Interview experiences/ advice

[Tank_Kam]

Walk in there, find the biggest, blackest, toughest looking MFer in the room and beat seven bells of shit out of him/her.


But yeah, some are looking for personality some are only concerned about performance and experience. Need to establish which early on.

This is great advice, after being through 100's of interviews I agree that knowing your audience out of the gate is key. I'll even try to creep the person on social media to try to get an idea of their personality.

 

[William Huggins]

Not at all. I’m just not sure of how you are showing dominance from that instead of good old can-do attitude and gumption. I suppose it can be both in certain situations, but you don’t have to act crazy and domineering to come off as a leader in your field, or what have you.

I’ve seen many folks who are extremely loud and domineering also be the least competent. They are small dogs who love to bark loudly, and that’s it.

What sort of sticky gumption are we talking about...........

 

[GergreG]

It's all in the preparation.

Prepare your examples beforehand. Like others have said tell the panel what you want them to know, but ... you must answer the question. It's no good providing a great example if it has nothing to do with the question.

What you did. How you did it. What was the result. And for a management position, what you would do differently.

Google search 'interview questions' for the industry you are in. A more generic question for this role would be 'what makes a good leader'? How would you answer that?

Good luck.

 

[William Huggins]

It's all in the preparation.

Prepare your examples beforehand. Like others have said tell the panel what you want them to know, but ... you must answer the question. It's no good providing a great example if it has nothing to do with the question.

What you did. How you did it. What was the result. And for a management position, what you would do differently.

Google search 'interview questions' for the industry you are in. A more generic question for this role would be 'what makes a good leader'? How would you answer that?

Good luck.

Viagra, Coke, lubricant.........

 

[Fedorgasm]

Also, I'm not sure if it's been said yet, but interviews are very important for external candidates, but for internal candidates your track record is going to outweigh your interview.



So it doesn't matter how much you ace the interview, if you're perceived as a lazy bum for the past 5 years then you're not getting the job. And here's the hard part. You're the worst person in the world to determine how you're perceived. You need to find someone who's willing to be brutally honest and ask them how you're perceived in the workplace.

 

[Tone C]

You mean “fuck them” as in don’t worry about what they think or actually physically have sex with them ?

If you have to ask the question I don't think you're cut out for this forum.

 

[TheNinja]

Have unique questions to ask at the end. Don't ask the canned "Where do you see your company in 5 years" or "What does a normal day in this role look like" or "when do you expect to fill this role" or anything like that. They get those from every other person. Plus you should already know what the role looks like and where hte company is heading if you did any research.

Show personality and be yourself. Sure, you want to answer "yes" to every question but if you honestly don't know, say you don't know at this time and then try to redirect it to something similar you do know.

Example in IT "How experienced are you with Aruba wireless?". Me "I haven't used Aruba in a production environment....but I have configured and managed Cisco, Meraki, Ubiquity, and Juniper in many situations. I also migrated from Cisco WAPs and an onsite WLAN controller to cloud connected mesh style APs. I understand the concepts very well and I'm confident my understanding of concepts and other devices would transfer very well to Aruba, it would just be picking up slightly different syntax or different menus on the web portal"

Be honest-ish. Don't lie about what you do and don't know b/c they will find it out and then they won't believe anything you have said. And as I said, show your personality. When I've hired I look 50% personality and culture fit and 50% skillset. I can teach you skills, I can't change your fit with our company or department or change your dull personality. Show curiosity and passion and willingness to admit you don't know it all but you are extremely excited and capable of learning.

I also smile and make some jokes and be lighthearted where appropriate. I'm interviewing for a job and interviewing them as well. I'm not on trial for my life. Keep perspective if possible. I actually try to have fun and connect with the interviewers moreso than trying to get every answer perfect. You either win and get the job or you learn and get better.

 

[William Huggins]

If you have to ask the question I don't think you're cut out for this forum.

Needs to get that work life balance in order....

 

[GSP_37]

Great advice. Notes. Take and have notes. Your potential boss wants to mentor you but doesn't actually want to do the molding. They want you to take the work load off of them.
Emphasize your skills at organizing, communication and decision making. Sit up straight, make eye contact, hand shakes for everyone, smile, you don't have to be "alpha" but be confident

I once had a younger former co-worker tell me the new job didn't have anyone tell her how to do her work, and I'm like they are paying you to learn what to do/figure it out and do it, not to have another person on the payroll there just to teach you and then you bounce to another job in a couple of years.

I don't necessarily think boss wants to mentor you, but you do the work and they don't need to be worrying about it getting done right and don't bother them. I once had a peer not know what the fook and always made tons of mistakes. Her years of experience was in not knowing shit, which isn't valuable experience to have.

 

[ricc505]

I once had a younger former co-worker tell me the new job didn't have anyone tell her how to do her work, and I'm like they are paying you to learn what to do/figure it out and do it, not to have another person on the payroll there just to teach you and then you bounce to another job in a couple of years.

I don't necessarily think boss wants to mentor you, but you do the work and they don't need to be worrying about it getting done right and don't bother them. I once had a peer not know what the fook and always made tons of mistakes. Her years of experience was in not knowing shit, which isn't valuable experience to have.

I could of phrased that better. Some want to mentor but others want to take credit as a mentor, if you succeed.
Universally though I think you can't threaten their position, I've been sabotaged by bosses who thought I wanted their jobs (I didn't)
The ones that actually mentor have generally been the better bosses

 

[Jack Reacheround]

The older I get, the less responsibility I want.
Being a manger sucks donkey balls, and people suck too.

This is exactly how I feel. And this is why I don’t manage people.

Somehow I am always designated “team lead,” which means “manage people but with no authority to discipline them.”

Somehow that’s even worse.

 

[drstrangelov]

Don’t whistle in the elevator

 

[Brofessor]

Wear a low cut blouse that shows off your fat ass titties/cleavage. You will get the job even if you're dumb or unqualified. I've seen this happen many times. It's quite ridiculous.

 

[AGGAMEMNON66]

You mean “fuck them” as in don’t worry about what they think or actually physically have sex with them ?

I mean if you have to ask..

 

[Intermission]

You guys have any advice for interviews? Any experiences you feel like sharing? I don’t have much so I’m always curious to hear others experiences.

I recently applied for a big promotion at my work. It’s an assistant manager position overseeing about 40 employees and answering to the board of directors. The current manager is older and they are creating an assistant manager position primarily for transition purposes when they retire. But also there is plenty of work on the table to justify the position

I have no idea how many people from outside the company applied or what their credentials are. But from within the company, I’m 1 of 4 to apply. Of the 4 of us, I am the only one who is not currently in a supervisory role. I’m not asked to lead others and I do not have experience like they do meeting with management and board members and coordinating work across departments etc…That’s going to be a huge disadvantage for me, to the point I’d be shocked if I got the job.

However, when it comes to certification and education that is “highly desired” per the application, I am the only one who checks all the boxes. I dance circles around the other 3 when it comes to degrees, certs, licenses etc…. My hope is that they see how driven I am and that I have the aptitude to learn and thus maybe if I blow them away in the interview, it might be worth investing in me despite the steep learning curve.

Coming from someone who had 3 out of 3 unti I met a granny, I think age factor is the key, and gender. people around your age can feed off your energy and relate in a way older people can't. Older people will just attempt to judge you, generally speaking.

The gender assymetry (male/woman) is also bad if there is an age gap because grannies will favor a a kiss-ass woman over a man in those instances.

 

[Intermission]

The older I get, the less responsibility I want.
Being a manger sucks donkey balls, and people suck too.

I wouldn't mind telling people what to do and getting more money for it than if it was the other way around. But everybody is not cut out for it.

 

[jeff7b9]

could always kill them.

What's the pay?

 

[Versez]

Tell him that you’re a sherdogger…

 

[RoastBeast]

When in doubt, whip it out.

 

[GergreG]

Have unique questions to ask at the end. Don't ask the canned "Where do you see your company in 5 years" or "What does a normal day in this role look like" or "when do you expect to fill this role" or anything like that. They get those from every other person. Plus you should already know what the role looks like and where hte company is heading if you did any research.

Show personality and be yourself. Sure, you want to answer "yes" to every question but if you honestly don't know, say you don't know at this time and then try to redirect it to something similar you do know.

Example in IT "How experienced are you with Aruba wireless?". Me "I haven't used Aruba in a production environment....but I have configured and managed Cisco, Meraki, Ubiquity, and Juniper in many situations. I also migrated from Cisco WAPs and an onsite WLAN controller to cloud connected mesh style APs. I understand the concepts very well and I'm confident my understanding of concepts and other devices would transfer very well to Aruba, it would just be picking up slightly different syntax or different menus on the web portal"

Be honest-ish. Don't lie about what you do and don't know b/c they will find it out and then they won't believe anything you have said. And as I said, show your personality. When I've hired I look 50% personality and culture fit and 50% skillset. I can teach you skills, I can't change your fit with our company or department or change your dull personality. Show curiosity and passion and willingness to admit you don't know it all but you are extremely excited and capable of learning.

I also smile and make some jokes and be lighthearted where appropriate. I'm interviewing for a job and interviewing them as well. I'm not on trial for my life. Keep perspective if possible. I actually try to have fun and connect with the interviewers moreso than trying to get every answer perfect. You either win and get the job or you learn and get better.

Hahaha. You're not interviewing the panel. I've sat on a lot of panels. These unique, clever, or testing questions are just so fucking annoying.

An interview is a process for testing potential employees and how they react under pressure. Not the reverse. Sure, do your research of the company/organisation but do that in your own time, not mine. Our interview times range from 20 to 30 minutes and then a 10 minute break in between to share an initial assessment of the candidate. If the candidate is eating into the 10 minutes it just pisses off the panel.

When I'm being interviewed and I'm asked if I have any questions, I reply 'no questions as I am familiar with the role and company. I've sat on quite a few recruitment panels so I know how busy you all are, but I'd just like to thank you for the opportunity you have given me today. Thank you'. Smile at each panel member and leave.

The rest of your advice is good.