Interview Advice?

[Jack Squat]

So, I have a phone interview tomorrow for an internship position at an accounting firm, but I've run into a slight problem.

I've never had an interview before. I've worked for 3 different companies, and I never had to interview to get hired. They either needed people enough that they hired me as soon as I turned in an application, or I came highly recommended from people who already worked there.

I'm also at a disadvantage when it comes to grades - it's not that I don't know the material, I just don't test well (I realize this is my fault, and I could have mitigated that by preparing better) - so I know I really need to nail the interview to have a chance.

I'm turning to the playground for advice, as I'm sure there's a few of you here that conduct professional interviews, and many more that have successfully passed them.

I've already researched the company, know a little about the guy doing the interview, and have compiled a sort of character portfolio on myself to help with questions that might be asked. Are there any tips and tricks that anyone has to offer? Anything I need to make sure to cover? Anything to leave out?

[THAC0]

Phone interviews are a little harder as the impression you're making is formed entirely off of your voice. Good speaking habits help (watch the ums, ers, likes, and other verbal tics). Enunciate clearly, obviously don't start cussing up a storm or anything like that.

I'd come up with a few questions to ask the interviewer... this is a good way to show what you know about the company and demonstrates interest.

[DeadManSleeping]

Do as few of the things in this video (http://loadingreadyrun.com/videos/view/236/Ways-to-Ruin-a-Job-Interview) as possible.

Also important is to sell yourself. Ever seen a salesman in action? A good salesman? They'll bring your head right around to "selling points", and do their best to make you think that's what you find important in a product. You need to be confident that you deserve the position, and your interviewer needs to know that.

[llamamushroom]

Definitely don't undersell yourself (for instance, you could say "I don't test well" but don't mention that you could have prepared better), but I'd be wary of using salesman tactics. Generally, interviews are given if you meet the basic qualifications, so a large part of what they're looking for is not hiring a gibbering moron who made up their degree. As I'm fairly confident such is not the case here, all you need to do is be your intelligent self. Salesman tactics are incredibly transparent, so avoid them unless you a) have something to brag about, or b) are really, really good at it. Being good at it is largely to do with your charisma and charm, so unless you're very practised with both it may be best to just stick with answering the questions while also throwing in how awesome you are occasionally.

On top of that is politeness. How good is your telephone etiquette? Just make sure to respect the basics (not interrupting, speaking clearly, giving the conversation your full attention, you know the drill). And always answer the question. It's really easy to get distracted halfway through and all that, so I'd suggest brainstorming a few practice questions and rehearse answering them fully.

Phone interviews are hard, as you lose the human connection, but they're also easy because they're less nerve-wracking, I find. Part and parcel of losing the connection is that sarcasm is a lot harder to convey. Avoid it where possible.

That's a bit of rambling advice for you. Good luck for your interview!

[Winter_Wolf]

I would avoid treating the interview as a confession. Most of the time, those things you're afraid will crop up in the interview only crop up because you brought them into the conversation. If you feel it's a negative, and the interviewer doesn't specifically ask, why would you want to volunteer that information?

Always be honest, but it's perfectly acceptable (and probably even required by most interviewers) that you put the best possible spin on anything that "could use some improvement". Notice that. You don't have "weaknesses" or "weak points". Even if the interviewer uses those words, rephrase it in better terms like "would like to improve on" or "increase my skill at/with".

Relax about your grades. Of the places I've interviewed, maybe one in ten even cares about your grades. They do care about results, but they care most about results at other places of employment. Highlight your successes at previous jobs with specific examples if you can. The interviewer will probably ask for specific examples anyway.

"Describe a time when you had to deal with a difficult co-worker/customer." This question ALWAYS comes up in my job interviews.

If you get BS questions, e.g. "if you were a color, which color would you be and why?" then simply state that you don't see how this is relevant to the position you're applying for and ask them to explain how it is relevant. In fact I personally flat out refuse to answer stupid questions like that until I get a real explanation of how it's relevant. It's also often a sign that you're prospects of getting hired are pretty low to non-existent. When you know you're not getting the job, you can choose to exit gracefully, and I recommend that for most people.

I however apparently have "an attitude problem". But I also decided that I was sick and tired of being treated like crap by people who don't actually care that you're a person, and have happily become self employed. :smallsmile: Find what works for you, and good luck!

[Jack Squat]

Thanks for the advice everyone, I've adjusted my preparations/cheat sheet a little bit.

As far as my grades, the only reason I'm worried about it is because the internship position specifies a minimum GPA of 3.25 and I have closer to a 2.8. I'm going to try to avoid bringing this up, but I think it's the biggest thing against me. But hey, I got the interview anyways, so who knows. Worst case is this gains me some XP and I graduate on time as opposed to over the summer.

Interview's here in an hour and a half, so I'll report back how it went.

[Eakin]

If you get BS questions, e.g. "if you were a color, which color would you be and why?" then simply state that you don't see how this is relevant to the position you're applying for and ask them to explain how it is relevant. In fact I personally flat out refuse to answer stupid questions like that until I get a real explanation of how it's relevant. It's also often a sign that you're prospects of getting hired are pretty low to non-existent. When you know you're not getting the job, you can choose to exit gracefully, and I recommend that for most people.

I however apparently have "an attitude problem". But I also decided that I was sick and tired of being treated like crap by people who don't actually care that you're a person, and have happily become self employed. :smallsmile: Find what works for you, and good luck!

Ha! I've always noticed a strong correlation between people who are self employed and people with a low tolerance for bull**** :smallsmile:

I always figured those questions were more to see how you reacted to a curve ball than anything. It doesn't matter what color you pick, just that you can come up with a plausible justification for it on your feet.

I wouldn't bring up your grades at all unless they ask specifically what your GPA is.

If you don't have a good answer to a question, don't babble. Just say "That's a really good question, let me think about that" and take a few seconds to compose a good response. Remember, you're selling yourself so you don't need to be modest or downplay your accomplishments. Self-deprecation is NOT your friend here.

Above all, just stay relaxed as possible, and good luck!

[Karoht]

The question I see messes up some people the most on interviews.

Give me one of your strengths and one of your weaknesses.
It's easy to sell your strengths well. It's very hard to sell your weaknesses.

Here is how I've usually handled it. It's a canned answer, but it works. Adjust it carefully depending on the position you're going after, or maybe a different weakness, but one you know you can position well. Have an example ready, but don't offer it up or it will seem like a canned answer. Let them ask for the example, and totally be prepared in your answer.
"My focus is probably my weakness. I'm a details person, so sometimes I focus a bit too hard on details that might not be as important as other details. I'll get really into a task, to the point where I might forget another. And I've always been a 'start what you finish' sort of person. It's usually not an issue so long as I remain calm and organized and force myself to change gears, but it comes up from time to time."

"So can you give me an example of that?"

"Sure. Huh. Well, back when I worked at the bank on the teller line, if I was working in Central Treasury that day, I would usually use the downtime between counting to go and look up outages from previous day. Well, all the safes are on time locks, so I would start the timer on it and get going. Usually I would use the timer as a cue to stop, but sometimes I would get really on a roll and my head would be full of numbers and I wouldn't even notice the timer, so I'd have to start it again. I would get really wrapped up in it, and the day would just fly on by, which usually put extra pressure on other tasks, so I'd have to focus on them extra hard to get back on track."

Key thing here is make sure that they know that this weakness is something you are plainly aware of and open about. Try to show them in the example that you do try to keep it under control, possibly work in a coping mechanism you utilize. In the example above, the weakness is positioned as part of a natural job function (looking for outages), and a coping mechanism is mentioned, namely the safe timer, and the additional energy input into other tasks to ensure they remained on track.

Yes, I'm still discussing a weakness, but look at how many strengths I just indicated. Employers are usually very impressed by this sort of 'bait and switch' tactic. I call it the 'Overly Positive Quality' answer. Just don't over-sell it or you come across as fake.

As for your greatest strength, I always say to undersell it, but use one of your achievements to speak for itself. If you sound humble about it, and the achievement is something special, you look way better. And before you say that you don't have any achievements in life, everyone has at least one. Everyone has one thing that they did in life that is really cool and that you yourself are proud of. Just don't be too proud of it.

"Commitment. The drive to finish what I start. It took me 2 years to lose 30 pounds and keep them off. It was a daily unwaivering effort, but I did it. I set my mind to it, and I stuck to it."

[Jack Squat]

Well, I thought the interview ended up going fairly well. Word through the grapevine is that I'll probably be called in for an office interview within the next week or so. :smallbiggrin:

Thanks again for the tips everyone :smallsmile: , I'm sure they played a large part.

[The Succubus]

I thought I'd share this little interview horror story with y'all....

The scene - a 20 year old guy has just been made redundant from his job in a biology lab. He spots an advert in the paper for a post as a student "Medical Technical Officer" connected to Audiology. Kid makes a lot of grand intentions to read up on the subject before going to the interview. Instead, he just ends up playing Desert Strike and raging over the last mission.

Interview day arrives and he's called in to this large soundproof room. There's some kind of aged harpy sitting opposite him and her young bespectacled assistant. Introductions are made and a few questions are cleared up about the CV and then the big questions are asked:

"So, Mr Succubus, your CV leans quite heavily towards chemistry and computing. Why do you suddenly want to work in Audiology?"

A deathly silence fills the room as the kid simultaneously starts cacking himself and wracking his brain for something vaguely acceptable. The harpy finds a shred of compassion in her heart:

"Ok, we'll come back to that question in a minute or two. So what do you actually *know* about Audiology?"

A second deathly silence fills the room.

The interview winds up and the kid is kicking himself all the way home, vowing never to play Desert Strike again. He's absolutely floored a few weeks later when he's offered the job.

* Yes, I have been playing a lot of Bastion recently. Shut up. >:/

[Mono Vertigo]

Thank you for the tips, I'm gonna need them very soon as well. :smallsmile:

[thubby]

for phone interviews, do everything you would do in a face-to-face interview. sit up straight, focus on where eye contact would be on the wall, try not to fidget unnecessarily, and dress as appropriately as you could think to.

if you've ever had to act this way before (and every human being has) it comes much more easily if you do the whole thing, rather than try and sell the professional, confident voice in your underwear.

[TSGames]

Just be confident, without being arrogant. In face to face or phone interviews, there is no greater quality. They may never say that they are looking for a confident person, but they are always looking for someone who they think can do the job; if you sound like you think you can do the job, and are not arrogant about it, then your interviewer will most likely think you can do the job too. If you've got the goods to do the job then don't worry about potentially not getting the job, don't even let it cross your mind during the interview.

Aside from that, phone interviews are possibly the easiest type of interview. Annunciate, don't use verbal pauses, and slip in a small amount of idle chit chat here and there. It is always important to learn a little bit about the interviewer, or at least the company from the interviewer. Get the interviewer talking about herself for a little bit, and when she asks if you have any questions, the answer is always "yes", ask just a couple of intelligent questions about either the company or the hiring process and then close with a friendly goodbye and a warm or funny comment referencing something the interviewer said about herself, if possible.

If you do ALL of that, you'll definitely get the job. If you do just some or most of it, you most likely be passed to the next hiring stage.

Good luck and be confident!

[EDIT]
Only just now saw your other post! Sorry for late advice. What is the status? Have you been moved to the next stage?

[Jack Squat]

Only just now saw your other post! Sorry for late advice. What is the status? Have you been moved to the next stage?

Yeah, in-person interview on Thursday. Of course I'll still be recovering from a surgery that I have on Monday, so this'll at least be interesting :smalltongue:

[Tyndmyr]

Grades will probably not be a major factor, if your previous experience is in the same field. Honestly, at this point, the fact that I have a degree is mostly just a checkbox. It's good, it gets a little more pay and all that jazz, but it's the experience that'll get me hired.

Relax. Google common questions. Expect to get some of them, like "Why do you want this job?" Be polite, and aim for a nice balance for formality. You don't want to come off as rigid, but professionalism is always nice. The previous advice about strengths and weaknesses is excellent. You may face a brief practical skills demonstration depending on field.

I know you've already done the phone interview...but it's good general advice for anyone else who reads it. Best of luck on the job!

[kyoryu]

My advice: BE HONEST.

Don't undersell yourself, but at the same time, don't be afraid to admit areas that you're weak. Trying to bluff your way through something you don't know *rarely* works - you're dealing with experts in the field, and they'll be hard to bluff. In fact, admitting the areas that you're willing to learn, and admitting your faults is generally a *good* idea, as usually in interviews one of the things they look for is long-term potential - and a willingness to admit fault and to learn ranks *high* in that assessment.

[GnomeFighter]

Probably too late, but good luck today.

As someone who works in finance and is a manager, the bigest thing is be happy and show enthusiasum. Don't be thrown by anything and smile. If you got this far they are alrady happy with your grades. And any of the questions about "what colour are you" or stuff like that is because they are a bad interviewer. Just remeber, you are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you. A bad intership can put you off a job for life.

A few bits of advise, before you go in check your tie, shine your shoes and have a mint. When you go in make sure you know who to ask for, smile, be polite to everyone. Make sure you shake everones hand, a firm but not crushing grip, look them in the eyes and say something like "hello, nice to meet you". Most jobs are gaind or lost in the first 15 seconds.

Second, make sure you can tell them what you want to do with your life next. Do you want to become a charterd accountant, or a management accountant? If so why? Nothing to much, but enough to show you have thought about where you are going and that this is about loving the job, not the pay.

Finaly thank everyone for their time. Again, with a smile, eyecontact and a handshake. Your interview lasts from the second you are in sight of the building until you are well away from the building, not just when you are in the interview room.

Hope this helps and is not too late. If it is I hope it went well today.

[Jack Squat]

It wasn't posted too late, but I wasn't able to be around a computer at all yesterday.

My experiences with the interview seemed like they had already chosen me and were just kind of going through the motions - it wasn't really so much an interview as a meet and greet. Supposed to hear from their HR department in the next few days.