Job Interviews

Things
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[quote=“Bandage, post: 494217”]

Found this again looking for job interview stuff.[/quote]

Tase makes my skin crawl but this was his finest hour.

92

Still gas. :lol:

Two things with it, what kind of an ape puts €50 “that he really, really needed” into a vending machine? Those things are notorious for eating your money. Secondly, KIB Man being the great employee that he is was about 20 odd minutes late for the start of his shift, and he had only started the job. They must have been thinking “where is this fuck?” :smiley:

93

This is phenomenal stuff from KIB man here.

speaking of people traveling to australia and then going mad on the internet, has anyone heard from kev lately?
he hasnt posted at all since that post last week where he gave us a detailed physical description of himslef (just in case a poster felt the need to ID him or something) and told us has ancestors had been raped by the moors in west cork,
I fear we may read something about him in the evening echo soon some evening.
i wonder did those tools of his ever show up?

94

ah jesus lads, would you ever leave brick lane’s finest pot scrubber alone

95

Ah lad, do you still believe in Santa Claus aswell? I wouldn’t mind but a couple of posters on here have admitted to using this story to great affect around the globe.

A lad I was in college with had a speel prepared for some bank job in Dublin a few years back.
He knew one of their managers so it was a penalty kick of an interview. Unfortunately penalty kicks get missed, he somehow thought (it was the era of Celtic Tiger/Dragons Den/Apprentice making it big) it was a good idea to kick off a speech about what greatness involves and how (cant remember exactly) but perspiration plus inspiration = greatness. Dublin being the small world it is, he had a job finding a job after it.

Anyway the wheel has turned a bit and I’m now hiring people these days to work in the curry house these days. Just hired a stunner from
Wroclaw earlier today. An amazing Polski body on her. Poles don’t get visas handy in Aus so presume some Aussie has her tapped.

96

[quote=“KIB man, post: 494164, member: 208”]have a rake of anecdotes learned off in your head -

here is one I have used many times, other ones in relation to hard work- spent my summers as a student working in construction - learned the value of a good work ethic

Q - when have you been able to personally resolve an issue with a customer etc etc (there has always been a question of this type thrown in)

A - I like to tell a story of back when I was a student - i used work during all the holiday seasons for spending money, ah sure ya know yourself bit of money for the rest of the year hahaha. Anyway one Xmas, I got a job with Dunnes and was on my way into my shift when on the corridoor on the way in I saw this person in serious distress at the phone credit machine. it was one of those machines that you put your money in and it dispensed the credit slip. anyway he was creating quite a scene as it was the main hallway into the shopping centre at our busiest time of year. I kind of felt I had to go up to him and see what the matter was. Eventually after some persuasion I got him to calm down and sit on the bench next to the machine. he explained that he had put 50 euros into the machine and nothing had come out. He really needed that fifty euros. Anyway I signalled to another staff member to get him a cup of tea and got our head office to ring the machin distributor crowd. We put him on the phone to them and they ensured him that they would have someone there today and if there was fifty euros jammed in the machine it would be returned to him. he seemed happy enough with that and headed away. The manager on duty at the time commended me for my action and i actually received the employee of the month award. I guess the key was seperating the person from the problem. People are decent at the end of the day and we all can get a bit stressed from time to time.

I dropped this story in London a few years back to silence for a few seconds. I thought I was fucked - anyway the snot nosed cunt at the other end of the table goes yeah I used work in Retail myself we used see these kinds of incidents regularly. they lapped it up :lol:

Interviews are a pile of bollocks that justify ridiculous salaries from the most disposable part of any organisation - HR. I liked my one here in Aus - a coffee with two of the senior lads and they asked me when i could start after about five minutes. No bullshitting around.[/quote]

Bump. Come back KIBman.

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:smiley: +1

Somehow I think I missed that post originally. I think TASE was probably fair enough in his hopes for KiB for that absolute twaddle of a post. And in fairness, dying in your sleep is the best way to go, so they say, TASE was actually advocating a quite humane death. Respectful, yet deserved punishment.

98

Any feedback, comments or queries on the below? I want to ensure that all TFK members are as successful as possible in their work environments and I invite others to share their views, experiences and knowledge.

I’m also looking for a volunteer to hold a CV workshop to ensure we’re maximising our opportunities to get to the interview stage.

Competency Based Interviews
If you’re selected for interview (either for an external or internal role), there’s nothing wrong with outright asking your contact what format the interview will take and it’ll actually show that you give a shit and intend to prepare for it. Competency based interviews are increasingly becoming the main method used in job interviews. The interviewer will have a list of the required competencies for the job and they’ll ask you questions about them - competencies could be influencing others, teamwork, problem solving, motivating others, communication and various other stupid buzzwords and phrases.

Again, if you’re told that the interview will be at least partly competency based then you’re well within your rights to ask if there’s a list of the key competencies available to review. That will allow you to prepare a couple of examples / answers to cover the various required headings. Of course, most interviews will also have some general questions too starting with “tell me about your career to date” to ease you into it and moving on to “what attracted you to this role?” etc etc so you’ll to prepare for this side of it too. However, I’ll be concentrating on the competency part for this morning’s workshop.

Taking, say, “communication” - the interviewer may not necessarily simply say “communication is a key competency for this role - tell me about a time you used your communication skills to good effect”. They may add a layer to it and perhaps combine a couple of the competencies by saying something like “communication is a key competency for this role - tell me about a time your communications skills were required to resolve a problem and what the outcome was”.

They may also test you by framing it in such a way that it’s not merely a straightforward “tell me about a time you used your communication skills to good effect” type comment / question - they might test you by saying “tell me about a time you had to adapt your method or style of communication and used your skills to obtain a successful outcome” or something. But, if you’ve gotten information on the key competencies in advance then it should help you to predict the type of questions that will arise. In any event, you should be able to prepare a couple of examples to cover each heading and be capable of tailoring them appropriately if they do ask one of those nuanced type questions.

I recommend the SELL approach for competency based interviews:

Statement - “Yes, I have very strong communication skills and have used these skills to excellent effect in my career to date…”

[SIZE=3][FONT=arial]Evidence - This is where you used one of the specific examples you have prepared. “A specific example of a time where I used my communication skills to resolve a problem was…” and outline it - cover the issue, what you did, why you did it and why it was successful.[/FONT][/SIZE]

Learning - You need to show that you’re constantly learning from these experiences and applying the lessons learned. “What I learned from that incident was that it’s critical to use my communication skills to ensure that customers are updated in a clear and concise manner…” blah blah blah.

Link - Finally, link it to the job you’re actually interviewing for. “I believe that utilising and further developing my communication skills would also be extremely important for this role. I’m aware that maintaining a constant communication flow with clients ensures they’re updated in a clear and concise manner on an ongoing basis and it can help to ensure any potential problems are pre-empted before they even arise” or some other such bullshit.

So you’re saying you have the required competency, you’re giving an example to prove you have it, you’re saying you’re learning and developing your skills in the area and you’re also planning on utilising them strongly in this role should you be successful in the interview.

A key point is to use “I” - you have to take credit and it has to be all about you. You’d amazed how many people in interviews go on about “my team did this” and “we” did that and “my group” did that. It has to be “I did”, “I organised”, “I reviewed”, “I planned”, “I communicated my idea to…” etc etc.

1 Like
99

Job interview tomorrow morning to be the PA to the MD of the finest bakery and confectionery company in north (and now south!) Dublin.

Haven’t done an interview for almost 8 years. Feel like doing a Spud from Trainspotting.

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Is it ok to criticise the company? Their website is shit. I’d tear it asunder and sack their website man.

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No. You praise them but say you possess the experience and expertise to even improve things further. And then talk about sorting out whatever’s shit without directly stating that it is.

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Do a bit of research on the company, engage with the interviewers, once you come across as an alright sort that’s half the battle, spoof the rest and your sorted.

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http://lifehacker.com/the-logic-behind-19-common-interview-questions-1376990545

http://lifehacker.com/5935550/the-interview-question-that-is-always-asked-and-how-to-nail-it

http://lifehacker.com/5975338/top-10-tips-for-acing-your-next-job-interview

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Thanks lads. If I get the job I pledge to buy Bandage a half a shandy before the next Irish competitive international.

105

Best of luck @Thrawneen

106

Thanks Frantastic. I’m feeling confident.

PMA

I’m one of 6. If there’s 5 cunts “better than me” I’ll give up.

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Best of luck @Thrawneen

108

[QUOTE=“Thrawneen, post: 976005, member: 129”]Thanks Frantastic. I’m feeling confident.

PMA

I’m one of 6. If there’s 5 cunts “better than me” I’ll give up.[/QUOTE]

Not one of those cunts are better than you pal, I have no doubt about that

109

Thanks lads. I wish the fucking thing was now while I’m psyched to the max.

I’ll be in this thread tomorrow morning to get gee’d up.

110

All you need is a female interviewer & you ARE sorted.