Job Interviews

[anon61956325]

Solid advice…shame you are not so balanced on every thread…you could go right to the top of the internet if you were.

[Brimmer_Bradley]

Unless you have contacts already in the department don’t bother your bollix turning up.
The job is probably already given out, but I suppose they have to go through the motions of fair selection… Heehee. Good one.

[carryharry]

Drop the Burka, pal.

After that I’m more than confident your suave demeanour will have the poor cunts eating out of your crotch area.

Best of luck, Hun xxxxxx

[Juhniallio]

Practice. Get someone to sit you down and go through the interview situation. Write down the questions and areas you expect to b è b questioned on and get someone to ask you them all. If you answer them out loud for the first time in the interview you’ll sound hesitant as if you don’t really believe what you’re saying. If you’ve practiced them it’ll roll off your tongue.

Like Joe player’s cock.

Best of luck.

[artfoley]

All PS job interviews are now competency based so familiarise yourself with the competencies they are seeking for the role. Then have your stories ready which demonstrate you exhibiting those competencies

[myboyblue]

So @ProjectX was trying to fuck @ChocolateMice over by telling him to study his cv?

[briantinnion]

I have nothing to add for a public sector interview. Have never done one.

The only thing I’ll say is that it’s surprising how far you’ll get by being normal.

[anon67715551]

I was going to suggest a Fainne but I couldn’t see Choco too comfortable with it.

[anon61956325]

It’s not quite public, pal…they are a private offshoot of a public institution.

[myboyblue]

Irish Water it is so, you’ll knock it out the park.

[The_Most_Infamous]

+1

If they like you and you come across as an alright sort, you’re 3/4’s of the way there.[quote=“briantinnion, post:147, topic:12308, full:true”]
I have nothing to add for a public sector interview. Have never done one.

The only thing I’ll say is that it’s surprising how far you’ll get by being normal.
[/quote]

[Rocko]

@Bandage has a little system that is a useful guide.

[anon61956325]

As everyone on here knows I am an extremely normal and likeable guy. I will walk this.

[anon61956325]

@bandage, give us a wave…bandage, bandage give us a wave.

[The_Most_Infamous]

You’re away with it so pal, Best of luck with it.

[Ambrose_McNulty]

Number one tip is not to answer any question with “come ere I wannnnt yaaaaa” you’ll be grand after that.

[Bandage]

@Bandage

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 InterviewsIf 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…”

[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]

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.

Bumped for @ChocolateMice. I posted the above for competency based interviews before and I think it’s useful.

Aside from that, the advice from others is very good.

Definitely practice saying your answers aloud as it’ll flow naturally in the interview and eliminate the pauses and ems and ehs etc.

Have a succinct intro piece to cover “tell us about yourself” and a final wrap up to emphasise how you’re motivated, ambitious, talented and perfect for the role.

[Ambrose_McNulty]

Public sector interviews are very structured. Fixed points awarded for education, work exp, communication skills, motivation and one or two other areas depending on role such as technical ability etc. Have done a few interview panels for tech jobs in their level institutes and universities. Most importantly, the most suitable on paper doesn’t alway get the job, most appointments I’ve seen have been won on strong communication and team work. In the HSE they have a policy of not asking question that lead away from the direct requirements written on the job spec and they have to ask the same questions to each candidate, which is bullshit in my opinion. This makes it easy to prepare for the interview.

[glasagusban]

I’ll PM Choco but @bandage has it pretty much all covered. Bando, I wouldn’t have thought competency based interviews would have been the style for a businessman like you? Where did you become so well versed?

[anon61956325]

It’s third level but non academic… 5 minute presentation at the start…