Recently, one of my colleagues came to me seeking tips and advice on how to approach job interviews so that they could have the best chance of getting a few offers to choose from.
So, in reflecting on all of the advice I’ve received, read, and practiced over the years related to job searching, applying, and interviewing, I decided to distill and combine it all down into this one extensive guide that I could share with them and anyone else actively engaged in the arduous job hunt (not to mention being yet another way I can remind myself of what to do next time I need help as well haha).
However, do keep in mind that getting asked to come in for an interview is the result of already being selected from a larger pool of screened applicants, so I recommend reading up on good cover letter and resume practices elsewhere to be called in.
The sections below cover my three key preparations for successful job interviews:
Interview skills
Common job interview questions
Creative and challenging questions to ask
Interview skills
Preparation
Give yourself plenty of time to arrive on time for the interview, planning for worst cases like traffic, car breakdowns, or public transport delays. Be well versed in how to get the interview location
If the interview is being held at the office itself, do not arrive too early as this may put undue social pressure on them to get to you sooner (depending on the interviewer, being there 30+ min early may be seen as being as unable to plan well as someone who arrives late)
Get plenty of sleep and avoid caffeine and alcohol the night before (obvious, I’m sure, but a gentle nudge can't hurt)
Limit coffee, soft drinks, and other diuretics or foods that may result in needing to use the toilet during the interview (once again, makes perfect sense, but when you’re nervous, you’ll be surprised what you forget to consider…)
If interviewing at the office itself, get into a less nervous mind state by imagining that you’ve already been hired and are reporting for your first day of work - it’s helped me develop an early rapport when everyone naturally feels like we’re already a team
Plan and practice what you want to say beforehand in anticipation of their questions (what they’re looking for), but not so much that it comes off as reading from a script (see the following question sections)
Research what the team or business has been (or appears to be) working on recently so you can flavour these use cases into your stories
Just like at the cinema, do not forget to put your phone on Do Not Disturb mode before you go into the interview
In the interview
Know that they’re looking to hire you because they have a problem to solve, so mentally approach this believing that you can be their solution; be confident, not arrogant
e.g. their work isn’t getting done because the role is empty or the work isn’t getting done well because of who they’re looking to replace and so they’re evaluating you in hopes that you’ll be the person who can fill that gap
Be concise in your answers and be respectful of how much time your interviewers have as well - that courtesy will go a long way even if your conversation is going great
Leave some room for mystery in your answers; don’t give every little detail away – give them just enough insight into who you are and what you’ve done that leaves them thinking, “I want to know a lot more!” (Thanks in particular to Haunani Pao for this as it was the ultimate lesson I needed)
Focus less on trying to prove what you know and focus more on how you work; make it a two-way conversation to find out how you’d both work together if you were hired tomorrow
Assume that they are fully aware of what problems they have, so don’t tell them what their problems are as if they don’t know; instead, indirectly show how you recognise what their problems might be and how you can help solve them
e.g. try “I’m not sure if you’re having a hard time getting stakeholder buy-in, but I had that problem and what worked for me was…” instead of “What you need is for someone to…” so that you don’t come off as pompous
Address everyone in the room, not just the senior interviewer(s) (Thanks Michael Szeto for this commented addition)
Never interrupt the interviewers to make a point, no matter how excited you are about it or how confident you are that you know the answer; take it slow
All conversations and answers should be delivered in the STAR format (Situation, Task, Action, Result), such as: “What I hear is…” -> “I had faced something like this before when…” -> “What I did was…” -> “As a result, we…”
In your stories of past successes (or failures), be sure to clearly describe the resulting value of your work and include stories that demonstrate how you’ve worked well with others
Never criticise your previous teammates, workplace, or the decisions made; take responsibility for your mistakes or opportunities missed
e.g. “Unfortunately, our priorities got shifted before we could deliver that project and I didn’t agree with that choice, however, I learned that next time I need to better make and communicate the business case for the value that completing it would have created”
If your mind is racing or you’re drawing a blank after being asked a question, create a moment for your mind to collect itself by pausing to take a sip of water
Do not forget that you’re interviewing them as much as they’re interviewing you – it’s a two-way relationship, so make sure it all feels right for you too
If you're still keen on the role after the interview, email or call them back to express your interest and thanks for that opportunity - give them a little space though, not immediately when out of the building (Thanks to Michael Szeto for this commented addition)
Common job interview questions
Read through this list of common job interview questions and consider how you might answer them; aiming to ensure every answer is reframed into a positive outcome (i.e. show how you’ve learned from your failures). And again, never blame others in your stories, period.
And, if you're reading this as someone about to interview a candidate, choose and frame your questions to avoid canned, i.e. insight-less, answers. Remember, the whole goal is to learn about how the candidate acts, feels, thinks, and fits with your work and your organisation's culture, so you want to pose questions that will key you in to those areas of interest through their stories - this is less of a book-smart test to see if they'll pass and more of assessment of their character and work ethics as a means lowering your risk of hiring someone detrimental to your company.
Questions about your character, skills, and motivations
Tell me about yourself.
Why do you want to work here? (Tip: consider flipping this around when you answer to be like “Because I’m interested in the problems you’re trying to solve as it seems similar to when I…”)
Tell me about your biggest strength.
Tell me about your biggest weakness or what you think you need to improve the most. (Tip: always describe what you’re actively doing to overcome this)
What is your preferred way of working and why? (e.g. individually or with a team)
What are your long-term goals?
Tell me about a personal or work goal you reached and how you achieved it.
Tell me about a personal or work goal you did not reach and how you handled it.
What does ‘working well’ with others mean to you?
How comfortable are you giving presentations to large groups or upper leadership? What do you think you’d need to get better at?
Tell me about something you’ve learned in the past year that you think will greatly help you in this role.
What are your pay expectations here?
If I asked others why you should get hired, what would they tell me?
Questions about your approach to work situations
What project have you been most proud of and why?
What is the most interesting project you have worked on and why?
Tell me about a particularly difficult work challenge that you had to overcome. What would you do differently today to have avoided that?
Tell me about a time that you inspired or motivated your peers or business leaders to make a change.
Tell me about a time when you had to work with a particularly difficult person or team or an otherwise stressful situation and how you handled it?
Tell me about a time that you had to handle a conflict within your team or with others outside of your team.
Tell me about an assignment that was too difficult; how did you handle the situation?
Tell me about a time when you had two or more projects with conflicting priorities; how did you handle the situation?
Tell me about an important work decision you had to make and how you made it.
Tell me about how you’ve recognised and addressed risk in a project.
Tell me about a time when you disagreed about a decision that was made and how you handled it.
Questions about the customer/user experience
What does a good customer/user experience look like to you?
Outside of companies that you’ve worked for, who else do you think provides a great customer/user experience and why?
Tell me about a time you championed a customer-centric approach to a piece of work.
Creative and challenging questions to ask
When an interviewer asks you if you have any questions, always have a few questions ready to ask in return as 1) it’ll help demonstrate your interest and critical thinking ability, and 2) remember that this interview is as much about them seeing if they want to work with you as it is you seeing if you want to work with them.
Ideally, turn the interview into a two-sided conversation where both of you get to ask questions back-and-forth rather than it be a one-way series of questions to you because your ultimate goal here is for them to feel like they can work side-by-side with you, not be someone that they always have to ask questions down to.
They will learn so much more about you from what you ask them than of what they ask you.
Questions about you and them
After talking to me today, what honest hesitations do you currently have about hiring me?
What are the expectations and achievements I should aim for in my first 90 days that would make you say, “I am so happy we hired you!”?
How are the role’s performance and goals going to be assessed?
Is this a new role or was there someone in this role before? If so, why are they no longer in this role?
How long has everyone in the team been in their roles?
What type of work or projects inspire you the most here?
What do you like most about working here?
What is the 1 thing you wish that you got to do more of here and what is your biggest barrier in doing so?
If you owned the business tomorrow, what would you want to see be done differently? What is preventing that from happening today?
What is the culture like here and how do you see it compared to other workplaces?
Questions about ways of working
How are role and team priorities set and work assigned?
How does the business measure success and which measures do the business care about most?
Can you tell me about a recent project you’ve worked on and what decisions were made as a result of the work? Who was responsible for making those decisions and how did they reach an answer? How was the success of that decision measured?
Is this role or team focused more on improving existing processes, products, and services or proactively discovering and seeking new opportunities?
What is the balance between problem discovery and solution execution that this role and team works in?
What is the team’s structure and which executive’s department does it fall under?
Questions about the customer/user experience
How is user or customer/user research approached in this business and when?
What is the long-term vision that the business is working towards? Does every department have that same vision?
How do you see customer/user outcomes and success being prioritised here and who is championing it from the top-down?
What barriers, if any, does the team currently have in terms of talking with customers/users and/or getting their feedback?
Who are the target customers/users for your product/service? How did the business decide to pursue them?
How do you see the business needing to grow in terms of good CX/UX practices?
And that’s it; I hope it was informative and that even if you’re not currently seeking a new role, the points here gave you something to ponder for next time.
Share this with anyone you care about who might be looking for a few extra tips (and be nice, share it even with those who you’re not really fond of, but could still use a helping hand so that they may grow as well).