Interview Questions : Step by Step Guide

   After a long wait time!  I have decided to write something which is the most common search key word in Google Search "Interview Questions"

TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF?

I think you’ll agree with me that when you are asked this dreaded question “tell me about yourself” in the most intense environment you can think of, the chances are that you will blabber and will make little sense if you are not prepared.

Worst of all, it will most likely be the first question they will ask you in the interview. Today, I will share you a very detailed answer that will increase your chances to win that job a by a large margin.

My intention is to show you different perspective than you find in conventional wisdom. Alright, let’s continue. First I will cover what not to dos. These will be short and sweet I promise.

Then, we will look at why they are asking this question. And eventually, we will craft the perfect answer for you. Sounds good? Great! What not to do? - To start with, hiring manager has seen your resume and even cover letter most probably.

    There is really no need for you to go over your resume bullet by bullet. Having said this, it doesn’t hurt your chances to highlight some of your most important qualifications and achievements. - When you are presenting your background, don’t fall victim to under or over qualification. Just give them what they need.

    There is a very thin line between being an over-achiever and over-qualified. - No need to share your life story.   And oh god please don’t you start from your high school years. It’s really a waste of everybody’s time.

     I interviewed a candidate for a graduate hire role at my previous company.  She literally started her pitch like this; “I graduated from grade school in 1995 from XXX School and then continued my education further with XXX junior high in London. High school years were very challenging with new environment…” By this point I was already done.

     Horrible first impression. I interrupted the candidate and asked hereto talk about her current experience.   She definitely failed the interview. Not necessarily only because of how she presented her background though. - Don’t keep it too long. It’s a monologue so nobody really has 20minutes to listen to your background however exciting that may sound to you. - Don’t be boring.

Please... You can show some serious enthusiasm in your pitch.

The more energetic you are the better it is. Oh, remember to smile. It makes a big difference. OK. Now, this is out of the way. Let’s talk about why hiring manager’s ask this question. First, I will cover what everybody else thinks why they ask that question.  

Then, I will tell you what I think why hiring managers and I ask that question. Everybody else thinks that you are asked to present yourself because; - Hiring managers want to see how your response would be to a question that you are not prepared

    Not sure why they think you’d be unprepared… - They want to know what you consider important in your background for this one, I can agree to a certain degree. I’d also want to see what you consider important in your background.

    But, the real reason I and I know many other hiring managers in multinational organizations ask this question is because we want to see your presentation skills! Yeap, surprised? After all, think about it,

   We all have seen your resume, your cover letter; you have probably already passed the HR interview. Why go over your background all over again? Even if they haven’t seen it before, they are holding that CV in their hands when they ask the question.

     Know this Companies want employees who are;- presentable - represent the firm professionally to their clients (especially true for consulting and other professional services companies)- charismatic and likable especially if you are in a client facing situations, think about it; If they ask you to present the company, it would be unfair to you as you have very limited knowledge

 But what better material is there then your background to present?  Right?  So, they are giving you an opportunity to present something. They already know when you graduated, which company you worked for, when you left them, what tasks you carried out for each of them.

What they are interested in is; can you speak smoothly without stuttering?   

• Can you be charismatic?
• Are you getting nervous when presenting?
• When you speak, do you impress people?
• How are your communication skills?
• How are your language skills?

These and a lot more questions like this need to be addressed by the way you present. See, this is actually an incredible opportunity for you. It’s an unbelievable opportunity. Why? Imagine you are entering a college exam and you already know what the professor is going to ask.

  Wouldn’t it give you an almost unfair advantage? It would, right? This is exactly what it is. You already know they will ask you that question. So, you just need to put in the work. You need to know how to present your background very clearly and impressively

Alright so, how to do it? I will present you 2 approaches. Let’s call the first approach Toyota and the second one is Porsche. In Toyota method, all you have to do is prepare 1 minute pitch. It will have 3 sections in it:

1. Talk about your current role

2. Talk briefly about your background

3. Talk about your future ambitions and

Why that company is the perfect match to what you want. Something similar to this; so, this would be what I would say if I were in an interview today; I’ve been working as a manager with some XYZ Consulting for the past 4 years.

    During this time, I’ve been providing incredible value to my clients through strategies we developed and implemented for them.

These are typically projects lasted anywhere from a week to 4 months. Looking back it now, I must have done a great job as engagement manager that our clients particularly requested for me whenever they came back for new work packages.

Prior to NMP Company, I was with 2 other consulting companies again in professional services industry. And finally, or I should say firstly in this case I guess, I started my career with S&P as an Business Analyst.

I was with S&P until 2007 which is when I was laid off – I guess some would find this ironic… In addition to this, I have an MBA degree from Cass Business School of City University London and I hold various professional certifications including; PMP, PMI-RMP, and CMA.

Now I’m looking forward to taking my career to the next level with [the xxxx] and continue to add more value to my clients under xxx]’s umbrella. I think pitching above would be good enough but not necessarily something you would collect so many points. It would be like ticking the box.

 If you want to gain even further points with your answer. Then, I suggest you employ a technique which we use on a daily basis at work. In my line of profession, in management consulting, we always present with supporting tools, for example; a PowerPoint presentation, videos, charts, interviews with experts, the list is long.

So, when I get interviewed by clients I always have at least a PowerPoint presentation made up of only 3-4 pages which allows me to clearly highlight what my relevant experience is, which methodologies we used, and how the results were.

 I suggest you do the same. When you are asked to present your background, or talk about your previous experiences, why don’t you take you’re printed out presentation and walk them through the pages?

Try to get that presentation printed out professionally and binded with nice quality material. So, when they say “tell me about yourself “then just say; “Can I instead just show you?

 I prepared a short presentation on this “They will definitely say yes. This will work wonders if you are an experienced hire, or at least have “some” experience to show.

This “some” experience can be small as an internships, on the job trainings; even your part-time roles during studies will be fine.  

While preparing your 3-slide presentation, focus on your

1. Key achievements -  Make it relevant to the job you are applying for      
   
2. Demonstrate why you are qualified for this role the final step is the most obvious one; Practice!
3. You need to practice your speech and delivery until it becomes second nature to you.

There is no stuttering, uhmms, wells; it’s just smooth delivery with pauses and consistent eye-contact.  Show them how charismatic you can be!

Now Take a Break ! Have a Cup of Coffee or Tea whatever you like the most and come back We have another Question ? 

But Don't Worry it just take a 3mins read 😀

What are Your Strengths and weakness?

What are your strengths? If you are prepared well enough, this is one question that you can collect so many points. In this post I will walk you through how to prepare your perfect answer if you stay until the end.  Essentially, your starting point should be the job description.

Step 1:

Take a look at the job description before going to the interview and find out what skills and experiences they are looking for. This should always be the first step.Always start from what is required, then you can look for a match between what is required and what you have.

Step 2:

Take a look at the skills and experiences that may be required but not necessarily in the job description.
There are so many unwritten requirements that only Hiring Managers know.

Most of the time, these unwritten requirements are not even in the job description. This happens a lot of the time when HR prepares the job description without consulting with the hiring manager.

Step 3:

Then head over to excel and prepare list of all those skills and experiences you determined. These should include both written and unwritten requirements.

Step 4

Go over them and tick those that you think apply to you.

Step 5

Think of examples from your past. Think deep and come up with at least 2 examples your past employment. It could even be from your education.

Step 6

Craft your pitch and practice like crazy. While crafting your pitch and giving examples from the past, there are a couple of important things I need to mention;- Don’t give out generic strength statements.

These are usually; I am very enthusiastic, determined, patient, honest, respectful…

    Break it down. I am very good at B2B sales, B2G sales; I have developed really valuable contacts from government. Or you can say I am very good creating sales funnels that have high conversion rate for B2C sales.

    See what I mean? Be specific. It will give you more authority and you will proof you know what the heck you are talking about. - The kind of strength statements we are looking for are a lot more specific.

    For example, your expertise in IFRS, in project execution, strategy development using certain tools, profitability analysis. Go as deep as you can.

Just make sure it’s what they are looking for. Let’s run an example together. Let’s say the scenario is that you are applying for a management consulting role as a director

     So, this means we have to know what the expectations from that role are first. In this case, they would be looking for someone who has the ability to manage multiple project and teams at the same time.

    Someone who has very good client relationships and has a large network of potential clients. In addition, he has very good interpersonal skills and is a likeable person.

Finally, he has ambitions to become a partner someday. Given these inputs, the perfect answer would-be something like this;

One of my greatest strengths is my ability to manage multiple, multi-million dollar projects while consistently exploring new opportunities.

 I have been a management consultant for the past 10 years and so far I have lead projects worth over 200million dollars. However, I should mention that this was the outcome of a wonderful teamwork. I was very fortunate to work with a wonderful team whom followed my leadership.

 As a result, we grew significantly as a team and received multiple promotions in our career with NMP.

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Content Ref: Credits to DenizSasal

Cheers!