Interviews: what to ask... and how not to act. Discuss...

Hi Steve,

It's funny that the qualities are largely subjective - in an interview anyway. Lack of professionalism has been brought up - we all have ideas of what is professional and what isn't. I doubt all the ideas are exactly the same though! I've seen some lovely people get so excited when discussing their passion, it could come across as arrogance or excessive agreeability.

Maybe it's me, but I wonder whether I could make a killing training people 'how to succeed during an interview' - doesn't matter on their skill-set for the role ;-) but as long as they are precise, neutral in approach (can't be too excited, can't look bored), have been shopping beforehand etc etc they should be fine! (sarcasm this late on a Thursday)

The 5 questions piece made me smile - and it sounds like I've had similar experience to Jeny. I once interviewed someone who had written down these types of questions, and even though we'd actually covered a couple of the answers already, they asked because they were so nervous they were on auto-pilot - once they finished asking, they then realised we'd already answered it. (First ever interview we then found out; unfortunately our offices at the time were very strict on 'interview ettiquette' so although I'd always prefer to be in a comfy quiet place, we had rooms more like interrogation which never helped those nerves).

I would say though, I've also interviewed someone who interrupted myself and another interviewer repeatedly to ask their own questions, so we didn't get a single answer. I stopped the interview to point it out, because I felt I owed it to them to say that their approach was hindering us in understanding them, and would result in rejection if we didn't get our own answers.

Kind regards,
Laura

Hi Steve,

It's funny that the qualities are largely subjective - in an interview anyway. Lack of professionalism has been brought up - we all have ideas of what is professional and what isn't. I doubt all the ideas are exactly the same though! I've seen some lovely people get so excited when discussing their passion, it could come across as arrogance or excessive agreeability.

Maybe it's me, but I wonder whether I could make a killing training people 'how to succeed during an interview' - doesn't matter on their skill-set for the role ;-) but as long as they are precise, neutral in approach (can't be too excited, can't look bored), have been shopping beforehand etc etc they should be fine! (sarcasm this late on a Thursday)

The 5 questions piece made me smile - and it sounds like I've had similar experience to Jeny. I once interviewed someone who had written down these types of questions, and even though we'd actually covered a couple of the answers already, they asked because they were so nervous they were on auto-pilot - once they finished asking, they then realised we'd already answered it. (First ever interview we then found out; unfortunately our offices at the time were very strict on 'interview ettiquette' so although I'd always prefer to be in a comfy quiet place, we had rooms more like interrogation which never helped those nerves).

I would say though, I've also interviewed someone who interrupted myself and another interviewer repeatedly to ask their own questions, so we didn't get a single answer. I stopped the interview to point it out, because I felt I owed it to them to say that their approach was hindering us in understanding them, and would result in rejection if we didn't get our own answers.

Kind regards,
Laura

I can relate to what you're saying, Laura... and just noticed you've passed the 100 posts milestone. Thank you :)

Interviewing is a mixed bag from organisation to organisation. Most of the time I feel sorry for the candidate - they really have no idea what the panel are thinking. My pet hates are panel members switch-off midway especially if they are senior managers. My daughter went to an interview with a panel she said were younger then her. Two young men and a young woman who repeated the questions the other had asked. One spent the whole duration of the interview on the phone. The other two spent the whole interview asking irrelevant questions - irrelevant because they bore no resemblance to the job description. It was obvious that they had never been trained to hold interviews. My daughter was tempted to tell them what they were doing wrong ie I had given her the model questions and answers in relation to the job description. I told her to put it down to experience. Such disorganisation and disinterest was a reflection of the company and she was lucky to have gotten away.