Tribe Interview Preparation
The time you spend preparing for a job interview will ultimately affect your success in the role. Even if the interview is a “coffee catch up” it’s better to be over rather than under prepared, the research you’ve done (or haven’t) will be noticeable.
Below are some tips to make sure you’re well organised for your interview:
- Make sure you know where you’re going to park.
- Do your research on the company, look at their website, social media channels and talk to your network.
- Prepare a 5-minute overview of your career (which is relevant to the role). This will help you if the interviewer asks you to tell them about your background briefly.
- Think about your answers to general and behavioural based questions (see below).
- Come up with 3 – 5 personal selling points that fit the position description
- Think about 3 - 4 questions you would like to ask the interviewer/s related to the role, the business, and the team.
Typical interview questions
- What interests you about the role/working for this company?
- What is your career plan in 5 years from now?
- What have been the proudest achievements in your career and why?
- What do your colleagues think about you?
- What are your strengths and weaknesses?
- What are your interests outside of work?
Behavioural-based questions
Hiring managers use behavioural based questions to make sure you have the relevant skills for the job you are applying for. Come prepared with a bank of examples you can use for multiple questions.
As a starting point, have a look at the job description of the role you are going for, highlight the key skills they are looking for, and build questions around these.
Remember to use the STAR model to give structure to your examples:
- Briefly describe the Situation or background
- Explain the Task or activity
- Outline the Action you took
- What was the Result?
It’s important if you haven’t interviewed in a while to practice using this method as it can take a bit of getting used to!
Examples
We’ve all had to work with someone who is difficult to get along with. Give me an example of when this has happened to you.
- Why was that person difficult?
- How did you manage the relationship?
- How did you influence the person’s approach?
TIP: Keep your answer factual not emotional. The interviewer is looking for your ability to manage a difficult situation and still achieve the desired outcomes of your job.
Have you ever made a mistake? How did you handle it?
- What happened because of this?
- How did you go about making amends?
TIP: Everyone makes mistakes so it’s frustrating to hear someone say they’ve never made one! The interviewer is looking for your ability to reflect, accept your part, and move on.
Can you think of a project or idea that was sold and implemented successfully because of your efforts?
- What was your role?
- What was the outcome?
TIP: It doesn’t matter how big or small the idea was, the interviewer is interested in hearing how you pulled together multiple stakeholders to achieve goals.
Tell us about a time when you couldn’t meet a deadline.
- What else were you working on at the time?
- How did you prioritise your work?
- What was the reaction to this?
TIP: This is about managing expectations. We all have times when there are competing priorities and we can’t achieve everything. It’s important to talk about how you prioritised your workload and communicated with the relevant stakeholders.
Describe a decision you made that wasn’t popular and how you managed the implementation.
- Why did you make the decision?
- What was unpopular about it?
TIP: This is often asked when the role involves managing a team. Think of a time when you changed policy or a process, talk about how you introduced the idea and what approach you took to get your team (and the wider business) on board.
For more behavioural based questions take a look at this website.
