Strategies for a successful interview Business Communications

Purpose: assessment of your attitude and character as well as how well you would work Doing well is about following rules or right answers: No right answers. Leave a positive impression Research the company Prepare questions to ask employers Know your resume, cover letter etc Always keep one copy for yourself and bring it to the interview. Practice interview techniques and sample questions Eye contact, clear answers

Strategies for a successful

interview Business Communications

What do employers look for?

Skills Employers Look for:

What tips would you give

someone when preparing for an interview?

Preparing for the Interview

● Research the company

●Prepare questions to ask employers

● Know your resume, cover letter etc

● Always keep one copy for yourself and bring it to the interview.

● Practice interview techniques and sample questions

● Eye contact, clear answers

Before Interview Day

● Map out location

● Arrive early 15 minutes early

● Presentation

● dress as if you worked there every day

● Have a good attitude

● Positive, enthusiasm, confidence

What are some questions that interviewers ask?

Traditional Questions

● Purpose: Assess your knowledge of yourself and position

Example:

●Tell me about yourself

●What are your strengths and weaknesses

●Why should we hire you?

●Why do you want to work here

Strategies for answering questions

● Know the job description

● Research the company

● conversation, not interrogation

● Use questions as an opportunity to talk about yourself and your experiences

● Be your BEST self

Answering Questions (1/2)

● Take your time, do Not Rush

● okay to pause, and stop when you think you have

finished the answer

● Smile relax

● Not knowing an answer is OK

● If the questions concerns resume- answer accurately

● Buy time before answering a question - rephrase

or describe the question

● Ask questions at the end of the interview - shows confidence

Tell me about yourself

How would you answer this?

Traditional Questions

Question: “Tell me about yourself”

Answer 1: I was born in Seoul and then moved to the United States when I was 13 to continue my education in English For university, I returned to Korea to attend CAU There, I double majored in Business administration and English Literature With my degree, I thought it would be best to

apply to **** company

● Do not tell your life story

● Unfocused

Tell me about yourself: PAWS

Personal:

Your first sentence should be an introduction to who you are

professionally, an overview statement that shows off your strengths and gives a little sense of your personality too

Academic: Your academic interests and how your

education/training relates to the position

Work: Previous relevant work or volunteer experiences you have,

and what you accomplished or gained from these experiences

Skills: Skills you developed or demonstrated in previous

experiences and how they relate to the position you’re applying for now

Question: “Tell me about yourself”

Personal: I am passionate about marketing products and services for

kids

Academic : And have recently graduated with a degree in Business

Administration specializing in marketing at CAU

I have taken all the marketing classes offered by our school including consumer behavior, and marketing strategy

Work: While taking Marketing Strategy class, I had an opportunity to

develop a customized marketing strategy for a local coffee shop

Skills: I developed a 3 point plan to help market and promote a new

drink by using Kakao talk and Facebook The shop decided to

implement the strategy and ended up increasing sales by 20% in a month!

● Relate your skills and experiences to the position you are

applying for

● Be brief and focus on more recent events

Why should we hire you?

Question: Why should we hire you?

Skill: What is a skill/experience that the

company needs?

Advantage: What is the result of this skill?

What is the action?

Benefit: How can this skill benefit the

company? How can it make a difference?

SAB

Question: Why should we hire you?

Skill: I am a great communicator and can speak 3 languages

fluently

Advantage: By speaking English, Korean and Chinese

fluently and having lived in the LA, Seoul and Shanghai, I understand the 3 different cultures In addition, I have

presented and written marketing plans and strategies in all

3 languages.

Benefit: As a result, my marketing plan for Kia K5 was

selected as the best presentation by 150 students in

marketing strategy class In addition, my professor is using the presentation as a model for a creative marketing plan.

Why do you want to work here?

Why do you want to work here?

Research the company!

Website, Annual report, press release

Why do you want to work here?

I believe that this company has great growth

potential and I am willing to work hard The

company has a strong brand and was voted as the best company to work for

Why do you want to work here?

(Feature) One of the values that I most admire about the

company is its Fair Trade program

(Evidence) After talking to several of your employees that

your company plans to expand the Fair Trade program to

include other products I am also a firm believer that business has the responsibility to be fair to their suppliers

(Benefit) As part of the *** school program, our project

involved in creating a cooperative so that locals can learn

skills so that they can be provided with fair wages…

Therefore, I would like to work in a company where fair trade

is a priority

What are your strengths

I am a great communicator, speak 3

languages and enjoy creating new marketing campaigns I am very positive and enthusiastic

in everything I do I also have word processing skills

What are your strengths?

What skill is the company looking for that you

Benefit: How can this skill benefit the company? How

can it make a difference?

SAB

What are your strengths?

Skill: Teamwork

Advantage: During 4 years of university, I have

worked in about 20 team projects in various

subjects in management, marketing and

accounting

Benefit: Of the 20 projects, we received an A+ in

18 and our marketing plan for K* was selected as the best project I believe that being part of a team

is the best way to work efficiently and effectively

SAB

What is your weakness?

I am sometimes late for appointments and I drink too much coffee I drink about 3 cups a day Basically, I am lazy

What is your weakness?

Answer: WAR

Skill = What skill/experience that needs to

be improved?

Action = what are you doing to overcome?

Result = what did you learn?

SAR

What is your weakness?

[SKILL] “I’ve never been very comfortable with public

speaking – which as you know, can be a hindrance in the

workplace [ACTION] Realizing this was a problem, I asked

my previous employer if I could enroll in a speech workshop

He said “yes.” I took the class, and was able to overcome my

lifelong fear [RESULT] Since then, I’ve given lots of

presentations to audiences of over a 100 high level executives – I still don’t love it, but no one else can tell!”

II: Behavioral Questions

● Purpose: To assess your competencies

o Problem-solving, teamwork, communication,

collaboration, adaptability, organization, leadership etc

“Tell me about a time you were on a team that was not working well together”

Behavioral Questions: STARR

Skill = What skill/experience?

Task = · The task you had to complete or the

problem you faced

Action = what are you doing to overcome?

Result = what did you learn?

Relevance = How the skills you showed or

gained from the experience relates to the position you’re applying for

Behavioral Questions

Answer 1: I get along with team members One time in a class project, a team member didn’t do his part We talked to him about it, but we ended

up doing a lot more work because of him

● Vague

● Does not explain what he learned from the

experience

“Tell me about a time you were on a team that was not working well together”

Answer 2: [situation] In my marketing class last year, a group of

us had to develop a marketing plan for a service company One of the members was assigned to make the Powerpoint slides but he didn’t finish them on time The other team members got angry but I

tried to talk to him to figure out what had happened [ACTION] I

found that that he was having trouble understanding some of the

concepts So I put in some extra hours to help him to help him learn

the material [RESULT] The experience taught me not to jump to

conclusions and taking the time to understand and communicate

openly with all members of a group

End of interview: Do you have any questions?

How would you answer this?

Questions for the employer

● What kind of training will I receive?

● What do you (the employer) like most about working for this company/organization?

● Will I have an opportunity to take on new responsibilities once I get comfortable in my position?

● Have I answered the questions clearly? Is there anything that I need to clarify?

Next steps after interview

Next Steps after the Interview (1/2)

● Be clear about the next steps in the hiring

process

● Take notes about the interview

o New information about organization

o what you would like to know more about

o Responsibilities in terms of followup

Next Steps after the Interview

(2/2)

o Express appreciation

o Reconfirm your interest in the job

o Underline how your skills and interests fit the job

o Demonstrate active listening by sharing your thoughts on topics discussed

Thank you letter: Sample

Dear Mr Crawford:

Thank you for giving me

the opportunity to talk with

you about my interest in

***** yesterday I enjoyed

meeting with you, as I

have with all the people

from your firm.

The intense

competitiveness and

hard-driving environment of the

investment banking

business makes it very

attractive to me I thrive

on teamwork and

competition As I

mentioned yesterday, I

have been swimming

competitively for twelve

years As captain of the

swim team this year, I had

the thrill of leading our

team to the Asian Finals.

If you need additional

information, please do not

hesitate to call me at (617)

493-1234.

Sincerely yours,

John Kim

Group Activity:

● 3 : 1 Interview

Practice interviews by having 3 members

Next class: Mock Interviews

Location: in Class

Signup your group # and company

Interview time announced tomorrow

Questions:

Tell me about yourself

Why should we hire you?

Why do you want to work here?

What are your strengths?

What is your weakness?

Tell me about a time you were on a team that was not working well together

Interview Rubrics

- Does the interviewee show up on time

- Does the interviewee have resume and cover letter ready?

- Does the interviewee appear confident and poised?

-Does interviewee make eye-contact with the

interviewers?

- Does interviewee answer content of each question

clearly with specific examples?

-Does the interviewee uses structure learned in class?

- Does the interview give straightforward responses that are genuine

- Does interviewee appear prepared and knowledgeable

about the position and company they are applying for?

- Does interviewee seem interested in the position and enthusiastic about the interview?

- Does interviewee avoid distracting mannerisms and

phrases? (“ums”, tapping, hair twirling, etc.)