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Last Friday we talked a little bit about Interview Coaching, and here is a 3 part follow up series from Paul Mullan. This article is the 10th part in the series from Paul Mullan of Measurability.ie. Measurability offers career coaching to individuals looking to change careers as well as companies looking to train their staff for better things. If you have a question you can either leave it here or send Paul an email at paul@measurability.ie. The other articles can be found here in our articles section.

Interview Preparation

There is much more to interview preparation than the identification of possible questions and practicing the answers. Interview preparation involves gaining an in-depth understanding the employer, their organisation and needs. It also involves the jobseeker understanding themselves, the CV and how they meet the employer’s needs.

When I provide interviewing coaching services the area of greatest client interest is potential interview questions that may arise. The reality is that it is impossible to predict what questions will be asked at interview. The fact is that no two interviews are the same or no to interviewers are the same. With this in mind I normally take a different approach to interview coaching. However, for the purpose of the next few articles I am going to look at some questions that do tend to appear more regular.

Why should we employ you?

This is the client asking you to summarise how you meet the job requirements. It is not asking you to babble on about why you are great. This question requires an understanding of the client’s needs and how you can meet them. The best approach is to identify the important skills, competencies and experience that the employer is seeking. Then identify how you meet these needs. If possible add some meat to the answer by providing factual or quantitative data to back up your points.

Tell me why you want to work with our company?

The interviewer is interested if you have put any thought into your job hunt and if you have done any research on the organisation. Another way to look at this question is - do you know what you want in your career and does our role and company meet those needs. This is an important question and it is the interviewer trying to identify if you have a scattergun approach to job hunting. Again, proper preparation ensuring that you understanding yourself and how the client meets your needs will help master this question.

Over the next few week I will be looking at a number of other interview questions helping you understand what they are asking but more importantly how to answer. In the meantime if you have any interview questions you find difficult to answer please feel free to post them on the comments.

Interview Coaching Part 2

Next week we will bring you part two of this three part series. So do stay tuned !

Credits

Article by Paul Mullan of Measurability.ie. Measurability offers Career Coaching to individuals (Career Direction, CV Design & Interview Coaching) and Assessment Solutions for businesses to improve their recruitment decisions.