
- Turn your cell phone off
- Wait to sit until the interviewer does
The list goes on an on.
Just do your best and use common courtesy and you should be alright.
5. Isn’t prepared for Common Interview Questions
This is one that is really inexcusable. You
can Google “common interview questions” and find thousands of lists of the most common questions asked in an
interview. Take a look at all of
these. Below you’ll find some of the common interview
questions I ask that should be know but somehow still trip people up:
- Why are you looking to leave your current job? – I get that you might be happy and just looking to grow your career – However, you are the one interviewing. Tell them that you are motivated to improve your career and are from time to time you are willing to explore select opportunities.
- Why did you leave that job? – Read some of my other blogs – but just be honest and direct
- How much were/are you making? (I’ll give you a hint on this one – I’d rather not share is not an acceptable answer)
- What do you want to do next in your career? (Again – I don’t know is not going to help you)
- Why are you interested in this job? – you better know this
- What do you know about the company? – do some kind of research
I can virtually guarantee that 90% of these questions will
be asked of you in an interview. So…
prepare for them and have an answer ready to go. You can’t memorize the answer and give it
verbatim – people don’t like hiring robots.
Instead, you need to think about these answers and practice answering
them in different ways
That’s all for this week!
What do you guys think? If you have
anything to add or comments please email me at sthompson@insurance-csg.com.
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