Interview experiences/ advice

[Kung Fu Kowboy]

yes we can kill @Slobodan, good idea.

You Could Eat?

 

[lsa]

You Could Eat?

I feel a little peckish

 

[Kung Fu Kowboy]

I feel a little peckish

Some Prime Rib does sound tasty

 

[lsa]

Some Prime Rib does sound tasty

Now you mention it.

 

[johnsmithjohnson]

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.

I don't know where you work. If it's retail or warehouses they already decided and you are a quota filler. Use it to show who you are.
If it's industry you might have a shot and they don't want to move managers around.
Retail is exceptionally bad about fake interviews and quotas. If it's retail they've already decided weeks ago and this is just a show

 

[Kung Fu Kowboy]

Now you mention it.

Add a House Salad with Extra Ranch... and it'll be nap time

 

[lsa]

Add a House Salad with Extra Ranch... and it'll be nap time

is the house salad with french fries and a side of bacon?

 

[Kung Fu Kowboy]

is the house salad with french fries and a side of bacon?

Yes. Yes it is.

 

[Fedorgasm]

I don't know where you work. If it's retail or warehouses they already decided and you are a quota filler. Use it to show who you are.
If it's industry you might have a shot and they don't want to move managers around.
Retail is exceptionally bad about fake interviews and quotas. If it's retail they've already decided weeks ago and this is just a show

It's possible that they already decided and he's the one they want. Because they put that education stuff that's highly preferred in the job posting, knowing that the existing supervisors don't have it.

I do that shit all the time when I hire internally.

 

[llperez22]

This will largely depend on the attitude of the interviewer, but the bold doesn't do shit for me as an interviewer. My #1 pet peeve in an interview is a 30+ year old talking about their college credentials from 10 years ago as their biggest selling point. If that's more important than what they did the last 10 years, they fucked up. Without more details it is hard to say what strategy that you should have, but it seems you are lacking a bit of confidence going into this. Do you have any volunteer experience where you sit on boards? I'd highly recommend that if sitting in front of a board intimidates you.

sounds like you have some experience with interviews, Thanks for your reply. I agree that education should not trump experience, although most of my education/license/ certs are quite recent and are things that the other applicants are currently working on but have not yet achieved so its not like im just leaning on the past. With that said, I am in fact lacking confidence. You are spot on with that. I guess that is what Im kinda seeking as I prepare for this interview. Education doesnt earn you respect from the guys on the ground doing the work. Being in the trenches and leading people trumps an education. Im trying to balance being honest and humble with also coming across as someone who is confident that they can do the job. I hear interviewers want confidence, but they also want self awareness. Someone who realizes their own weaknesses is easier to train than someone who doesnt realize they have weaknesses.

 

[Fedorgasm]

This is a leadership role so you need to demonstrate that you're passionate about becoming a leader, and you look forward to learning everything you can. Read a book on leadership, maybe a couple if you have time, and mention it in the interview.

You don't want to appear like you're just applying because you want the money. Your attitude is that the money will be nice but you're really interested in learning, growing, and contributing more than you can in your current role.

I think you probably are a long shot, because it's very hard to leapfrog the people who are already above you. Unless they intentionally put that education preference in the job posting because they know those 3 don't have it and they want to have a reason to eliminate them from contention.

Even if you don't get this job, you might impress them enough that it could help you get one of the current supervisors jobs if they get picked to move up.

 

[johnsmithjohnson]

It's possible that they already decided and he's the one they want. Because they put that education stuff that's highly preferred in the job posting, knowing that the existing supervisors don't have it.

I do that shit all the time when I hire internally.

Could be. I don't know where he works. If it's a place like home Depot that's bad news

 

[llperez22]

This is a leadership role so you need to demonstrate that you're passionate about becoming a leader, and you look forward to learning everything you can. Read a book on leadership, maybe a couple if you have time, and mention it in the interview.

You don't want to appear like you're just applying because you want the money. Your attitude is that the money will be nice but you're really interested in learning, growing, and contributing more than you can in your current role.

I think you probably are a long shot, because it's very hard to leapfrog the people who are already above you. Unless they intentionally put that education preference in the job posting because they know those 3 don't have it and they want to have a reason to eliminate them from contention.

Even if you don't get this job, you might impress them enough that it could help you get one of the current supervisors jobs if they get picked to move up.

thanks for your feedback. I am absolutely taking into consideration that even if I dont get the job, this is an opportunity to learn from the interview process and show management my desire to climb the ladder which could lead to being promoted to a supervisory role down the road.

 

[llperez22]

I don't know where you work. If it's retail or warehouses they already decided and you are a quota filler. Use it to show who you are.
If it's industry you might have a shot and they don't want to move managers around.
Retail is exceptionally bad about fake interviews and quotas. If it's retail they've already decided weeks ago and this is just a show

I have a strong expectation that they already know who they want. But you took the words right out of my mouth, I am going to use this to show them who I am.

 

[Oblivian]

sounds like you have some experience with interviews, Thanks for your reply. I agree that education should not trump experience, although most of my education/license/ certs are quite recent and are things that the other applicants are currently working on but have not yet achieved so its not like im just leaning on the past. With that said, I am in fact lacking confidence. You are spot on with that. I guess that is what Im kinda seeking as I prepare for this interview. Education doesnt earn you respect from the guys on the ground doing the work. Being in the trenches and leading people trumps an education. Im trying to balance being honest and humble with also coming across as someone who is confident that they can do the job. I hear interviewers want confidence, but they also want self awareness. Someone who realizes their own weaknesses is easier to train than someone who doesnt realize they have weaknesses.

Bottom line is that I'm always looking for a match. I'm certainly never selling the position to the applicant. I'm bringing up the rough shit we have to deal with and seeing how they react to that. I think that's why my most recent hire worked out. She managed logistics for a wholesale factory and dealt with problems everyday. Although it has zero relevance to our type of problems, it is problems nonetheless. Honestly, I think applicants overthink interviews too much. If you have to go in there with a gameplan to be someone you are not, it's not going to be good long term anyways. Take the pressure off of yourself and just be you.

 

[Tito Tapped]

You want to be loose and relaxed but talkative. 4 shots of vodka is the perfect balance. But they shouldn't smell it on your breath so you gotta butt chug that shit in the bathroom about a hour before you're up.

 

[William Huggins]

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

Why not both?

 

[ricc505]

There's a fine line between confident and cocky/delusional. I've seen kids fresh out of school acting like they're the shit, but I know for a fact, they won't know shit and will screw up repeatedly and be unable to contribute signficantly from the start.

They say don't bring notes, memorize shit, but you bring your notes and hit all your outline points. That'll show you are prepared and would be prepared when doing the job.

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

 

[lsa]

You want to be loose and relaxed but talkative. 4 shots of vodka is the perfect balance. But they shouldn't smell it on your breath so you gotta butt chug that shit in the bathroom about a hour before you're up.

this guy fucks

 

[llperez22]

I used to be really awful at interviews, but having gone through a hundred of them, I am better now but no means am I excellent at it. It's all about highlighting what you have done for recent employers, and translating that to what you can do for the position your going for, emphasizing the skills you have for the role.

I work in tech and want to transition to a less technical or coding based job to a more supervisory or partner engagement type of role. Good thing I have experience in the admin side aside from the technical stuff.

I used to tend to be very tense in my interviews. I noticed interviewers would be more receptive if I were just having a casual conversation and not overexplaining things.

thanks for feedback. I have read that interviewees need to treat interviews like a conversation and not be too uptight like you mentioned. I also need to focus on emphasizing how my past experiences can relate to the job Im applying for. Ive heard that the worst thing you can say is "i dont have experience with that". You need to find a way to incorporate your experiences into the conversation, find a way to say youve done something related to the question at hand.