Job-Hunt Intelligence - Knock Their Socks Off in Interviews with Your STARs

Published: Tue, 06/06/17

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By Ed Han

During the hiring process, people with decision-making authority to hire speak with numerous candidates. The question hopefully on every candidate's mind is how to create separation between themselves and others, from the résumé all the way through the various rounds of interviews.

A powerful technique the savvy job seeker can use is to be a STAR, which has its foundations in the behavioral interview question.

Behavioral interview questions differ from more traditional question styles because they ask the candidate to relate a specific incident from a prior professional experience. The intention in many cases is to determine whether a candidate has demonstrated a specific desirable trait or skill, with the corollary assumption that failure to provide such an incident means that trait or skill was not in evidence.

Typical behavioral interview questions are:

  • What was your greatest professional success?
  • Tell us about the worst professional failure you had.
  • Tell us about a time when...
  • Can you tell us the single most stressful work challenge you ever had? What made is so stressful, and how did you respond?
 

By Susan P. Joyce

The best way to avoid taking a job you will hate (resulting in another job hunt too soon) is to learn as much as you can about the job, the employer, your boss, your coworkers, and the environment before you accept the job offer. Job interviews should be as great a source of information for you, as they are for employers.

If the interviewer knows what they are doing, you will be asked if you have any questions. Even if they don't ask, be prepared, and ask your questions, anyway. When you have your own questions ready, you can often divert the interviewer's attention in uncomfortable situations (like after you have answered why you were fired).

Asking good questions shows that you are both interested and prepared, which will impress the interviewer, and the answers to those questions should also help you decide whether or not you want to work for the employer.

Employers often have several candidates for every job, so they aren't interested in a candidate who isn't really interested in them or the opportunity. Typically, a job seeker with no questions is assumed to be either not interested in the job or not very bright. Read 45 Questions You Should NOT Ask in a Job Interview for questions to avoid asking.

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A relatively new type of interview, the employer can request a video from a job seeker, and the job seeker answers pre-scripted interview questions usually by a specific date that is the deadline for the interview. In the one-way video interview, the interviewer can see the job seeker, but the job seeker cannot see the interviewer. Interviewing Expert Laura DeCarlo lays out the 10 keys to succeeding in these interviews.

What is the best timing for your interview? Late in the process so they remember you? Middle of the day because they are awake? When the opportunity of an interview comes up, one of the first questionsyou ask is about the time span for interviewing all the short list candidates, asking something like this -- “We are pretty jammed with a deadline right now so any flexibility you can give me will be appreciated. What is the time frame for interviewing everyone?”  Knock Em Dead author Martin Yate offers very smart ideas for picking the best time for your job interview.

This is a critical question to answer well because it will show your success, self-confidence, and preparation. Like "Why do you want to work here?" and "Tell me about yourself," this question is the employer's invitation to sell yourself as the answer to their needs. Job Interviewing Expert Laura DeCarlo describes how to make the sale with your answer to this question.
 

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