One aspect of interviewing that is very rarely discussed is what interview style you should prepare for as a candidate- many times this can dictate as much about how the interview will go as any actual skills that you are able to relay. Will the interview ask you to solve a puzzle? The amount of times it would take you to fill an Olympic sized pool with sand using only a measuring cup? (Yes these questions have really happened.) Understanding the interview techniques that firms & companies use should give you better confidence when heading into your next interview, so let’s review a few:
- Behavioral interviewing is one of the most popular ways of interviewing candidates today. Rather than focusing on specific skill mastery, in a behavioral interview the goal is to pull out past behaviors as a way to show what kind of future employee you could be at the firm. Examples of this type of questions will be along the lines of: “Tell me about a time when you…” This could be “tell me about a time when you overcame a bad boss” or “tell me about a time when you exceeded expectations” or other such questions. How to tackle these questions: Practice and prepare to give the S.T.A.R or P.A.R answer to these questions in order to give a strong, well rounded answer to any behavioral question posted. To use this method, be prepared to answer giving examples within STAR. S.T.A.R refers to Situation or Task, Action, and Result (substitute ‘Problem’ for ‘Situation or Task’ in the PAR.)
- Group interviewing is another interview technique in which candidates are interviewed in a group setting. Imagine sitting alongside others vying for the same job and being in the room together. Companies use this to see how a candidate might be able to best sell themselves in a somewhat competitive situation. In actuality many companies also use it as a time saver in order to explain a position to several candidates at once, in order to save time and efficiencies. How to tackle these questions: Knowing it is a group interview beforehand will allow you to mentally prepare to be sitting next to fellow applicants. Be professional and polite to the other applicants, as many times this is being judged by the interviewer. Prepare your research and have well-thought out questions you can pose to the interviewer if time allows, as many times these questions can be the differentiator in an interview.
- Phone Interviews have become the norm not only in a first interview, but many times companies will barely meet a candidate face to face throughout the interview process. So much work is done virtually that it’s less important for a company to actually see how someone behaves in their office. How to tackle this interview: I’ve written an entire article on phone interviews, I think they have become that important. Chiefly, don’t be put off or surprised by a company that asks for several rounds of phone interviews before asking you to come to their office. Do your best to know who is on the other end of the phone before each round of interviews, and do your research on them as if it were a face-to-face interview.
- Sell-you-out of the job interview technique. In this technique, the interview attempts to talk the interviewee out of the job throughout the interview process. They will downplay the perks of the job and focus on the challenges. This technique is used to see how resilient a candidate’s interest is in the job even after hearing the worst parts of it. Many times an interviewer will observe closely a candidate’s posture and demeanor, and see how they react when hearing the negative aspects of the job. How to tackle this interview style: Be prepared to recognize this interview style early in the interview process, and you will instantly be prepared to handle those negative points. You won’t get deflated by anything they say because you know that they are testing you, and remain extremely positive no matter how awkward it might seem.
- Off-the-wall Interview questions have become well known as of late because they are used frequently by today’s high profile tech companies. Google was rumored to ask such questions as “how much does the Empire State Building weigh?” when interviewing candidates. Much like the other interview techniques listed in this article, these could be used as a way to fluster an interviewee or see how they react under pressure. These open ended questions are also looking for a candidate’s reasoning and problem solving skills, even if there isn’t an expectation of the person getting an answer actually correct. How to tackle these questions: Spend a little time researching and reading about “Fermi Problems” online, or estimation problems & answers. (Wired Magazine in particular has a great in-depth article about these questions and how to answer them.) If one of these questions is posed to you in an interview, don’t be afraid to ask questions of your own to attempt to make the answer collaborative with the Interviewer, and unearth more information that they might possess about the problem they’ve posed. Don’t concern yourself with whether you got the answer correct or not, but focus more on the steps you are taking to get there.
The bottom line is that interviewing is an inexact science, and in many cases the best employees don’t necessarily make the best interviewees. Companies and hiring managers are constantly looking for reliable ways to evaluate potential employees, and thus you might be subjected to one (or a number of) these techniques. With a little bit of preparation and knowledge of the interview style, you will be better armed to tackle the interview and let your skills and talents shine through!
If you are reading this and have been subjected to one of these interview styles (or others), I’d love to hear your story! Please feel free to email me at mitch@rrs-la.com
