The all important job interview—two tricks I know that work     041

Interviews, as everyone knows, are an essential part of the recruitment process, and preparation and practice are important. These days there are dozens of books to guide young people through the interview process, and no end of lessons on YouTube. For this reason in this blog post I am only going to talk about two techniques which I have found to be quite useful for the children I teach. They are also techniques which are not often mentioned elsewhere.

If a large accounting firm advertises positions today there are likely to be thousands of applicants, even as many as 10,000. The vast majority of these applications will not even get past the first computer screening. Despite all the hard work the applicants put in, the employer’s computer will terminate them, and no doubt later on will this send them a letter that begins, “Thank you for your interest in… however…”.

After this comes the next stage in the process and increasingly today this involves asking applicants to submit an online video interview. The applicants sit at their desks in front of their own webcams, and there they respond to a series of questions. Now most young people know that what they are wearing and their general appearance will be part of showing the interviewer that they are a good fit with the culture of the workplace. However the use of their own webcam can lull them into a false sense of security. Very often they are unaware that at this stage of the recruitment process they are still competing against hundreds.

The problem with using the webcam is the bedroom setting. The background, as seen by the webcam, should look professional. It does not need to be a large bookshelf with rows and rows of books but it does need to look attractive. Perhaps a table with a small bowl of flowers and nice curtains.

Next, your child needs to give attention to lighting. If just the bedroom lighting is used your child will look like a Frankenstein monster because there will be areas of darkness under the eyes and chin, and the head will fade into the background. So you need to bring in a number of lights so that all the face is evenly lit, and there is a backlight on the hair just to give it a highlight so that it is separated from the background. The background itself should be lit so as to be visible but without too much contrast.

All this is a lot of trouble but good positions and good jobs these days are very hard to get. In general, for each single worthwhile position there may be 50 applicants and that’s the labour market position today. So your son or daughter needs to start becoming competitive, very competitive.  If you don’t have the skills to make your child look attractive in a video interview then get some help from someone who does. Keep practising until it looks right.

Now let’s suppose that your child is successful and passes to the next stage of the recruitment process.  This is likely to be a series of interviews held at the headquarters building of the organisation. One of the activities will be a teamwork exercise. Your son or daughter will combine with other applicants and work together on a set project, while being observed by a number of experienced human resource people.

Well this is super scary but most applicants try very hard to show their leadership skills. Sometimes however it seems that the other group members are not that keen on listening to them and one of the reasons for this could be that they don’t like the applicant. Now how could this happen when they haven’t even met? Yes, they have met actually—in the waiting area before they went in to start the interview process. Your son or daughter could well be sitting next to a person who will push them out of the recruitment process. So what to do?

The answer is surprising to some. Your child should just be him or herself. Strike up a friendship and be helpful. Later on, in the simulated team project interview, your son or daughter will already have people who will listen because the ice has been broken. This is such a simple and easy thing to do and yet it could provide a winning advantage. And for most good positions your child needs every single advantage he or she can get. Good luck then with the interview process.

All content copyright—Mark Thackray—Australian Educational Services