Morning STW,

I have a 3rd chat/interview next week for a potentially big job, that I really want. It will be with the Exec Director and director of Culture/HR.

I know I need to prep on my experience related to the role but what else? I will research their background (in a non creepy way) but what other questions do I need to think about and prep for?

Thanks in advance.

bit of wiz and it will be fine

This is how to do a job interview:

Basically just be better than the other candidates.

They already think you can do the job, or have been told. They probably want to see how you fit in.

They already think you can do the job, or have been told. They probably want to see how you fit in.

This.

Soft skills kind-of stuff.

There are lots of lists of dumb HR questions online – things like ‘tell me about a time when you made a mistake…’, ‘what is your worst quality?’ etc. Apparently saying ‘I’m a perfectionist’ isn’t a good answer to the second one, so preparing a slightly better answer might be worth it.

This is how to do a job interview:

Steven Ogg is a criminally underused actor.

Interviewer – ‘What’s your biggest weakness?’
You – ‘Honesty’
Interviewer – ‘Interesting answer. Can you explain that a bit more as I don’t think honesty is a bad trait.’
You – ‘I don’t give a **** what you think…’

More seriously, if they are going to do a competency based interview then think about what answers you’ll give to the common scenarios – tell me about a time you had to manage a difficult situation with a member of staff, tell me about how you overcame objections to XYZ situation etc.

And apologies if this is teaching grandmothers how to suck interviews – don’t bullshit your way out of a question you don’t know the answer to. I have learned over time and have tried to explain to others that the interviewer tends to know the answer to say, a technical question about the role and they are trying to find out if you do!

What, if anything have you been told to prepare? Have you been given any info on the format of the interview?

Generally, if you’ve not been told any of the above, the 3rd stage will be quite conversational.

My standard advise (16 years in recruitment) is:
Know your CV and your experience inside out, know what you’ve done, why you’re good and which skills specifically make you suitable for the job.
Know the difference between your previous job(s) and this one, know how you’re going to adapt to those changes.
If it’s a senior role, try and find out mutual connections between you and the interviewer, this’ll add credibility to your conversation.
Have clear, well prepared answers to the obvious stuff like “why did you leave/are you leaving your role?”, “talk me through your CV/last 5 years of experience”

If you have an specifics I’ll try and help more.

My usual interview questions are:
“How did the position arise?” (you find out did someone leave, did the company get bigger, or whatever)
“How long have the team been together?” (is there a high turnover of staff, are they set in their ways, will they be accepting to a newcomer)
“Where is a good place to get lunch near here?” (lets you in on the culture, if they say most people just eat at their desk, or there is a small kitchen to eat your sandwich in, it seems they expect you to work through breaks)
plus the usual specific to your role questions.

Take the opportunity to see if you actually want to work for the company (it’s you interviewing them mentality)

Daughter’s killer question to interviewers is; “Why do you like working here?”

All thanks for this, mainly useful;) keep them coming.

Lunge,

That’s great thanks, been asked to prepare a presentation on what I will do in the first 90 days. I have ideas for this and much of it will be very practical around the projects, culture and contacts but it will be great if you have any other thoughts.

Thanks

been asked to prepare a presentation on what I will do in the first 90 days.

1st slide should be

I would assume that a third interview with the high-ups is pretty much a formality. It’s the execs feeling the need to be included in the process. You don’t generally invite a dozen candidates for three interviews unless you’re really stuck for something to do.

All the stock interview questions (“what do you like?” … “what do you hate?”) that HR think are designed to see if you can think on your feet but in reality test whether you have the gumption to google stock interview questions, they all should be behind you now.

Relax, be yourself.

Look up the people who will be interviewing you in LinkedIn. See if you have any contacts in common. If you do, get in touch with those contacts to see if you can find out the interviewers personality types. It will help you frame your answers to questions.

Regarding a presentation for the first 90 days – we do those and I prefer it when candidates discuss with me what they’d like to achieve balanced with what the business needs them to achieve. I don’t like to be lectured at or told just what they’re going to do, as I have a much better picture of it than them. Treat it as a discussion to arrive at a real plan that can be implemented if you’re successful in the interview.

Good luck.

been asked to prepare a presentation on what I will do in the first 90 days.

Have a read of this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Your-First-100-Days-leadership/dp/0273751328 It’s only short, but it guides you to creating a three-month plan, broken down into 30 day chunks as you get deeper into the organisation. It uses themes such as navigating the organisation, learning their strategy etc. It’s also about being realistic about what can be done. It’s pitched at execs but it applies to any role where you have some degree of autonomy.

The interviewers might not agree with your plan, but the point is to show you have the nous to come up with something balanced and achievable.

As others have said – a third interview with exec is to check you’re a good cultural fit, and that they can work with you. Are you the only candidate left? Ring HR today to find out. If so, then it would probably have to feel very wrong on either side for it not to lead to an offer, so relax, be confident and be yourself.

They already think you can do the job, or have been told. They probably want to see how you fit in.

This again

I got a new job last year, triple my old salary. I was later told that I was the lowest scorer in the technical aptitude test, but because I answered one difficult question correctly in the test that no one else did and because I gave a really good impression of passion, interest, soft skills and willingness to learn in the interview they hired me instead of guys with years of experience in the role (I had zero) and much better test scores

Anyone who gets that far in the process CAN learn role specific stuff, they just want to know if you actually WILL

They are getting their money’s worth out of me now though 🙂

Three times your salary? Wow. Nice. You were either earning peanuts or you’re now rolling in it. Either way I should be more ambitious with my next role.

check you’re a good cultural fit

If they come up with this phrase ask why not culture add, if you ‘fit’ you won’t bring anything, you’ll just be like the other sheep running on the same assumptions. A good boss will be open to being challenged and will be willing to do things differently.

While I think the idea of “cultural fit” is a bit dodgy these days on diversity and inclusion grounds, challenging concept at interview is likely to mark you out as an awkward sod.

It’s not a bit dodgy, it’s illegal.

I always aim to get a laugh out of the interviewers. Sometimes they’re tenser than I am. I figure if I get them to laugh, we’ve all relaxed and are on our way to a good relationship.

There are lots of lists of dumb HR questions online – things like ‘tell me about a time when you made a mistake…’

This one is about accountability and honesty. It’s one of the questions on our recruitment system: the answers from the candidates can be very informative!

At the end of the day if it’s a ‘big job’ so presumably a high level exec type role, then they’re going to want to know if you’re a good fit as you will be leant on to deliver and if they can’t trust you then you’re not going to be able to do the job. Ultimately interviews are a crap way to recruit people but at the lower level is the only practical way, but as you get higher up it becomes alot more personal. So I’d say that it is all about you as a person, how you’re going to fit in with the exec team, how you’re going to behave under pressure because that stuff really matters to the performance of you in your role and the broader performance of the team.

I’ve never been through this process myself before as I’ve never got to these dizzy heights within my organisation, but a mate of mine who works at director level has just gone through this process recently and this is how it seemed to work with him. He saw it as just as much an opportunity for him to suss them out as much as the other way round. Having passed the earlier interview rounds they obviously were convinced he could do the role from a technical perspective but this was more about him checking he’s going to be given the backing and the resources he feels he needs to deliver what he’d be expected to deliver, if he’s going to have the backing of those above him to enable him to succeed. If the culture of the organisation is a good fit for him…these structures are ultimately political and you have to play the political game so he wanted to suss that out too.

I always aim to get a laugh out of the interviewers. Sometimes they’re tenser than I am. I figure if I get them to laugh, we’ve all relaxed and are on our way to a good relationship.

I got offered a job based on a bad joke. They were two technical people and a manager and asked me if I could explain the difference between TCP and UDP to them. I said “No problem. I actually know a joke about UDP, but I don’t care if you get it”.

As soon as I heard the sniggering from the tech people I knew it was going to be a good interview, even if it was 5am and I was wearing shorts, a shirt and a tie in a hotel room in the US, with a frozen video screen on the Skype interview.

I like the UDP joke made me chuckle. But yeah based on who is interviewing you they basically want to sound you out and validate for themselves that you’re not a complete knob. I’d still go in prepared as they may re-ask some of the previous questions, because they feel like they have to. But I’d expect it to gravitate towards a chat.

Someone above mentioned asking them questions. I quite like it when I interview people and they ask why they should work here or what I like and dislike about working here. Shows that they’re reasonably switched on and won’t just turn up and be a drone.

Thanks for this everyone, really useful to hear your experiences.

an awkward sod

Ooh, ooh, ooh, that’s me 🙂

Good luck Dr Nick, if you are anything like your namesake I am sure you will excel!

I hope that your ‘first 90 days’ plan is going to involve ‘Bike ride, barbecue and beers over at my place’ – it’ll be the summer, after all… 🙂

I started with beer/bbq/bikes, still waiting to hear back!!!

Just a note on the “cultural fit” – this isn’t a racist thing, or at least it definitely shouldn’t be. From a business perspective this usually refers to whether you suit the culture of the business. For example, as an over-generalisation, Google have a “move fast, break stuff” sort of culture and will look for people who are inventive and imaginative rather than detail-obsessed; Apple have more of a “make this work properly” culture and will have no tolerance for people who want to try new ideas without taking the time to properly test them out.

A lot of the recruitment process for good companies at higher levels will be about making sure you are the person that fits their culture, that’s why there’ll be personality type tests and various assessments as well as the interviews.

… and both of those need someone doing the opposite to provide checks and balances.

been asked to prepare a presentation on what I will do in the first 90 days.

“Take me on and you’ll find out in three months, you can sack me if you don’t like it. I don’t provide free consultancy.”