It’s a great time to be searching for a job. In November 2018 unemployment was at a 39-year low and there are companies hiring in many sectors. And that’s great news, but if you want to move on up, it’s still down to you to find the job of your dreams and win at interview. So, Make sure that your interview preparation, particularly anticipating common interview questions is up to scratch. If you manage to get through this far, you have a reasonable chance, dnd having a mock interview might just stop you sabotaging it.
A recent survey by Simply Hired one of the biggest and best online job search engines, surveyed over 850 hiring managers to get behind what factors, for better or worse, most impacted an applicant's chance of getting hired. Behind turning up late and whining, nine out of ten cited lack of interview preparation as being one of the worst negative behaviors.
Although the top four positive behaviors were turning up early, having a work sample, and following up with either an email or phone call, over three quarters are turned off if they consider that the interviewee doesn’t answer the interview questions ‘correctly’.
Check out the Top 8 Interview Questions (and how to answer them)
It's even more interesting that attitudes towards some of the negative behaviors mentioned seems to be affected by the age of the hiring manager. Which is down to interview preparation yet again. The more mature a hiring manager is the less likely it is that they will stand for lack of punctuality, bad-mouthing either a former boss or company, and poor posture. If the hiring manager is in his or her 50s then avoid gimmicks such as gifts of cakes, make sure you use plenty of eye contact and under no circumstances talk about other interviews. This might seem obvious, but an interviewee for a senior management position, who had otherwise given a very good account of herself during the interview, told me enthusiastically that this was her 9th interview in two weeks as she left my office. That alerted me to think again about her application. In the end I didn’t hire her.
So, make sure that you work hard at really understanding not only the job description, but learn as much about the company and the hiring manager that you can. Research the job the most common interview questions, but also rehearse answers to some of the trickier questions that you might be asked.
Have a look at some of the comprehensive lists like the 101 Job Interview Questions and concentrate on the most popular.
Philip Browne accelerates successful executives by coaching them to find and pitch for top roles.
