HOW TO INTERVIEW LIKE A PROFESSIONAL

1. Futurepoint.ie are a synthesis of management and education
professionals. It is headed up by Paul Walsh who has worked in the
Irish public transport and the multi national industrial sector. He has
also expanded his career portfolio into the education and training
sector. He has successfully managed complex multi million Euro
operations, delivering business process improvement, employee
development, change mangement, and managing diverse multi level
employee relations. He has specialisation in recruitment, employee
training, team building, employee engagement & intervention,
communications, interviewing & selection. He has developed adult
education courses for third level colleges such as UCC, WIT, and
delivered training to such professional bodies as members of the Irish
Law Society. He has also worked in second level education delivering
consulting career guidance teaching. He wrote and developed the
City Colleges Diploma in Strategic Management. He holds a BA
Degree from University College Cork, a Diploma in Business Studies
from Waterford Institute of Technology, a Diploma in Management
from the Irish Management Institute,and a Masters Degree in Law
from The University of Wales.

2. “Smart Strategies”
Successful Interview Skills Are Not
A Secret Anymore!

3. Successful Interviews
The following presentation is a
topical exploration on
successful interview outcomes.
It explores skills and
knowledge that deliver
successful outcomes in the most
difficult part of the hiring
process.

4. Objective
The objective of this
presentation is to bring aa
job seeker through each
stage in the standard
interview process and deal
with each expected
challenge so that the
candidate achieves a
winning advantage.

5. What is an Interview?
An interview is a
conversation with a
purpose!

6. Myths-The Best Person Gets The Job!
The best person for the
job does not necessarily
get it.
More often it’s the
person who gives the
best interview.

7. I am a victim of Discrimination!
Interviews are more
than just giving
technically correct
answers.
They’re also very much
about building rapport.
It is a discriminatory
Process.

8. Interview Myths
Not all interviewers
know what they’re
doing exactly. It is your
job is to know how to
handle the good and
bad interviewer.

9. Bluff!
It’s better to be honest and
admit ignorance than try
to pretend you know an
answer.
You will come across as
disingenuous and less
than bright.

10. .
Striving to give the perfect
answer can get you into a
muddle. It’s better to give a
good answer that is to the
point rather than searching
for perfection.
The interview is not a place
for reflection.
Good Enough Is Good Enough

11. The Sweat At The End
Do not ask questions
for the sake of it. Only
ask a question if you
have a genuine query
that has not been
covered.

12. Poor Behaviour
Interviews are formal
occasions requiring relatively
formal behaviours.
Interviewers will expect this
and may react negatively if
they don’t see it.
It is near impossible to
recover from poor behaviour.

13. Trick Questions
Interviewers do not spend all their
time looking for flaws.
They’re more interested in getting
an overall picture of who you are.
Avoid answering questions
defensively. It’s much better to see
every question as an opportunity to
highlight your best points.

14. Interviews Are Daunting
Because of their nature, interviews
are inherently challenging. Making
mistakes at an interview is
something that everyone does. The
good news is that we can overcome
our errors by correct preparation,
practice and perseverance.
Remember the 3P's

15. The Rote Of All Evil!
Beware of faulty preparation.
Avoid rote learning of other
people’s answers. Always
prepare your own.
You will also want to know
yourself as the winning
candidate to successfuly do
the job.
Copying others will be noticed .
See Picture.

16. Pre-empt the conversation
Knowing what employers
want to hear at an
interview constitutes a
great start for preparing
your own answers and
simplifies interview
preparation.

17. Ideas In The Emploers Head
What most employers want to
hear can be represented by
three key questions:
Can you do the job?
Are you the sort of person they
can work with?
How motivated are you?

18. Theory & Practice
Get in as much
practice as you can and
always ask for honest
feedback. Talk with
friends, relatives, use
professional career
managers..

19. Theory & Practice
Perseverance is
everything.
You will be pushed
beyond your expectation.
Perseverance is a test of
your Motivation and
Character.
.

20. Competency Questions
Your first important step
to preparing your
interview answers is to
find out as much about
the job as possible.
Focus on the job, not the
internal workings of the
business.

21. Competency Questions
‘Can you do the job?’
questions are generally the
most common questions asked
at interviews. They are
concerned with ascertaining
your skills, knowledge and
experience.

22. Competency Questions
‘Can you do the job?’ questions can
be split into three categories:
Questions about duties that you
have performed before.
Questions about duties that you
have not performed but whose
skills you have mastered.
Questions about duties that are
entirely new to you.

23. Answering Questions
There is a 4 step technique to
interview success process that
provides a simple to use framework
with which you can capture all the
relevant information you need to
construct interview answers.
What you did.
How you did it.
The context in which you did it.
The outcomes of what you did.

24. Answering Questions
As well as capturing what you
did and how you did it, the four
step technique also compels you
to think about context and
outcomes. It is ideally suited for
answering behavioural
questions and can be used in a
flexible way.
• Beware of long-winded
answers.

25. Answering Questions
The most effective way of
putting together the information
you capture using the four steps
is to pose to yourself standard
interview questions and then
answer them out loud until you
become fluent.

26. A Good Answer
A good interview answer will
generally contain the following
points.
A context.
Specific examples.
What you did and how you did it.
Outcomes.
It will get directly to the point.
Wrap your answer in the context.

27. Transfer Skills
Many people fail to appreciate the
transferability of their skills and
knowledge. When they’re looking for
a new job, they only look at the job
title or duties, not the skills
underpinning those duties.
Understanding that skills and
knowledge can be transferred between
jobs can open up a whole new world
of career opportunities.

28. Transfer Skills
Before you discount a job that
interests you, list the major skills
and knowledge of that job and
then beside that list your
existing skills and knowledge. If
there are a lot of matches, then
you know what to do!

29. Worth Repeating
Use the four steps to help
prepare your answers.
What you did.
How you did it.
The Context.
The Outcome.
Repeat until fluent

30. Duty (Competency) Questions
Questions about duties
(competencies) which are
substantially different to
anything you’ve done before
are generally the most
challenging in an interview.
Approach these questions as
opportunities to show that
you have achieved new duties
in the past and succeded.

31. Tough Duty Questions
There is often no one single
answer (nor a right answer)
about how duties are
performed, especially if
context is missing.
In a hypothetical question,
your answer will be
hypothetical.
Consider this as a question on
how you deal with awkward
questions.

32. All Things Being Equal
‘Are you the sort of person we
can work with?’ questions,
although generally not as
frequent as the ‘Can you do
the job?’ questions, are just as
important. When your job
skill competency level is
accepted, they become more
important. This is often
termed the “ all things being
equal principle”

33. All Things Being Equal
Even if you’re not asked ‘Are
you the sort of person we can
work with?’ questions, you
should attempt to address the
issue by looking for
opportunities to talk about
your relevant attributes.
Remember to stay “on
message”

34. All Things Being Equal
All employers are keen on
hiring people who possess
the following eight
established universal
qualities.
Not in order of preference
and preferences change
by employer.

35. All Things Being Equal
PERSONAL TRAITS
Committment
Work Ethic
Change Friendly
Honesty
Life Long Learner
Cooperative (Team Player)
Coping Skills
Self Manage

36. Motivations
Convincing interviewers that
you’re highly motivated requires
more than saying the right
things. Body language and how
you say things are just as
important. Try to avoid using
the word passionate, it is over
used and is a by word for rote
learned preparation.
Unless you are Albert Einstein!

37. Motivations
When preparing your answers to
motivation questions, one of the
helpful questions you can ask
yourself is ‘Why do I like this kind
of work?’ Your specific responses
to this question will constitute the
core of your motivation answers.
These questions will help you
decide through reflection on your
career path choices aswell.
Pick your favourite flavour.

38. Motivations
Express yourself with
enthusiasm. Interviewers
expect to see keenness in
motivated candidates.
In this respect, hold just a
little bit back in preparation
as actors do in rehearsal.
Keep your best for the
performance.

39. Motivations
Motivation questions present
certain difficulties.
When you are motivated your
critical reflection is subdued as you
are in a contentment flow. We are
inclined to critically remember
times when motivation was low
and are therefore able to critique
these times better.

40. Key Employability Questions
The importance of these questions is
that they are based on skills required
for most professional jobs. This makes
it highly likely that you will be
required to answer a number of
questions relating to these professional
skills.
Team Work
Planning & Organisation
Interpersonal Skills
Change Friendly
Deliver Results & Service

41. Key Questions
How you answer a question
relating to any one of these
questions could make or break
your interview.
Employers will often use these as
waterline issues for any
candidate.
Any answer given must be of an
acceptable level of satisfaction.

42. Body Language
Building rapport and trust requires
three things: answering questions
intelligently and honestly; ensuring
all your non-verbal communication
does not give cause for
apprehension in the interviewer;
and conforming to acceptable
interview behaviours, such as never
ever arguing.
Do not sit rigidly in position afraid
to move. This is the “zombie” effect,
it appears cold and personaly
remote.

43. Be aware of first and last
impressions, people tend to better
remember what happens at the
beginning and end of any
interaction, including interviews.
Smiling, using appropriate facial
expressions and nodding your
head at the right time all give a
positive impression.
The 80/20 Rule Applies on hiring
manager certainty.
The Last Impression

44. Will work for Food & Money
When negotiating your salary,
don’t undersell yourself, but be
realistic in what you ask by
considering your career path
plan.
Consider the overall package
and not just the financial
rewards.

45. The Ugly Truth
Good looking people get
the best jobs - maybe in
model agencies, in the real
world, employers are keen
to hire talent over
superficial factors.
Of course, many talented
people are also good
looking!

46. Key Points - 3Ps
Don’t waste your time looking for
quick fixes, they do not exist.
They could even make matters
worse. Great interview
performances come from proper
preparation and practice.
Getting it right first time.....takes
time and effort.
.

47. Key Points - Rote
Avoid memorising
other people’s answers.
Rote learning becomes
evident at interview.
You need to speak with
your own voice.

48. Key Points - Rapport
Remember that interviews are
about more than just giving good
answers; they’re also about
building rapport and trust.
Building rapport and trust is
contingent upon more than simply
words, body language and attitude
are critically important.

49. Key Points - Competency
All interviewers want to know
three things:
• Whether you can do the job
• How motivated or driven are
you
• Whether you’ll fit into the
existing workplace culture.

50. Key Points 4 Step
Using a simple question
repsonse framework like the 4
step system can help organise
and bring together large
amounts of disparate
information about your work
achievements, to help you form
clear and articulate answers.

51. Key Points - 21st
Century
The vast majority of professional jobs have
skills or duties that overlap. These include:
• Being a good team player
• Planning and organising your work
effectively
• Good interpersonal communication skills
• Ability to cope with change in the
workplace
• Ability to provide effective customer
service and deliver your role fully

52. Key Points – Learn from it
No Interview is a waste of your
time.
If you do not get the job, you
are simply a step nearer to the
job you will get .
The importance is to reflect on
each interview and use the
learning from it.
That way you are moving
towards your goal.

53. Key Points – Be Prepared
Often, interviewers are not
experienced and can ask questions
that are not well considered. Your
job is to know how to handle both
the novice as well as the
experienced interviewer.

54. Key Points – Work It!
Believe in yourself. It is tough
out there!
Here is the missing piece!
Dream it
Believe it
Work it
Achieve it
Good Luck!