How to succeed at interview

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Never waste a chance: preparing for interviews So, are you a good candidate or a weak candidate? Do you know how to maximise your impact at interview? We’ve written this paper with you in mind. It’s not a simple tip sheet. But it will repay reading. It may even be the most valuable 10 minutes reading you ever do. Let’s begin >> RICHMOND PERSONAL CAREER ADVOCATES PERSONAL CAREER ADVOCATES PERSONAL CAREER ADVOCATES R S +44 (0)20 8835 7082 [email protected] richmondsolutions.co.uk

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Richmond Solutions' quick guide to preparing for job interviews

Transcript of How to succeed at interview

Page 1: How to succeed at interview

Never waste a chance:

preparing for interviews

So, are you a good candidate or a weak candidate? Do you know how to maximise your impact at interview? We’ve written this paper with you in mind. It’s not a simple tip sheet. But it will repay reading. It may even be the most valuable 10 minutes reading you ever do.

Let’s begin >>

RICHMONDPERSONAL CAREER ADVOCATESPERSONAL CAREER ADVOCATESPERSONAL CAREER ADVOCATES

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+44 (0)20 8835 [email protected] richmondsolutions.co.uk

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The Weak Candidate

Weak candidates come in many forms. They may not simply besomeone who is a poor match for the job in question. Theymay actually be a good match, but fail to put this over in theirpaperwork or at interview, missing prime opportunities.

Weak candidates have one particular thing in common: poorpreparation. This means that they miss out not just on oneopportunity but on many. In fact, for a weak candidate, gettinga new role becomes purely a game of chance. They learn thehard way, if at all, and, maybe, get an interview with a companythat they know well.

What’s more, badly prepared candidates tend to be lessconfident in the room and this will have an inevitable impacton their performance, no matter their true potential.

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The Good Candidate

In a competitive market, you need toperform at your best in every interviewto secure the job you want. From yourearliest meetings with careers advisorsyou will have been told that you mustalways prepare for an interview. Whatdoes this mean? Do you:

• Read a bit about the company?• Check over your application and

make sure that it answers the jobdescription?

• Rehearse a few questions andanswers?

None of this is wrong and is better thannothing. However, to be a truly goodcandidate you need to do more – inother words, you need to do someproper research. Ideally, this should startwith your application but at the latest,in-depth research should begin themoment you know you have aninterview. This should involve:

• Understanding thecompany/organisation

• Understanding the role• Understanding who you

are talking to

Let’s look at all three of these vital steps.

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Understanding the organisation

Put yourself in the shoes of the employer: what do they value and what will make themsay “yes” to you? Reaching an adequate answerto this requires travelling some hard researchyards. We recommend that you find answers to the following questions:

• What is the purpose of the company/organisation? In other words, is it a publiccompany, owner-managed, a charity, a publicbody, a social enterprise, etc?

• What are the company’s values? In otherwords, what do the people who run it andthose who already work there hold dear?Can you also work to these values?

• What is the direction of the company? Is it on the way up or the way down? Is it a market leader or a pretender to thecrown? Is it looking to expand its offering or is it refocusing on a core service area orproduct range?

• What is its financial position?• Who are the competitors?

How does their proposition differ and what is their proposition vis-à-vis the company/organisation that you areinterviewing with?

• What market is the company/organisation in?Why would someone choose to come tothem or buy from them as opposed to acompetitor? What are its USPs?

In drawing this together, you may find it usefulto write a SWOT (or strengths, weaknesses,opportunities and threats) analysis. This is notonly a good way of bringing some order toyour research, providing you with a usefulsummary to which you can refer, but it may alsohelp you in drawing up questions to ask at theinterview.

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What your SWOT Analysis might look like:

JZT Manufacturing Strengths:• JZT has an established product

range with a loyal customerfollowing.

• JZT enjoys strong brand loyalty,especially in its domestic, UKmarket.

• JZT is making good progress in theRussian market, which it enteredthree years ago.

• Their Omicron range is the UKmarket leader in its field, while Eta,Iota and Xi are all in theirrespective top tens.

• JZT have a high-profile and widely-respected Chief Executive.

Weaknesses:• The Delta range has flopped since

its launch two years ago.• JZT in the UK has recently been

through a round of redundancieswhich may have unsettled theremaining employees.

• Despite two attempts in the past10 years, they have failed to gain areal foothold in the US market.

• While being one of the earliestmanufacturers in the market, JZThave been slow to embraceemerging technologies.

Opportunities:• There is demonstrable demand for

JZT’s products in India and China.• They have just signed an agency

agreement with the largest salesagent for these products in SouthAmerica.

• They have recently opened afactory in South-East Asia, allowingthem to manufacture on a cost-competitive basis.

Threats:• A Chinese company has recently

entered the market and is offeringa similar range for approximatelyhalf the price.

• There has been a drop in demandfor JZT’s products in their coreEuropean market.

• The Lugano range from BottegaLampi is acquiring marketdominance in its class, at theexpense of JZT’s Sampi range.

• The strength of Sterling versus theRenimbi is damaging JZT’s exportsales.

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Information sources

The kinds of information sources that you should use tobring this information together are:

• The company’s or organisation’s own website.• Company reports. For public companies, charities and

public bodies, these will usually be available on theirown website. Where the information is not on theirown website, the information for UK companies (nomatter how small) is available on the CompaniesHouse website (www.companieshouse.gov.uk); and for charities you can refer to the CharitiesCommission (www.charitycommision.gov.uk).

• The news. Try Google News (or similar) but if you can get access to online news archives like Factiva or Lexis Nexis through a library, all the better.

• For information on competitors, make a search on theinternet on the service or industry in question and/orfind market reports. In the case of the latter, some willhave tables of contents freely available online fromwhich you may be able to derive the names of thecompeting companies so you can do further researchyourself.

With this kind of knowledge under your belt, you are ina far stronger position to differentiate what you can offerthe company/organisation you are applying to. It will giveyou a better idea about whether you want to join it andwill help you tailor your responses accordingly.

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Understanding the Role

There are some basics that you should check atthe outset if at all possible. These include whetheryou will manage a team and, if so, how many peopleare in that team? Similarly, will you hold a budgetand, if so, how much will it be? How will yourperformance be measured? For example, will therebe specific targets that you will need to meet? Willyou be paid a salary or will part of yourremuneration be earned through commission?

If the new job you’re going for is similar to one youhave done before, then you will not need to do somuch research. However, even if you are in thisposition, you should ensure you understand wherethe role sits in the potential employer’sorganisation and therefore how you will fit in. What may be a pivotal role in some companies may be a support role in others. Will you be happybeing a sideshow if you are used to being at thecentre of things? And visa versa?

If the role represents a new departure for you,

you must get a strong grip on what it involves.Obviously, you need to be able to explain the skills you hope to transfer into the role. However,at interview you will need to show a thoroughunderstanding of the role itself, even if you haveundertaken extensive retraining to enter a newfield.

Ideally, if you are looking to make such a change,your research will have started long before youeven make an application. If possible, it would be agood idea to see if you could shadow someone inyour new chosen profession for a few days. If this isnot possible or time does not allow, there isnothing like learning from the horse’s mouth.Network with people working in that field and,having established a relationship with them, ask ifyou can call them to talk about what they do.

Just telling an interviewer that you have a “lifelongpassion” for something will not hold much water ifthere is little substantial evidence for that claim.

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Understanding who you are talking toYou must understand the motivations of theperson interviewing you. Their own drivers willhave a bearing on how they view you as acandidate.

If you are being interviewed by a recruiter from anagency a major consideration will be the bottomline. Yes, alas, we mean fees. They need to beconvinced that you are placeable and that you willbe credible in the eyes of their client. If you don’tconvince them of that, you won’t go forward asthey will not wish to ruin the relationship withtheir client.

Alternatively, the interviewer may be a hiringmanager. If this is the case, you need to look forwhat keeps them awake at night and work outwhat problem you are effectively being brought in to solve. You should be able to work this outfrom the research you have done into thecompany/organisation.

If you are able to, find out a bit about the personwho will be interviewing you – about theirinterests and what makes them tick. However, be

careful how you use this information and don’timagine that it’s a good idea to try to createempathy by pretending you have common interestsif that’s not the case. A friend once put on anapplication form that he was keen on clay pigeonshooting when he’d only been once. He cameunstuck when it turned out that his interviewerwas a clay pigeon shooting enthusiast and wantedthe chance to speak to a fellow fan of the sport atlength. Let’s put it this way, it did nothing for ourfriend’s credibility.

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Bringing it together

Finally, go back to the job description. With all ofthis knowledge to hand, place it in context. Whenyou look at the competencies it asks for, theyshould now make more sense and rather than justgive a bland recitation of how your skills match thejob description, you can properly match them tothe needs of the company/organisation. In otherwords, you can give some real colour to yourapplication and interview.

Never skimp on your research. Even if you getthrough the application stage without it, a goodinterviewer will find you out. Make the best of your chances, don’t squander them.

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Experienced.

Heidi Nicholson is a Partner at RichmondSolutions. Before becoming a recruiter and then a personal career advocate, Heidi spent many years in international marketing consultancy. Her speciality was competitor intelligence. Heidi has also worked in politics, and has a First Class Honours Degree in French and Italian.

Andrew Brown has over 14 years of experiencerecruiting senior executives in the private andpublic sectors and specialises in devisingrecruitment and selection solutions. A trustedadvisor to numerous Chief Executives onrecruitment issues, he has also worked onleadership team assessments prior to privateequity investment on at least 50 occasions. He hasrecruited on both UK-wide and international leveland of note, has delivered assignments in the US,Croatia, France, Belgium and the Czech Republic.

[email protected]

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Richmond Solutions offer interview training as one of their services. For further details, please contact us [email protected].

If you would like a free review of your CV or LinkedIn profile,please contact us via our website.

For updates from Richmond Solutions follow us on Twitter@richmondsol and join our LinkedIn group.

With regular updates and information always appearing onour blog, why not come and take a look

Richmond Solutions offer interview training as one of their services. For further details, please contact us [email protected].

If you would like a free review of your CV or LinkedIn profile,please contact us via our website.

For updates from Richmond Solutions follow us on Twitter@richmondsol and join our LinkedIn group.

With regular updates and information always appearing onour blog, why not come and take a look

+44 (0)20 8835 [email protected] richmondsolutions.co.ukRICHMOND

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