Interview Advice from an ex-Recruiter

Lightning talk presentation on tips for interview from an experienced recruiter.

- How not to suck at interviews
- What does 'good at interviewing mean?
- What and how to prepare
- How to research the company and interviewers, what to look for
- What common questions to prepare for
- Example questions for you to ask

Transcript

1. Interview advice FROM AN (ex-) RECRUITER
2. Interviewing people was my job for 6 years 20 people per week * 6 years => 4000 - 4500 interviews ish? ...Most people pretty terrible at interviewing
3. How to not be terrible at interviewing • Personal hygiene (shower, cigarettes, cologne) • Answer the fucking question! • Be succinct! • Don’t bullshit. Be a real person • Read the job description • Attitude (don’t be an ass / don’t be a Debbie Downer) • Have questions prepared … Remember, a recruiter’s job is to screen you OUT! (avoid false-positives) =>Miss-hires are costly!
4. What does ‘Good at interviewing’ mean? • You’ve practised • You’re prepared (95% of doing well) • You ask good questions • You understand what they’re looking for • You tailor your interview ⇒ Show them you have what they need ⇒ You do the job during the interview EVERY INTERVIEW IS DIFFERENT EVERY HIRING MANAGER IS DIFFERENT
5. • Research the interviewers (look for one thing to talk about) ◦ History (University, Companies, Projects) ◦ Shared connections ◦ Extra-curricular activity (incl Groups, social media) • Research the company ◦ Job Description ◦ LinkedIn and Google, Glassdoor etc ◦ Structure (Company and engineering dpt - Teams, CTO etc etc) ◦ Products / Business Units ◦ Industry (SWOT / Competitors) ◦ News • Think about what you want ◦ Job (now, 3 - 5 years) ◦ Salary ◦ Company (culture, product etc) Preparation - Research (LinkedIn / Google / Twitter)
6. Preparation - Interview Questions • Recent work history ◦ If it’s on your resume they may ask you about it ◦ Prepare at least three examples of your experience ◦ Explaining job changes (or lack of job changes) • Practise common interview questions ◦ Tell me about yourself ◦ Why are you applying for this job? ◦ Why are you applying to this company? ◦ What do you know about our company / product etc? ◦ Strengths / Weaknesses?
7. Preparation - Interview Questions (for them) MORE == BETTER • Don’t ask about salary and benefits in the first interview! • Ask ‘benefit you’ questions instead ◦ What does top performance look like in this role / company? ◦ What challenges is the team facing at the moment? How will this role support / contribute? ◦ Opportunity to work on personal projects? Support personal projects? ◦ What will the first 6 months look like? ◦ Career progression of this role? ◦ Typical day on the job? • How did I do? How do I compare to other applicants? • What is the process from here?
8. Final Thoughts • Interviews suck ◦ Inefficient ◦ They test the wrong things ◦ Everyone has something they’d rather be doing • Everyone gets nervous • Preparation is everything • Do the job in the interview • Don’t focus on ‘USPs’, know your ‘why’ instead