So, I have an interview tomorrow at my current employer. Job is Area Manager looking after a team of meter readers.

Passion, strong team management, motivation, target setting, communications, monitoring performance, results focussed, flexible etc etc.

Any tips? Im sure they’ll throw out something I haven’t thought of. I’m not entirely new at this but I’m usually on the other side of the table…..

Thanks In advance

Spud recommends a wee dab of speed to ace any interview 🙂

[video]https://youtu.be/_O6bWb7oEuE[/video]

CBI interviews are formulaic and are best tackled using a consistent approach, That way you can get past Human Remains and have the proper discussions with the front office.

Google the STAR technique – it’s important and needs some practice (even now !. It’s v simple and effective and what the Human Remains team will be looking for.

Here’s one link with examples

https://www.theguardian.com/careers/careers-blog/star-technique-competency-based-interview

Best of luck

Make sure that your suit jacket and trousers match. Good luck

Give me an example of when you had to dal with an underperforming team member

S
T
A
R

Plus lessons learned is a good way to finish ie, even though I was successful, I have learned that if I had done XYZ I could have achieved an even better result etc

Have examples of projects, situations, experiences etc from your previous jobs at hand and try to have an answer in mind for common questions (google will help you find these)that will be asked. Know these inside out, you should be able to answer multiple questions using the same example and you can tweak your stock answer on the fly to suit the question being asked.

Turn pockets inside out.
Unzip.
Unload.
Make elephant noises.

Walk out with a jaunty strut in your step, you’ve nailed it.

Think about why they are asking the question – what specific attribute (s) are they exploring.

You may have a really good example but one that does not relate to the job role / scenario.

Give plenty of detail and only bullshit if you’re confident of blagging any follow up questions

themilo – Member
Passion, strong team management, motivation, target setting, communications, monitoring performance, results focussed, flexible etc etc.

If I were the interviewer, I would like to know how do you intend to motivate others as an Area Manager.

Do you use / intend to use a big stick or to bribe them? 😛

I loathe competency based interviews. Which is a pain as I’ve been doing a lot of interviewing of candidates lately and following a formulaic approach, while consistent, is taking hours of my and their lives none of us will get back….

Do you use intend to use a big stick

I think flash has covered that aspect

Career Civil Servant here; I’ve lived this for 15 years…

If your’re private sector, then they’re obviously mildly different objectives and whilst the STAR(B=Benefit) is appropriate, if you’ve sat on the other side of the table then you have a big advantage (plus, WTF are you asking for advice the day before?? I locked myself in the house for 4 days practising my examples before my last interview 🙂 )

So in that regard, if it’s ‘day before’ advice you’re looking for, then advice is massively limited…

So just stick to this….

“I DID THIS. ME. ME. I DID xyz. ME.”

..and HOW. your behaviours. You invested time to speak to people face to face to understand what was important to them, which allowed you to deliver stuff. Etc..

The rest is up to you and your industry, but stick to your beahviours/what you did, and good luck.

It’s all bollocks 🙂

It’s all bollocks

Again, flash has dealt with this 🙄

😆

Have 8 or 9 strong examples covering the competencies

Say I did, not we

Situation Task Action Result

Make sure you give a tangible Result, e.g. I improved performance by 32%

Eta, as above, think about what you would do better or differently next time, I like to ask that

OP – of the interviewer is half way decent (excluders most HR) he should be very clear at the outset about what exact competency he is testing and why it’s important to the company. If he/she/zee fails to do that, then no harm in asking them to clarify.

If thy can’t then you are doomed to a waste of an hour.

Yes as Abbie a bit late to be thinking about this but at least take four of the competencies and wrote out and practice a STAR based reply.

Above all don’t wing it. It is very obvious.

The other good thing about STAR is that it stops you talking too much. Let their body langaige guide you on whether to elaborate the simple STAR points

you can take crib notes into interviews (but don’t read verbatim from them obvs) but you may find that just having them is enough to provide a confidence boost

Thanks for all the replies. I only found out about the interview yesterday!

HR called this morning, my potential new boss called in sick so the interview is to be rearranged which is just fine by me!

I’ll get googling and note making.

Thanks again

The other good thing about STAR is that it stops you talking too much. Let their body langaige guide you on whether to elaborate the simple STAR points

I always find that if all the interviewers are browsing FB on their mobiles, you’ve probably gone into too much detail…

Few things from me: take in a drink and use it to gain some time between questions to compose yourself or when thinking of your answer before giving it.

Dont be afraid to ask them to repeat the question, I use this to ensure my answer is the best/correct/actually linked to the question.

I’ve had it where I had no experience relating to aquestion, instead of winging it, I admitted it and said what I would do if it occured.

Few things from me: take in a drink and use it to gain some time between questions to compose yourself or when thinking of your answer before giving it.

Spent 7 years as a recruitment manager for a big bank, and currently was the preferred model

As others have said.. Star

Also..

Come prepared with examples but remember to answer the question.. To easy to real off your example but not give actually answer the question asked.

Quantify the end result..