What to Do:
- Turn off cell phone / turn to Silent mode.
- Bring notepad, pen, and have 3 – 5 questions ready for the interviewer(s)
- Describe your work experience by telling a story – use the STAR method (see below for details)
- Be articulate; always give examples of past work/projects.
- Use “I” in describing your work/project experience, not “we” (using “we” does not give the client a clear picture of what your role was, and what you specifically were responsible for).
- Research the company, study 3 - 5 recent facts about the company.
- Thank the client for the opportunity of meeting with them and for being considered for this opportunity.
- You want the client to feel like you are someone they want on their team, that will be a good culture fit and be successful in their organization. Try and get an understanding of the culture and environment beforehand, understand their values and demonstrate behaviors and attitudes that will ensure you fit in. Do not underestimate how important culture fit is to our clients!
What NOT to Do:
- Hypothesizes or talk in generalizations; be sure to share actual examples (“I” not “We”)
- Poor communication skills: body language and a grounded presence is critical—those that missed shaking hands, consistent eye contact, did not exude confidence, engage the person they were speaking with, and therefore did not give the interviewer confidence they were the right candidate for the job
- Talking too much: Be concise and listen carefully to answer the questions asked. Do not ramble or over explain – silence and pausing can be your friend.
- Don’t take over. No more than 50% of the talking. Diagnose before you prescribe.
- Badmouthing past employers: avoid negative talk. It's sometimes a smaller world than you think and you don't know who your interviewer might know.
Best Practices:
- Relaxed, confident, and flexible mindset. This will allow you to follow the interviewer’s lead on tone/style of meeting.
- Take notes. They are telling you the job, paraphrase key information.
- Express interest!!
- Ask questions!!
- Use the STAR Method
STAR METHOD
Situation, Task, Action, Result. This helps the client relate your past work experience with the work they need to get done and help you avoid being too wordy / going off on a tangent. Prepare relevant and specific examples of initiatives and responsibilities. 1-2 sentences for each area!
- Situation or Task: Describe the situation that you were in or the task that you needed to accomplish. Describe a specific event or situation, not a generalized description of what you have done in the past – the more recent, the better. Be sure to give enough detail for the interviewer to understand
- Action: Describe the action you took and be sure to keep the focus on you. Even if you are discussing a group project or effort, describe what you did -- not the efforts of the team
- Results: Results you achieved. What happened? How did the event end? What did you accomplish or learn?
STAR Method Examples
Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a difficult person. How did you overcome this challenge?
- S – The company was going through a growth spurt and the budgeting process was not robust enough to drive growth. The finance manager who has been with the company since its inception had historically managed the budget process on Excel and guarded the spreadsheet jealously.
- T – We needed to implement a budgeting tool and get the finance manager engaged to help.
- A – I sat down with the finance manager and explained the benefits of implementing such a tool and tried to understand the person’s resistance to the process. I suggested that when we had selected the tool, we send the finance manager for in-depth training and that he/she would become the department super user and roll out training to the business.
- R – Finance Manager became a strong champion for the new tool and gained a valuable new skill-set
Some people can be counted on to go the extra mile when the company needs it. Tell me about a time when you demonstrated this behavior.
- S – On my last client engagement I was brought in to support the quarter close, as an interim assignment when an employee quit.
- T – I realized that there were some inefficiencies in the process. I spoke to the client and with his agreement, I took on a project to try and streamline the close process.
- A – I redesigned some of the templates we were using to collect information from the business units, to make them more user-friendly and meaningful.
- R – We were able to accelerate the close process considerably, the business units were happier and the client was thrilled. At the end of that engagement, they asked me to stay with them and help them implement Cognos!