Job application advice

[Robster]

Stu this is what they call competency interviews which are very common nowadays. As mentioned before avoid the BS and give examples from your own experience.

Always use the S.T.A.R system for your answers:
Situation
Task
Action
Result.
Answer in this order.

A very good piece of advice is have an negative answer.

By this I mean in your answer explain how you did something and even tho it was a good way to do it - it was not the best.

From here you then explain that you learned from this and it helped you to develop by being able to recognise where you are going wrong and listen to other's advice etc

Hope this helps...

[davesol]

These are exactly the type of questions I use in interviews, but I don't give the interviewee the question beforehand (which kind of defeats the point) so you've got a massive advantage here. Anyone who can't give a clear, strong example in answer to those questions isn't worth employing. Asking for a previous example in interviews is much easier to spot bull**** answers to as it's harder to lie about what you have done than what you would do.

I don't really agree with this, I think people who have done a lot of these type of questions can learn 'model' answers. When we employ people at my company (for software development anyway which is where I am involved int he interview process) we do a 10 - 15 minute phone interview which is mainly technical questions to filter out people who clearly don't have the technical skills to back up the claims on their cv. if someone passes we get them in for a practical technical test and an interview which is more of a general chat than pre-set questions like those posted. Have found it to work pretty well so far.

[Brats]

But there are hundreds of potential questions you could ask. The questions I ask are different to the ones posted and another firm will answer different questions still.

It's also fairly easy to tell if someone has a stock answer.

There is no perfect recruitment technique, but competency interviews (combined with other tools like assessments and decent psychometric tests) are widely recognised now as the best way to establish a person's skills and experience.

[Robster]

Model answers are easily spotted in my experience by asking add on questions about the finer details which only the person with experience will know.

Saying that recruiting for a sales job is a nightmare, sales persons as a rule of thumb can talk the end off a donkey so the BS is very hard to spot

[NW2013]

Brats is a job ninja! Thanks for the various advice. I'm still undecided about whether to go for this particular job as it's completely different to what I do now but I'm sure the advice will come in handy at some point in the future anyway.

[Robster]

I would say go for it Stu and even if you dont get it its a learning experience for you and will give you an idea of what to expect in the future.