Employers consider time and techniques when interviewing. Over the last several weeks, we have discussed various techniques. This week, we are going to look at two more.
The Team or Panel Interview:
Organizations are “flatter” than ever. This means that you could directly and indirectly report to several people at the same time, particularly if you are involved with projects. Rather than meeting each person, one at a time, an organization will save time by using team or panel interviews. Typically human resources or the hiring manager will chair the interview. This interview can vary from a pleasant conversation to an interrogation – we call it a pressure cooker. The soft skill questions will typically come from the hiring manager or human resources. The technical skills questions typically come from other members of the interviewing team. They want to hear you talk so you can expect more broad questions than specific ones.
Be calm, be focused and respond to each question directly to the person that asked it with respect. Be diplomatic – when offering opinions, be mindful that there may be those on the interview team that may be sensitive to you response. That being said, you can always respond with words that soften your thoughts if an objection is raised. Too much opinion and you will blow your interview by offending the interviewing team. The good news is that the one member of the interviewing team that disagrees with you will probably have to defend their position to the hiring manager after the interview. Typically, you don’t have to worry about the subjective opinion of one member in determining whether you get the job.
Remember, your goal is to showcase your skills, both technical and human relational skills. You are selling yourself to them, as they are to you. You are not there to win a debate. And no matter how stressful the questioning may get, be calm, be focused and keep smiling.
The Stress Interview:
The stress interview does this – it cuts through pleasant conversation and gets to the point of the matter to see how the job seeker will respond. You can expect successive questions that are intended to make you feel confused, hostile and fearful. That’s normal. Rather that ramble on, here’s what to do with this type of interview:
- Be calm at all times and no matter what. Keep your eye contact and answer objectively no matter how hostile the interviewer gets. When the interviewer asks the tough question, take a moment and get composed before responding.
- See it for what it is. This is a game designed to see if you can be effective under pressure. The pressure is artificially created in that moment.
- Don’t let your emotions dictate your response. Keep your responses pleasant, positive and objective.
- Keep your tone of voice positive no matter what. If you slip and show attitude or show offense to the question or tone of the interviewer, you won’t be successful.
In the world in which we now live in, you many wonder what message an organization is sending when a Stress Interview is conducted. It sure makes me wonder about the management that approves of this type of interviewing technique.
Regardless of how many organizations you interview with, you only need to be successful with one. Even though the odds are stacked against you, you can still come out the winner by paying close attention to the details of interest of your prospective employer and remaining calm and focused at all times. If an organization has a requirement, someone has to get the job. It may as well be you.
