Job Interviews: Taking Control

If youżre thinking of arriving at your job interview and letting the interviewer call all the shots, think again. Job interview success often means taking the initiative.

You may think job interviews are a situation in which youżre supposed to toe the line and answer whatżs asked of you. But that doesnżt mean you should remain passive throughout the whole process. Successful job interviews happen when candidates tell recruiters about their competencies, even if they havenżt been explicitly asked about them, and fire back a few questions of their own.

żA good recruiter will have a specific agenda during a job interview,ż says Helen Parsons, HR consultant for Sussex Enterprise, żand that agenda will be to find out whether youżre the best person for the job. As a potential employee, your agenda during the job interview is to demonstrate the right competencies to the recruiter.ż

Good job interview questions should draw out a candidateżs skills, but thereżs an increasing trend for job interviewers to ask obscure, or żkillerż, job interview questions that test the confidence and poise of candidates, such as: żname five members of the cabinetż, żTell me a secretż or żwhat questions did you hope we wouldnżt ask?ż Interviewers are also increasingly using more informal, or open questions, such as: żwhat do you like about our company?ż, which donżt offer an obvious pathway for talking about yourself.

If, once youżve answered the question, you donżt feel youżve demonstrated a competency, you can take a more active role in the job interview. żIf you donżt feel youżve been given an opportunity to demonstrate your competencies during an employerżs line of questioning, you should offer additional information,ż says Parsons, żas long as you keep it short and donżt take up too much of the interviewerżs time.ż

However, thereżs a fine line between taking the initiative, and severely hindering your employment chances by taking over the job interview. żI certainly wouldnżt recommend that interviewees highjack the job interview by ignoring questions and talking directly about their competencies. This would be quite aggravating for an employer,ż says Parsons.

Helga Edge of resumé writing service, A Perfect CV, agrees. żYou should let the job interviewer take the lead during the interview and follow their line of questioning. It would be a very unusual job interviewer who wanted the interviewee to lead the proceedings. But that doesnżt mean you should be totally passive. Job interviews are a two way process. Just as you need to interest employers in you, you also need to show them youżre interested in their organisation.ż

This means thoroughly researching the role and organisation before the job interview. żIf you want to actively show an employer youżre interested in them, itżs vital to prepare for your job interview,ż says Edge. żYou need to do your homework beforehand ż finding out as much as you can about the company; their objectives, competitors and what challenges they may be facing. So many people approach a job interview without having done any preparation, and therefore canżt demonstrate in their interview answers that theyżre interested in the recruiterżs organisation.ż For more information see the following Jobsite article about preparing for interviews.

Showing an interest also means asking good questions at the end of the job interview. żYou should always plan a few questions of your own for the end of the job interview to demonstrate your interest in the company,ż says Edge. żYou can also ask questions during the job interview, if theyżre relevant. Questions should show that you want to know more about the role and the organisation. Ideally, questions should be focused on how you can help the employer solve problems ż as long as these topics havenżt been explicitly covered already.ż For example, candidates might ask something like: żwhat sort of goals does the organisation have over the next six months?ż or żhow will my role help the company move forward?ż

According to Edge, as long as candidates approach the job interview with a view to how they can help the company, rather than thinking about proving themselves, they should get the right balance between following the job interviewerżs lead and showing initiative. żI had a job interview with the BBC for a very competitive role as a market researcher,ż says Helena Ward, who now works as a university lecturer. żI was absolutely scared stiff before I went in, but Iżd just read a book about job interviews telling me to see things from the interviewerżs point of view and find out how I could help the company. Looking at things from that perspective, I asked questions to clarify their questions, so I could find out exactly how to answer in a way that showed I could help them. I didnżt lead the job interview, but I wasnżt meek and mild either and they were clearly very impressed that I was so interested in them. I won the job, but in the end I turned it down as they could only offer me a nine-month contract. So no job, but at least I was in a position to say no, rather than vice versa.ż

Job Interviews: Taking Control

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