The Art Of Interviewing

Agenda

 Interviewing and Selling Process

 Interviewing Guidelines
 Types of interviews, their purpose and
sample questions
 Interviewing
 The process of getting the job is very
similar to conducting a sale.
1. Know your product:
 You bring to the bargaining table
knowledge, skills, energy, accomplishment,
and personality. Take an inventory and be
sure your customer (potential employer)
fully understand your value
2. Know your customer’s needs:
 Research the employer’s organization and
industry
3. Demonstrate how can you fulfill the needs or
 Measurement of Interview
Responses
1. Content:
 The information you provide, add to, or
clarify about your qualifications
2. Style:
 Your delivery and mannerism
 The interviewer develops perception of
your personality and skills based on your
ability to “think on your feet”
 Be careful not to give short, incomplete
responses or long, rambling discourses
 Interviewing Guidelines
1. Research, Research, Research
 Industry
 Career field
 Organization in particular
 Job applied for
2. Know your self
 Don’t expect interviewers to act as your
career counselors
 Be sure you can discuss your qualifications,
skills, career plans
 Know your resume well and able to expand
upon it
 Interview Guidelines
3. Remember basic courtesy
 Be on time or appropriately early for an appointment
 Greet the employer with a firm, confident
handshake
 Remember his or her name
 Strive to be pleasant and polite, even in cases
where your interviewer is not
 Refrain from habits which may be annoying (
smoking, chewing gum)
 Control nervous habits ( Foot tapping)
 Smile and maintain eye-contact
 Interviewing Guidelines
4. Dress Professionally and appropriately
5. Show enthusiasm
 Convey through your voice and body
language interest in the job and sufficient
energy to get the job
 Don’t speak in monotone
 Questions you have for the interviewer are
your main vehicle for showing your
enthusiasm
 Ensure you will not come up blank when
asked, “do you have any questions”
6.
Interview Guidelines
Never let your university, professors, or
your last job/ internship down
7. Remain Poised or confident
8. Be honest
 Do not try to second guess interviewers and
tell them what you think they want to hear
 Tell your qualifications honestly and
factually
 An interview is not a place for false modesty
 Take pains not to exaggerate or embellish
your list of accomplishments and never
falsify information
 Interview Guidelines
9. Answer questions
 Key to answering the question asked is
listening to them
 Not answering the question is very insulting
and frustrating for the interviewer.
 You may not see the purpose of every
question you are asked. Your task is to
judge the interviewer. Showing annoyance
or impatience is not in your interest
 Being positive in responding to any question
is very crucial. Emphasize what is good
about yourself, your university, and
previous employment
10.
Interviewing Guidelines
Have examples for the skills you claim
11. End the interview naturally
 Try to sense when the interview is drawing
to close naturally
 Do not attempt to prolong it
 Be sure before you leave your interview,
you understand the next step in the process
12. Write a thank you note

> Send a brief thank you note to highlight

some thing said, reaffirm your interest.
 Types Of Interviews

1. Traditional Interview
2. Serial Interview
3. Group/ panel Interview
4. Behavioral Interview
5. Stress Interview
6. Case Method Interview
 Traditional Interview
 Most Common Type
 Consists of series of questions that may
or may not be standardized
 In addition to answering questions, you
would be expected to ask articulate, well
informed questions
 The best preparation is to know your
subjects, the industry and the
organization
 Sample Traditional Interview
Questions
 How would you describe yourself?
 Why did you Choose Bahria?
 How has your university experience prepared you for a career in
__________?
 Why did you choose your major?
 Which courses did you find most difficult? Why?
 Do you think grades are indication of your academic
achievement?
 What would you like to be doing five years from now?
 What has been your greatest accomplishment?
 Describe your greatest strengths and weaknesses?
 What have you learn from the jobs you have held in the past?
 Sample Traditional Interview Questions
 What have you learned from participating in extra
curricular activities?
 How do you work under pressure? What do you know
about our company?
 What two or three things are important to you in your job?
 What major problems you have encountered and how did
you deal with it?
 What have you learned from your mistakes?
 Describe a situation where you were in group that was not
working well. How did you work your way out?
 What kind of people do you dislike working with the most?
 What do you do in leisure time? What kind of hobbies do
you have
 Serial Interview
 Variation of traditional interview
 Involves series of sequential interviews
with several interviewers
 Treat everyone you met as if he/ she
were a key player in the decision
making process
 If you make a negative impression
about anyone, it will be reported in
evaluation phase
 Group/ panel Interview

 The panel may include three to ten people

 Each person may have assigned on a
specific area of questioning
 Your strategy should include equal eye
contact with each person, with special
attention to the individual who asked the
question
 Behavioral Interviewing
 Based on the premise that the best way to predict future
behavior is to determine and evaluate the past behavior
 Takes special preparation and skill to perform well
1. An employer determines a profile of desired behaviors
Some examples of desired behaviors are:
Customer service Stress tolerance
initiative Planning
teamwork leadership
2. Interviewer asks an open ended question designed to
stimulate reconciliation of a situation that would lead to a
desired behavior. The acronym “STAR” provides the
formula for questioning
 Behavioral Interviewing
S – Describe the situation in which you are
involved?
T – Describe the task to be performed?
A – What was your approach to the
problem?
R – What were the results of your
Action?
 Sample Behavioral Interview
Questions
 Describe the best/ worst team of which you
have been a member?
 Tell me about a time when your course load
was heaviest. How did you get all your work
done?
 Give me a specific example of a time when
you sold someone of an idea or concept
 Tell me about a time when you were creative
in solving a problem?
 Describe a time when you got class mates
who dislike each other to work together
 Tell me about time when you made a bad
decision
 Stress Interview Technique
 The technique tests a candidate’s ability to be
articulate and graceful under pressure
Examples:
Interviewer speaks quickly and aggressively
“ why should we hire you, your university have no
standards”
 Should you encounter stress interview, project
self assurance.
 It is a test
 Sample Stress Interview
Questions
 What kind of people do you find difficult to
work with?
 What are the things you find difficult to do?
 How would you evaluate me as an
interviewer?
 How do you handle rejection?
 What is the worst thing you have heard about
our company?
 See this pen I am holding. Sell it to me?
 Why should I hire BAHRIA graduate when I
can get candidates from LUMS, IBA, CBM
 Case Method Interview
 Involves questions in which you will be asked to solve a
hypothetical industry related problem.
 These problems will be similar to ones the organization
may encounter during their regular course of business
 The interviewer is not necessarily seeking a correct
answer to the problem, but wants to evaluate your
analytical reasoning skills. Be prepare to justify your
answer and walk the interviewer through your solution
on step by step basis
 You may have to ask questions to the interviewer if you
feel you don’t have adequate information to arrive at a
valid solution
 Sample Case Interview
Questions
 A chain of grocery stores currently receives its stock on a
decentralized basis. Each store deals independently with
its supplier. The president of the chain store is
wondering whether the firm can benefit from centralize
ware house? What are the key considerations in making
this decision
 A magazine publisher is trying to decide how many
magazines she should deliver to its each individual
distribution outlet in order to maximize profits. She has
extensive historical sales volume data for each of the
outlets. How should she determine delivery quantities?