Interview help..?

Post Reply New Topic

I think I completely bombed yet another interview today.

Part of my problem is that I always look either nervous or disinterested, or both. I also have a very hard time volunteering information. I have been told by my family that talking to me can be like "pulling teeth." The jobs I am applying for are outside of my chosen field, since I want to do freelance illustration work on the side, and have a day job basically to eventually be able to support myself, so I can't really talk about all the credentials and experience I have, because in most cases, I don't have any. I guess because of that I come off as sounding rather negative. What should I do...? How can I help interviews go better?

Can you write out the type of questions you are asked (ie Tell me your cridentials? Why do you want this job? etc.) and then what you would respond? Then let someone (maybe us) review the answers with you. Once you have solid answers, you can practice them so that they sound nature.

Just an idea.

Here is the best set of interview prep questions I've ever found, and what I used to practice for the interview that got me my current job (at an animation company). It's originally intended for computer art majors, but I'm sure it can be applied to other jobs too.

When the actual interview happened, they didn't ask most of these questions (they were quite disorganized actually, I was five times as prepared) but having written out answers to these questions meant I had a lot of experiences in the front of my mind that I could talk about when prompted.

"Tell me a little bit about yourself."
- they want you to mention your education, your work experience (if you don't have any, use volunteer experience, student organizations, anything). They want to hear that you'll make a good fit for the position.

"Why are you interested in this position?"
"Why did you choose this type of career?"
- they want to see that you're ambitious, they want to hear that you're committed to their company

"What are your greatest strengths?"
- they want to hear something that will be useful to them

"How would you describe yourself?"
- you should make this positive, but not so positive it sounds arrogant. Mention one weakness for every 2-4 strengths, and when you say a weakness, always give an example of how you're working to overcome it, or make it a weakness that's a strength to them (like "I sometimes try to do more work than I can handle")

"What motivates you to put forth your greatest effort?"
"How do you determine or evaluate success?"
- they want to know if you'll fit into the company culture and if your values line up with theirs. Research the company, talk to people who've worked there, or if you can't, look for a mission statement on their website. Then give an answer that upholds the same values.

"Provide an example from your past that demonstrates the contribution you could make to our organization."
"What major problem have you encountered and how did you deal with it?"
"Cite a situation from your past that required you to respond to pressure. How did you deal with it?"
- these are things you can use as a spontaneous story, even if they don't ask, if you think you should be talking more

"Describe the relationship that should exist between a supervisor and those supervised."
- I came up with open communication and personal responisibility... I think those are fairly common buzzwords in modern management

"What are your weaknesses?"
- again, make sure for every weakness you describe how you're overcoming it

"Why should I hire you?"
- don't be humble. Logically and matter-of-factly outline your strengths. Imagine that you and the interviewer have a common goal, creating a successful product and/or providing effective services, and then show how you are a useful tool towards reaching this goal.

Well, i have the same problem as i have an interview on monday... but it's 3:45 AM here, so ill come back later to talk...

Employers (unrealistically )like to think that potential employee do not have any negative attributes. a good way of getting through interviews is t turn your negative attributes into a positive, or instance instead of saying 'i can become obsessed with one topic' one could say 'because i have a monotropic disposition, i have an amazing ability to focus on specific and wider details of my work. This ensures that not only is the work completed to a high level of quality, but also the details and research of the work (product/presentation etc) will be constructive and informing for the client.

furthmore, employers tend to look for 'demonstrations of skills'. the best ways of doing this are considering things you have previously done which illustrate these skills. for example if you are asked 'how have you recently delt with a difficult situation' you could think about a situation which demonstrates a number of skills. for example you transform a story about help a friend of the family fix their computer into a demonstration of skills.

1. talk about how you assessed the situation
2. considered the most affective way of resolving the problem
3. discussed the idea with the family friend
4. than fixed the computer, thus enabling the family friend to complete a work presentation the next day.
5. Lastly, you suggested that the family friend back-up his work in the future to ensure the situation did not arise again

the skills demonstarted above are:
1. identifying specific and holistic problems
2. creation of effective strategies
3. productive interaction with the client (the family friend)
4. problem resolution through implementation of the strategy
5. forsight (predicting future problems and suggesting a resolution/strategy)

Hope these emaples help!! !

forgot to mention:

employers expect to only be speaking for about 20-30% of the interview time so be prepared to be talkative.

Talking through examples with family may help to clarify what you need to be saying and whther you are saying it effectively. remember give logical (realistic) examples so interviewers cannot attempt to trick you

Thank you for all of your suggestions. Having a more concrete idea of what I am supposed to do and say really helps. I have had two interviews since reading your advice, and I think they both went very well. Unfortunately, the jobs are not jobs I am interested in due to a number of reasons, but atleast I have gotten practice at these places on my way to hopefully finding something more suited to my needs.