Carl Bradford

Posts Tagged ‘Interviewing Questions’

Job titles, or what some call “role titling”, can often improve the chances of attracting, retaining and rewarding top performers, especially when resources and bonus pools are underfunded as many are in today’s economy.

You don’t believe it?

Actually, a survey by Peal Meyer & Partners just surveyed 388 companies that indicated job titles are more important in times like these; i.e. times of economic stress.

The survey delt with issues such as “formal job titles” as well as a secondary title that is more specific to a particular individual’s responsibility.  The survey also reported that this seems to apply less so to senior levels of management where consistency is considered more critical.

So what are some ramifications of all of this?

For one, having a title on your business card that is specifically representative of what your role is, can be beneficial even though the official company records might have a more formal and generic job title.

For example, let’s say your official title is Engineering Fellow (usually meaning you have deep engineering subject matter expertise in a specific discipline) and your role is specifically leading the R&D initiative for new fuel cell technology.  In that case a business card and correspondence title that reflected this role would become much clearer to everyone.  For example it might read, Manager Fuel Cell Technology Development or Director Fuel Cell R&D.

This same rule also is true for titles on resumes.

Job titles often cause confusion for readers of resumes.  Recruiters and hiring managers who read resumes often let the job titles influence whether or not they’re interested enough to pursue an interview.  They often make generic, unfounded assumptions about an individual just by the choice of job titles they include on their resume.

An individual should always be truthful when creating their resume but also be practical at the same time.  If your official job title is Accountant III, but your role is really the lead cost accountant for your group, then say so.  Show your title as Lead Cost Accountant.

The intent here isn’t to deceive, but to communicate.

And for you recruiters and hiring managers, stop reading so much into job titles.  I agree that sometimes a job title can be accurate in indicating the size and scope of a person’s current or past role, but this isn’t always the case.

Take time instead to actually have a phone discussion with someone who has the right background and get the real facts on size and scope of current/past roles and find out just what the person wants in their next role.

Far too many hiring decisions are based on “reading the tea leaves” of resume content.

More and more employers are using behavioral based interview methods. it is also referred to as competency-based selection and has become reasonably well-known, yet these methods are often misunderstood by candidates, even those with some exposure to the process.

As part of my responsibilities, I teach a method that is known as Performance Based Hiring – PbH. While PbH is certainly a behavioral-based method, what I am going to describe below is a more generic version of competency based selection.

Here is a brief overview of the concepts and some of the logic behind this method.

There are several Key Advantages being touted by Competency-based Selection

• Improved objectivity, leading to more accurate talent acquisition
• Consistency in all hiring decisions across the breath of the employer population
• Legal protection for the employer, especially with EEO type issues
• Improved consensus on hires across multiple associates, although I’ve often seen this misapplied

How it Works

The intention of a competency-based assessment is to move hiring decisions away from the classic intuition-led (gut level) process (i.e. away from: “I feel that this person would be a great hire”). Instead, behavioral interviewing is intended to bring more objectivity, thus replacing much of the subjectivity of traditional interview methods.

As a candidates you are not primarily evaluated based upon your aspirations, opinions, or similar criteria. Rather, the underlying premise is that the employer can anticipate how you will behave in a specific role in the future through an assessment of your behavior in the past.

In competency-based interviews, you will be asked questions that require reference to very specific events (e.g. “Tell me about a time when you missed your project completion target and described what happened”). You are discouraged from giving general answers and asked to focus on specific incidents. By understanding how you actually approached real situations in the past – situations that are very similar to what the job opportunities requires – the employer expects to more accurately judge how you will act again in similar circumstances.

Defining the interview competencies

In order for the employer to be better make a judgment on your capability, they have to develop a frame of reference to measure you against. Competencies for similar jobs at different employers may be similar, but rarely are exactly the same.  This naturally leads to somewhat different expectations. You can expect to be evaluated against defined competency traits that an employers believes are appropriate to the job opportunity for which you are being considered. Typically these competencies are developed from a large global framework, in combinations that are different for each business unit as well as different departments within each business unit, even though a job may be similar.

Some companies have defined literally hundreds of competencies and it is from this database that different combinations are chosen to use for interviewing against a specific position.

Competencies examples would include behaviors such as Adaptability, Working under pressure, Customer management, and so on. As a candidate, your interview performance will be evaluated against each competency the employer has defined as belonging to the trait being evaluated.

Giving you an interview rating (score)

By asking you a series of specific questions and rating the your answers against the benchmark the employer is looking for regarding a specific competency you will have provided  the interviewer with the information they need to begin the process of making a final decision on your candidacy.

When you finish interviewing with all members of the interview team, they will come together (virtually, where required) to discuss their findings. Each interviewer provides the team with their individual ratings (scores)  they have each given to you as the candidate.  These ratings are then compared and discussed, until an agreement for an overall score is reached for each competency. The employer then uses these competency scores to decide whether to further pursue you as candidate or not.

A new strategy for how you answer interview questions is required

Since competency-based interviewing is a process, how you answer these questions should also be a specific process.  In other words, when you answering questions your answers should use the SOAR interview answering method.  This is not the place for canned answers that are more appropriate for classical interview questions. To do so almost certainly will mean that you will not be offered the job.

This also means that interview preparation is much more important than it ever was.  You will need to think through key accomplishments and note the competencies that you used for each accomplishment and be prepared to illustrate with a concise answer how you used that competency.  Generalized, rambling answers to these questions are also an absolute certainty that you won’t be offered the job.  That is why the SOAR method is critical to learn and understand.

Interview questions that begin with, “give me an example of….” or “tell me about a time when…..” are commonly used especially with behavioral interviewing methods.

Candidates frequently flub their answers – even very senior candidates – but it doesn’t have to be that way.

There is a great way to add punch to your interview answers and create more interest to the interviewer.  This will help strengthen your candidacy as well as positively separate you from your competitors.

How to get started

You start by having a communication strategy…and putting key phrases into your stories.

To appreciate a communication strategy, consider the “platform” of a presidential candidate. It anticipates questions on issues and formulates statements to guide the candidate’s answers. Now, when employer’s recruit, they have a concept in mind. I describe this in my 15 FREE resume video series as the “message playing inside the recruiter’s head.”  In the final analysis, they hire you for the skills and abilities that certain key descriptive phrases imply.

To expand your marketability, you must develop stories that incorporate those phrases to create maximum interest. Without stories, most people will forget what you say in a matter of minutes. We all remember good stories.

To ensure your points are memorable, I recommend using a method for creating interesting stories. SOAR is an acronym that stands for Situation, Opportunities, Actions and Results. It offers a process for describing your past experience.

You may also have heard of the STAR process (Situation, Task, Action and Results).  It’s the same principle and you can use either, but I prefer to use SOAR.

The SOAR process… and how it works

Situations. Describe a job by outlining the situation when you began, making it interesting.
Opportunities. Then describe the opportunities the job presented. For example, “When I joined the firm, sales had been declining for three years. I saw the opportunity to target new areas.”
Actions. Next, move to actions taken by you and others (the team). We believe that these actions are the most important part of the SOAR process, and a great place for the descriptive phrases.
Results. Then relate what results occurred. For the “R” in SOAR, try to quantify the results. For example, you cut costs by S100,000 or 20%. In many administrative situ-ations, you can measure results using statements like “I did it in half the time” or “The system I developed was adopted throughout the company” or “I won an award.”

Indicate positive things you did to help your organizations. Describe how you helped your management team meet their goals, and also the results they achieved. You can also show how you demonstrated a skill or a personal quality.

Create stories that demonstrate benefits you can bring. If you successfully managed the integration of two teams fol¬lowing a merger, and the new business gained market share and/or costs were reduced-by all means say so. Wherever possible, quantify with dollar amounts, percentages, etc.

Here’s some examples of SOAR stories

Situation / Opportunity: When I joined MBC Sales, the company had lost nearly $7.5 million on a new product release. I recognized an opportunity to utillize my Procter & Gamble experience in marketing.
Action: With the help of the Y & R agency, I relaunched the brand, created a new television advertising campaign, and re-focused all marketing efforts.
Result: Within a year, we turned an $8 million loss to a $4 million gain-30% of the firm’s profits.

Situation / Opportunity: The company recruited 5,000 people a year but never had a sales training program.
Action: I created the firm’s first national sales training course. With a staff of 20, we introduced it in 57 markets throughout the US.
Result: For the first time, the company was able to bring in recruits who began produced sales within four weeks. In the following year, sales by newcomers accounted for $3,000,000.

Think of key accomplishment, i.e. the things you’re most proud of.  Do this for each job and put it in writing using the SOAR format and then internalize it so you can deliver it naturally during an interview.

Get even more impact

For even greater impact, include these accomplishments in your resume so they will naturally come up during your interview.  I recommend a Power Accomplishment Resume Format which is one of the 15 strategies discussed in my FREE video series on my companion website Essential Resume Strategies.

This might be your story.

You’ve sent out dozens of resumes in pursuit of that next job.  The phone call or email you’ve been waiting for suddenly comes.  You’re being invited to interview.

This might be an initial phone call or it might be an invitation to come and meet with the employer in person.  Now what about interview preparation?  How will you prepare for this interview?

What do they want?

You’re at least “in the game now”, but “what do they want – really, really want? What keeps them up at night?”  The answers to these two key questions will form the foundation for how to prepare for the the interview and get the job offer!

Every perspective sales professional knows that getting prospective buyers to meet with you is just the first step and in this case you’re the sales professional.

Want to stack the cards in your favor?

The biggest mistake made at this stage of the job search process is lack of preparation. This happens all to often and especially with more senior job candidates who have some experience as the interviewer.  In other words, those individuals who rely on their own experience and biases to get them through the interview.  Big, big mistake!

Here’s a brief summary of a true story about Rob Sparno discussed in the April 13, 2009 issue of Fortune magazine.

Rob emailed a former colleague who now worked at Salesforce.com letting him know he was looking for a new opportunity. Within minutes he received an email response, “call me.”

First, he read every story he could find on Salesforce.com and watched You-Tube videos of CEO Marc Beinoff being interviewed by reports – and took careful notes.

Next he organized his thoughts using five PowerPoint slides and built a presentation of exactly how he would approach the job and what he would accomplish in the first 30, 60 and 90 days.

By the time he went in for his final interview – which by-the-way was his seventh – he had his pitch down perfectly.  Halfway through that meeting, Sparno and the hiring manager started discussing how to target a client that Sparno had worked with previously.

The Manager went up to the whiteboard to throw out some ideas and Sparno leaped to his feet to join him until the two were both standing shoulder to shoulder, markers in hand, batting strategies back and forth.

Sparno got the job – his competition never had much of a chance – because on-one prepared like he did.  He wanted the job, developed his strategy and executed it extremely well.

The Lesson to be learned

There’s a lesson to be learned here and it’s an obvious one – the job most often goes to the candidate who is best prepared!  When in a close race to win the job offer, preparation is the deciding factor.