things important to interviewers

Knowing the things that are important to interviewers

One of the keys to knowing what to prepare lies in understanding
the needs of the interviewer. Once you know the things that are
important to interviewers, interview preparation suddenly becomes
a lot clearer and a lot more manageable.
The vast majority of interviewers—whether or not they realise
it—want to hear three things from you. In fact, nearly all good
interview questions boil down to these three key generic questions:
• Can you do the job? In other words, do you have the skills,
knowledge, experience or potential to perform well in the job?
Most interviewers will spend the majority of the interview probing
you on this question. They’ll want to know what you’ve done,
how you did it and what the outcomes were. In the event you
convincing them you’re right for the job 15
have not performed a particular duty, they will try to ascertain
your potential to do the job.
• Are you the sort of person they can work with? Another way of stating
this question is: Will you fit into the existing culture of the
organisation? Or, in the case of small organisations: Will you get
on with the boss? Whilst interviewers generally spend a lot less
time on this question, it is nevertheless a vitally important one—
that’s because no one wants to work with someone they don’t
like, even if they can do the job.
• How motivated are you? In other words, what energy levels and
drive do you bring to the position? You may not even be asked
a question about your motivation levels, but you fail to address
it at your peril. As we all know, highly motivated employees are
keenly sought after by employers—with good reason.
There are two significant benefits in knowing that interviewers are
keenly interested in these three generic questions, and that the vast
majority of questions they can ask fall under one or more of these
categories. First, it guides you in the preparation of your answers (a
large part of this book is based on answering these three key
questions). Rather than spending lots of time wading through
randomly selected questions in the hope that you will have prepared
the right answers, an understanding of the significance of the three
key generic questions provides a direction and platform for your
preparation. In short, you are able to plan your preparation around
the following issues:
• your skills, knowledge and experience—can you do the job? (see
Chapters 3, 4 and 5);
• your personal attributes—are you the sort of person they can work
with? (see Chapter 6);
• your motivation levels (see Chapter 7).
Second, it provides a useful way to deal with questions at the actual
interview. By sorting interview questions into one or more of the
three generic question categories, your answers will gain added
structure and a clearer direction simply because you know what the
16 interview skills that win the job
underlying purpose of the questions is. By learning how to recognise
the real intent of a question, you minimise your chances of giving
the wrong answer and/or waffling.