Finding a new job - public

As a former recruitment consultant, I engaged with numerous candidates who had been asked some crazy questions at interview:

“If you were an animal, what animal would you be and why?” or

“If you could take just one thing on to a desert island, what would it be and why?”

I mean, what is the correct answer to such questions?! The interviewer would argue that they wanted to see how well the candidates could think on their feet and that the actual answer they gave was irrelevant. One could argue (and I often did) that if the answer was irrelevant, then why bother asking the question in the first place. Yet there were – and still are – some interviewers who insist on asking such cryptic, needless questions.

During your interview is not the best time to pull someone up on their poor questions, so give some thought to how you might answer. My well-educated guess is that the animal question is to assess your characteristics, while the desert island question is assessing your common sense. But if the interviewers themselves sometimes struggle to know why they ask such questions, you or I have little chance of knowing. Good luck!

Competency based interview questions

Thankfully however, more and more organisations are rethinking the questions they ask candidates at interview. Often interviewers will use a structure of questioning known as competency-based interview questions. They will typically sound something like this:

“Tell me about a time when you demonstrated [insert competency here, e.g. teamwork, problem solving, customer service]. What did you do and what was the result?”

These questions allow the interviewer to assess a number of things:

• What previous experience the candidate possesses in a given competency;
• How they behaved;
• How well they can articulate what they did and
• Whether they achieved results through their actions.

These questions are useful, as they focus on actual examples as opposed to hypothetical situations, unlike the animal and desert island scenarios.

Preparing for a job interview

As a candidate preparing for an interview, start by considering some of the main competencies required by the role you are applying for. If you are feeling brave then ask the organisation what type of interview structure they use. If nothing else, it shows them you want to prepare well for the interview.

Then consider your experiences that could support your answers. The great thing about competency-based interview questions is that, regardless of your background, you can generally answer them successfully.

As an example, let’s imagine they are assessing ‘being target-driven’. If you are a graduate and have only limited work experience, perhaps working in a shop, you can still answer that question. I assume graduates have to achieve certain grades? Particular deadlines? Are these not targets? Of course they are. You may just need to think a little outside the box.

Common competencies that employers look for

Here are a few of the most common competencies that are assessed. Be careful not to commit these so much to memory that you give answers that sound scripted. But do give some thought to how you could answer them based on your own experiences:

• Teamwork
• Self-motivated
• Problem solving
• Dealing with conflict
• Accuracy or attention to detail
• Target driven
• Customer service

You can take valuable lessons from considering competency-based interview structures. Fundamentally, an organisation isn’t particularly bothered about where you worked (they already know this and invited you for interview knowing this). What they want to know from you is how you did what you did, how you made a difference through the work that you did and how you could replicate those skills in a new role with them.

Final thoughts

Whatever animal you may be, learning to navigate the jungle is one of the most important skills for interviewing. If you do it well, you can avoid getting stranded on a desert island in the first place. And that is probably the greatest competency of all.

What could some ‘muppet’ teach me about job interviews?

Good question. Quite a lot potentially.

Here’s how being a bit more of a ‘muppet’ might well help you the next time you’re at an interview:

Let’s consider what this might give you:

• Kermit – listening and leadership
• Miss Piggy – performance
• Gonzo – bravery
• Scooter – enthusiasm
• Statler and Waldorf – self awareness

Let’s think more about each of these characters and what they can teach you potentially about how to succeed at interviews.

Kermit uses active listening skills and a deep empathy for his colleagues.  These leadership qualities shine through as he tries to be a role model and explain his vision for how well he’d like each Muppet Show performance to go. Even if the reality is not quite what he expected – usually for reasons outside his control.

Miss Piggy embraces her inner-diva and knows that whatever setbacks there might be “the show must go on!”. As a star performer she knows that rehearsals and perfecting her own personal  presentation is all that matters to her audience. When the lights go on and the music starts she’s ready to perform.

Gonzo’s the kind of guy who’s likely to say  “give me the right suit and then fire me out of a cannon!” (not to be taken literally in an interview please). He’s brave and has a can-do attitude. Sometimes, even like Gonzo The Great, we need to convince ourselves we’re ready for the job and have confidence in our own ability.

Scooter is boundlessly enthusiastic and clearly demonstrates that he wants to help the team. It’s hard to teach someone to be keen. For this reason employers know that if you’re motivated at interview then you’re more likely to be enthusiastic as an employee.

Statler and Waldorf can perhaps teach us how to be our own best positive critic. Taking a few moments straight after any interview for some self reflection and constructive feedback can be invaluable.  We should consider what we learnt and how to do better next time if we’re going to keep the heckling to a minimum – whether it’s real or imagined.

For many people interviews can feel odd and artificial. After all – how many times in our lives are we put in a room with people we probably don’t know and asked to boast about ourselves?

Telling our own stories and showcasing our skills to an audience is about a performance.

So next time you find yourself preparing for a job interview which muppet can help you most?

Me? I might take a bit of all of them.