Job interviews (1/2)
I’ve been part of Human Resources for more than 15 years. Most of those years have been dedicated to recruitment and finding the best candidates for the organizations I worked for/with.
I worked as external and internal recruiter, as HR Business Partner and as a Team Leader. All in all, I screened more than 100’000 CVs, interviewed 5’000 people from all over the world and actively contributed in hiring more than 800 of them.
Today I would like to share with you my experience, tips, takeaways and recommendations on recruitment practices you might experience going through a hiring process. You may be looking for a job, open to opportunities or simply curious to read about this topic, I hope you enjoy the reading and you get something out of it. If you feel the need to connect with me for more information or simply to exchange on the topic, please contact me directly through my website, I would be delighted to get in touch with you.
First, let me clarify the “recruitment world” I experienced during those years. My experience focused on a highly competitive and international market which is Geneva and the French part of Switzerland. I’ve been recruiting trainees and young talent up to experienced Senior Directors; Specialists, generalists, in most of the corporate functions for medium to big size companies, international organizations and foundations. What I do here is share my experience based on the environment I was in, the people I worked with who inspired me, and of course the candidates I met in interviews. All the different interviews I will talk about that you may face during a hiring process are very familiar to me. I won’t mention the ones that are not familiar.
Let’s simply start with the beginning. Congratulations! You are invited for a first interview after having submitted your application including your CV, cover letter, diplomas or via a Head-hunter who successfully recommended your profile. You are part of the 5% (usually the percentage range in companies well ranked as “preferred employers”) of successful candidates “winning” the right to be invited for a first interview. You have even more merit if you have been selected through the “external” channel as you do also face the internal candidates interested in the role you applied for and the people who have been “highly recommended” and went directly on top of the CV pile – it still exists unfortunately in some companies, sometimes it is exceptional and sometimes this totally unfair practice remains the norm…and it is of course most of the time a total disaster for the company.
This first contact you will have with the company will be either with the recruiter responsible of hiring for this particular position or the hiring manager, or both at the same time. Let’s deep dive in those interviews one by one. Welcome to round 1!
Interview with “HR”
As mentioned earlier, this interview is usually with the recruiter but can also, in some occasions, be handled by other HR representatives like the HR Business Partner / HR generalist or the Head of HR (usually in smaller companies or for very senior roles). By the way, every “HR” person has a name so don’t say “I have an interview with HR” in front of the person, I mention this because it happened to me and to other HR colleagues…not the perfect first impression I must say!
Don’t under estimate this interview thinking that it is “just” the interview with “HR”. What is certainly true is that the person in front of you knows less about the job he is recruiting for than you do (except, maybe, if the job is in HR). However, the person should know a lot about interview techniques, company values, expected soft skills and competencies you must have to excel in the position. HR professionals also pays attention to certain codes like presentation, handshake, questions from the candidate, tone of voice, body language, etc… Why? Because it is their job, they are trained for that, they might even train others and they are the primary representant of the organisation when it comes to hiring. One last thing, HR won’t usually decide on the final candidate to hire, it is usually a collegial decision and the last word belongs to the hiring manager, but HR manages the hiring process from start to completion, may facilitate the decision meeting and can certainly “veto” some candidates. Now you’re ready!
What can you expect during this first interview?
A formal interview divided in 3 main parts:
1 / Intro/presentation from HR including information on the company, the role and the interviewer (10-15mn).
Your bottom-lined presentation, keep it short is the best advice I can give. Better to do that rather than being too long and too wordy. If the recruiter wants to know more about your CV or your life in general, you will be asked follow-up questions. Again, be short and concise (2- or 3-minutes max, except if the interviewer asks you to do more). The remaining time is dedicated to specific questions about your job experiences, usually the most recent ones so that the recruiter clarifies some specific points of your professional “story” and your motivation. For this part, think about your narrative, what are the key messages you want to communicate?
2 / Behavioural Interview (BI) or Competency-based interview (CBI) (15-30mn)
Simply put, the company looks for specific competencies/soft skills and values. The values are the same for the entire company (Integrity, Fun, Innovation, etc) and competencies differ depending on the role (collaboration, customer-orientation, attention to details, etc). Once the attribution of competencies is made for the role, natural BI questions arise. For example, “can you give an example where you demonstrated a high level of collaboration?”
In order to prepare to those specific questions, you can do 2 things, really important, that will have a huge impact on the success of this first interview:
Identify the critical competencies needed for the role by reading very carefully the job description (JD) and sometimes between the lines. Try to understand what is really important for the role. Usually, the first bullet points are the most important in a JD. For example, if “team player” and ”creative” (or synonymous) appear to be everywhere, you can be sure that collaboration and creativity are key competencies needed for the role. If you struggle reading between the lines or even understanding the description (yes it happens, and not only occasionally ) try to contact someone in the organisation who could explain the role with simpler words. You may know someone who knows someone…Linkedin is a great tool to reach your goal in that situation.
Once you have identified the key competencies of the role and the company values (usually available on the corporate website), look for some specific examples of your professional experience honoring those, using the STAR model:
Situation – You start with providing context for the example you want to share (who…what…where…when…how?)
Task – Detail the task you had to handle. What challenges and constraints did you face and what was your main goal in this context?
Action - What did you do that enabled you to accomplish the task? Don’t forget to mention the others as it is usually a team effort but what the recruiter will want to know is the impact you had specifically.
Result – What was the result? What outcome did you get? What did you learn from this?
The most important part to prepare and to work on is Task and Action, the rest is needed to complete the pieces of your story but the challenges you faced and the impact you had with your actions are the essence of what makes (or not) a good example. BI Interview requires you to really prepare working on those examples. I used to ask candidates sometimes 2 specific examples for the same competency. Identifying the key competencies and values needed for the role and preparing at least 2 examples for each would be my recommendation. And rehearse alone in order to “connect” with your story, rehearse with someone who does not come from the same professional background and ask that person to give you feedback on whether your example was clear and specific enough, rehearse with someone from the same background who can give you feedback on the impact of your story.
3 / Questions and closure (5/10mn)
This part is usually quite succinct and botched by both parties. It’s a shame… As a candidate, you should expect honest replies and key information about the company. As a recruiter, you should expect some curious and smart questions, not too long and too specific, but open and targeted. If you ask very specific and technical questions about the role, you will probably don’t get much from the recruiter. If you ask about company culture, learning opportunities, how the company is organized, etc, you should get more relevant information, helping making your decision should you be the selected candidates. Always remember the person you have in front of you when you ask questions. Be conscious of the time left and shoot the most important one(s). And don’t forget…you are here to convince them as much as they are here to convince you. By asking meaningful questions and receiving the answers, you will start building your mind on whether this company is for you…or not. If you want to more “personal” question to your interviewer, for example “what brought you to this company?”, or “can you tell me about your experience here?”, do your research on Linkedin ahead of the meeting. Having looked at the person’s profile will help you to customize your question (interest, previous company, years of experience in the company you applied for, articles the person wrote, etc) in order to get the information you’re looking for. This research is of course valid and recommended for every interview you will have.
Interview with the hiring manager (HM):
This interview can be more informal in terms of setting should it be face-to-face. The “HR” interview usually takes place in the “HR” meeting room dedicated to interviews. Not very “out of the box” thinking I agree but very convenient given the numbers of interviews the recruiters have every day. The hiring manager might take the candidate to the company cafeteria, invite for a lunch or a coffee, use an open space or go outside the building. Be open and prepared for that. All of the above happens less often since Covid came into our lives and videoconference took now a quasi-monopole of interviews which standardize the interview setup.
The discussion might be more informal too and less “coded” than with HR. Why? You and the hiring manager speak in most of the case the same working language, meaning that there is implicitly a special connection form start. And the HM already thinks: do I see myself working with that person, and by doing that, extra care and cautious during the interview may appear, not always though 😉.
What can you expect during this interview?
You will speak a lot about your experience/level of expertise: this can be quite technical and sometimes theoretical (What would you do if…or working on a mini case study during the interview with the goal of checking your technical competencies) but the manager may also use BI/CBI to hear specific examples you experienced that would make you a relevant candidate for the role.
Be curious and explain your motivation: how much do you want this role? what are your reasons for wanting this role and for working in the company? What can you bring to the team? How much can you project yourself in the role? If you were the hiring manager, what questions would you want to be asked? Prepare those questions as they will pop-up in one way or the other.
Interview with HR AND the hiring manager:
I am personally a big fan of this set-up during the first phase of the interview process. Doing this exercise together reinforce the cohesion with the hiring manager and the recruiter, create automatisms and the same baseline for debrief sessions later in the process, allows more creativity during the interview and it is a gain of time for everyone: the candidate, the manager and the recruiter.
What can you expect during this interview?
The level of intensity and tension will usually be higher. Here are 2 reasons why:
Good cop/bad cop: this is quite common in a duo of interviewers, one will “play” the nice guy, the other will have the responsibility to put the candidate “on the grill”. Don’t be too afraid of this configuration, stay focus on your “story”, your key messages and offer concrete and specific examples. You may even notify this role play at some point. In that case, try to “play” with it and use it to your advantage. How? Being detached from the supposed “stressful” situation caused by this set-up, and always showing respect and no sign of negativity. Don’t take thing personally. A good analogy would be an angry customer (bad cop) you have to deal with.
Follow-up questions: Imagine you are answering a question the hiring manager just asked you. In the meantime, the recruiter has plenty of time to listen, observe your body language and prepare a follow-up question that may ask you to be more specific, to clarify your point or that may simply challenge you a bit more. It’s like a tennis table match, the candidate is the ball and the 2 players “play” with the ball. To bottom-line, this interview is usually more rhythmed. As a candidate, you don’t have much time to pause (sometimes to breathe). But it is something you can prepare. Rehearsal with 2 people and ask them to play good cop/bad cop, ask follow-up questions and to put a lot of rhythm in the discussion. This will help you to get in the mood.
How can you benefit from an interview like that? You can usually get a lot of information on the company culture. For example, the level of collaboration, trust and complicity between the business and Human Resources. How well are they organised and prepared? Is the interview scripted or extremely informal and relax? All those pieces of information are very important to notice as it brings you every time a new piece of the puzzle on whether this company is really where you want to spend half of your day for the next x years.
Here you go, you completed the first phase of the recruitment process! You are now part of the short-listed candidates selected for the final round. Usually, at this stage, there is you and 1 to 3 other candidates remaining. We’re approaching the final decision but there is still a long way to go and, in some organizations, many interviews to go through.
In part 2 of this blog, I will use the same thread and provide information on the different type of interviews you can face during the final round: panel, interview with the team, the “Super” panel, the “Bonus” interview. And finally, I will write a Q&A covering some of the most important questions you want to be able to answer when it’s time for you to make your decision. Stay tuned!
Interested about this article? Feel free to contact me here.
