Over 20 years experience as a personal and business coach. Proven track record of helping others develop their interpersonal skills

Transcription

1 Bob Griffiths ICAEW Chartered Accountant Over 20 years experience as a personal and business coach Proven track record of helping others develop their interpersonal skills Able to work at senior level up to Boards and CEOs Mentor for the F-TEN programme for ICAEW members who want to reach FD positions

2 What we will cover What is an interview Why should we bother to learn to deal with them Why we find them so stressful How to prepare effectively How to deal with nerves during interviews How to answer difficult questions How to build rapport with your interviewer

3 What is an interview? An interview is any situation where you are in front of one or more people who have the power to give you something you want This might be a job role but it could be a contact, information, cooperation or assistance

4 Why bother learning how to deal with interviews well? One obvious answer is that for most jobs now you will have to pass some aspect of interview to get a role Another and more important answer is that almost any presentation you make or networking meeting you have is a form of interview Learning to present yourself well in a stressful situation will stand you in good steed in a wide variety of situations

5 What do we mean by dealing with nerves? It is probably not possible or necessary to eliminate nervous feelings during an interview It is much more important to learn to use your nervous energy in a way that serves you and helps you to come across in the way you want

6 Exercise How do you normally react when you are faced with the prospect of a formal interview? Be clear about your fears. What specifically might go wrong or not go the way you want?

7 Interviews can happen In a formal setting In a networking meeting At the coffee machine or water stand In a pub or café At a restaurant Bumping into people in the street Over the phone Using or texting Via social media

8 Differences: formal and informal interviews In a formal interview, we know there is a job there and we know we are being assessed In an informal interview, we don t know whether there is a job there and we like to pretend we are not being assessed!

9 Why do we find formal interviews so stressful? We want something and don t know if we will get it We know we are being assessed It reminds us of other stressful situations in the past We believe the interviewers have all the control and we have none We anticipate something will go wrong and we will look bad We anticipate that the interviewers will try and trick us We anticipate that we will not be able to answer all the questions well

10 Or to put it another way Level of fear = Importance of the interview to you Prediction of a successful performance

11 Most of these fears come down to a combination of two fears Being out of control Being humiliated in the face of authority

12 The fears can be dealt with by: Mental and physical preparation

13 Exercise How do you normally prepare for an interview for a role that you really want to get?

14 How to prepare for interviews the company Mission objectives and values The industry position of the company Who are the senior management team What are their key products Who is the competition Are there any recent news items about the company?

15 How to prepare for interviews the job Study the job and person spec Know what knowledge, skills and competencies are necessary or desirable Qualities required to be successful Do you know what the salary on offer, and what the range is Research all job details you can Use any sources of information you can to find out about the job to equip yourself to answer questions

16 How to prepare for interviews make sure you have Details of where you are going and who you will see, plus their job titles and roles if possible Extra CV s and any supporting information you need Paper and pen for notes Allowed extra time to get to the interview Thought about what to do if anything goes wrong logistically eg, transport

17 How to prepare for interviews yourself Know how you will describe your strengths and weaknesses What key skills/lessons you have learned Your career goals What you are looking for in an organisation What sort of work hours and travel arrangements are suitable for you

18 How to prepare for interviews - practice Basic questions Learn to give your answers in 60 seconds making your three key points Know the points you want to make about your life story Tricky and off-the-wall questions Discussing items on your CV

19 Remember STAR Situation Result Task Action

20 How to prepare for interviews psychological practice Get yourself into a relaxed physical state. If you can t do this yourself download a relaxation tape from the Internet Start to do a mental rehearsal of getting ready for the interview If you notice any tension in your body, stop imagining immediately and concentrate on relaxing that part of your body Once you are fully relaxed again go back to that part of the exercise until you can imagine getting ready and being fully relaxed Move onto the next stage of your mental rehearsal the journey to the interview

21 How to prepare for interviews psychological practice Again you notice any tension in your body, stop immediately and concentrate on relaxing that part of your body Once you are fully relaxed again go back to that part of the exercise until you can imagine completing the journey and being fully relaxed Move onto the next stage of your mental rehearsal arriving and waiting for the interview Continue cycling through the above steps until you can imagine completing all the stages of an interview including answering difficult questions with your body completely relaxed Do this a least four times in the days leading up to the interview

22 How to deal with difficult and tricky questions Most problems with tricky questions come from the fear of looking stupid or not being able to answer at all This is an effective way to deal with a difficult question 1) Answer That is a good/interesting question, let me think about it for a moment and then breathe and take advantage of that thinking time. Or 2) Could we come back to that question at the end. Or 3) I don't know the answer to that immediately, but the way I would find out the information is...

23 Building rapport with your interviewer(s) #1 Firstly remember some basic facts Interviewers are often nervous too They want you to be good and to be the right candidate They do not want to make a mistake

24 Building rapport with your interviewer(s) #2 The basics 1) Make sure your hand is dry and give a good, firm handshake if offered 2) If there is more than one interviewer and both are giving you eye contact, give most of the eye contact to the person asking the question but some to the other person/people Be willing to make some small talk at the start

25 Building rapport with your interviewer(s) #3 See if you can turn the interview into more of a conversation with questions like: - Does that give you the information you need? - Would you like any more detail? - Would you like me to clarify any points?

26 A world leader of the accountancy and finance profession