Interview Guidelines
These guiding principles are from an experienced interviewer offering advice to students looking for placements.
1. What is an interviewer looking for?
An employer wants reassuring answers to three main questions.
Can the candidate do the job? i.e. qualifications/experience etc.
Will the candidate do the job? i.e. enthusiasm/ motivation
Will the candidate fit in? i.e. personality/ability to communicate etc.
From your point of view, you can talk your way into a job by reassuring yourself that you can and will do the job and fit in. Expect and want to talk for about 70% of the time because you do most of the answering!
Although employers use different techniques, the majority will ask one or more technical questions, plus open questions (see below for examples) which are designed to find out more about you as a person based on what you did/ how you behaved in situations that you have recently experienced. Some interviewers will ask you what you actually said in these situations in order to find out how you interacted with other people to solve a difficult problem or to persuade someone to do something that they had no intention of doing initially.
You need to develop a suite of recent examples, preferably in the last two years, which will demonstrate your suitability to the interviewer. The SAF asks for examples and begins your preparation and thinking. Some companies’ application forms ask for five events in the recent past asking what you did, how you made a difference etc.
Writing down these experiences is a vital task if you want to succeed.
2. Some interview guidelines
It is absolutely vital that you prepare adequately for the interview. You started to prepare when you designed your CV to encourage questions you want asked and to avoid inviting those awkward ones. Addressing the following points will maximise your chances of success:
2.1 Research the company – i.e. Business sectors, financial data, size, geography, topical information etc.
2.2 Talk to the current placement student or previous years’ students before you attend the interview.
2.3 Prepare for the interview conversation.
The interview is an opportunity for you to sell yourself. Answers must be backed up with examples.
Candidates are expected to be honest about the facts!
Every question is an opportunity to help you get the placement and also to lose it! Therefore, avoid negative comments, linking yourself to failures, apparent lack of interest, condescending remarks about the interviewer’s organisation BUT concentrate on positive responses to the three types of question mentioned earlier.
I CAN DO THE JOB
You should understand the job requirements and build responses around your skills, experiences and achievements that are relevant to those requirements. If you give irrelevant data, you may bore the interviewer or if you give no evidence, the interviewer remains in doubt.
For example, the answer to a question “Do you get on well with people?” must not be just “Yes” but “Yes, for example during my current year at University, I…”
I AM VERY INTERESTED IN THE JOB or I WILL DO THE JOB
You must use chances to explain your interest and enthusiasm saying how the job or placement meets your ambitions, how the organisation is attractive to you and so on. An interest in the job and knowledge of the company from your previous research will also demonstrate seriousness of purpose.
I WILL FIT INTO YOUR ORGANISATION
The interviewer needs to know you will be a good member of a team. Here you will have numerous examples of the leadership, team working and communications activities which form a significant part of your activities at Surrey.
Below are some frequent questions that can crop up, which give you the opportunity to provide positive responses to three types of questions, CAN DO, WILL DO and WILL FIT.
- Tell me about yourself?
- What is your ideal placement/job?
- What has been your biggest failure?
- How would your tutor describe you?
- What do you find hardest on your course?
- How do you get on with your colleagues in your year?
- What can you bring to the placement/job?
- How ambitious are you?
- What do you want from life?
- Why should I offer you a placement?
- Why are your marks a bit below par on the first year?
- How well can you handle pressure?
- What makes you cross?
- What characteristics do you like about yourself?
- Give me an example of when you tried to persuade someone to do something.
Below are some good and bad responses that illustrate some of the points made to date:
* Tell me about yourself (meaning, can/will you do the job, will you fit in?)
Wrong- Talking about your life history/hobbies/family.
Right- Explaining why you can and will do the job and will fit in.
Comment- Ideal opportunity to show you understand and can meet needs.
* What is your biggest weakness? (can you do the job?)
Wrong- Giving a weakness that implies you cannot do the job.
Best- Give a weakness that is actually a strength in the job.
OK- Give a weakness that is irrelevant to the job.
This question needs some thought. Do not give a weakness that implies you cannot do the job, but give on e that is actually a strength!! i.e. a good one here is improving your time management to establish a better balance between study and play – the emphasis being on the word improvement rather than a weakness.
* What do you know about the job/company?
Inept- Showing you have not bothered to find out much.
Best- Showing you have developed an understanding and why you are keen and capable. You can also ask intelligent questions here.
* What has been your biggest success?
Wrong- Anything implying you still lack relevant skills.
Good - A success that exemplifies key skills which are relevant to the job.
2.4 Other techniques
Don’t be afraid from time to time to take a few seconds to think before replying. It does no harm and avoids any impression you are quoting from a ‘script’.
Feel free to seek clarification of a question: It buys time and allows you to tailor your response.
Do not ramble. Say what needs to be said and if the interviewer is quiet, ask if you have answered the question satisfactorily.
Some interviewers, either deliberately or because they don’t know what they are doing, ask closed questions which can be answered with a “yes” or a “no”. For example “Do you get on well with people?” is the classic closed question. Make sure you answer positively and then give examples of situations when you did work well with other people or if you had some difficulties, how you overcame them.
Watch out for the very informal interview style – whilst this style can be to your advantage, ensure you stay ‘professional’.
Technical questions/discussion continue either one or two questions or up to a full hour. The most popular cover talking about your favourite subject on the course and then asking further questions in that area or talking through a diagram/ process. Some technical interviews have adopted a style of zero feedback, no guidance, no encouragement and total silence! In this situation keep going, stay positive, ask if you have answered the question satisfactorily. Some technical questions have required the reply to be developed on a flip chart rather than the more usual table style.
A good question for you to ask the Interviewer is ‘Why did you choose to work for this company?’
3. First impressions and Housekeeping
The first minute can be decisive. You can spoil all your preparation by being late, dressing incorrectly, spilling tea, talking to the wall/floor, yawning, leaving you mobile phone on! The following points may help.
- Know where you are going and allow sufficient time!
- Have your CV with you – do not wave grubby pieces of paper around
- Attend to personal hygiene
- Don’t take in battered cases, carrier bags etc.
- Be polite to receptionists
- Cups of coffee can turn into props for comedy sketches!
- Take cues from the interviewer about sitting down etc.
- Firm handshake (not bonecrushers), and good eye contact (not staring out contest but avoid periods of either wall, window or floor watching)
- Sit comfortably and alertly – avoid slouching
- Don’t mutter or mumble, or ramble on
- Be natural, allow pauses to think, and smile where appropriate
- Avoid being too clever, familiar, aggressive or chatty
- Don’t be frightened of a more formal atmosphere. Tell your story!
- End the interview as well as you started, thanking the interviewer for their time and saying that you look forward to hearing from them.
4. Additional Questions
1. Opportunity Questions:
- What are you good at?
- What sort of personality are you?
- What do you like most about the course?
- What do you have to offer this job?
- Why should we take you on?
- What do you think you can do for us?
2. Achievement Questions:
- What is your greatest achievement in the last two years?
- What is your best subject on the course?
- How did you approach last year’s examinations?
- What are your current study targets?
- What do you want to achieve from your placement year?
- How will you know that you have met your targets at the end of your placement year?
- Can you give me an example of a problem you have had to solve recently?
3. Potential Questions:
- How ambitious are you?
- What do you see yourself doing in 5 or 10 years time?
- What is the ideal job for you?
4. Challenge Questions:
- What is there on your course that you would like to change?
- What are your strengths/weaknesses?
- With whom do you find it difficult to get on?
- What characteristics do you like about yourself?
5. Frequently Asked Questions:
- Tell me a subject you like.
You should answer fully giving reasons why you like the subject together with examples. The interviewer will normally probe the subject to investigate your technical understanding.
- Tell me about a news item you have read recently.
The interviewer will usually check your opinion on a particular issue related to the news item and then deliberately take the opposing line to test how you will react.
- Give me an example of a good leader.
- Why do you think he/she is a good leader?
This question should be taken in your stride!!!
- If you were to stand up for something, what would it be and why?
- Describe an event where you influenced people to do something.
- How do you overcome obstacles?
- How did you resolve problems in a team you were in?
- When you worked in a group, what role did you play?
- Tell me your strengths and weaknesses and give me examples.
- Why did you choose University of Surrey?
- Why did you choose Engineering?