Interviews

[Petro-Sooner]

Going in for my second round of interviews. Wish me luck.

[Viking Kitten]

Hope you make it to the Sweet 16!

[StoopTroup]

Now that Duke is gone...

I have Petro winning the whole thing.

Good Luck ! ! !

[springs sooner]

In my best Dick Vitale voice - Petro - this years Cinderella story baby

[Petro-Sooner]

It went well. Found a company I can really like and I think they like me. All this without a masters. SUCK IT majors!!!

[royalfan5]

It went well. Found a company I can really like and I think they like me. All this without a masters. SUCK IT majors!!!
You're gonna be ****ed when they harness cold fusion though.


Seriously though, way to go.

[1stTimeCaller]

CONGRATUMALATIONS YOU!

[Okla-homey]

Congrats. Now, in my attempts to be helpful, here is a question that interviewers just love these days:

We think you are obviously very qualified. Your resume is quite impressive. Now, with that being said, we all have weaknesses or areas we need to work on. What's yours?

Forewarned is forearmed. Good luck and knock 'em dead you "greasy-Big Oil cog-in-the-diabolical-machine-that-is-screwing-the-little-guy-who-is-just struggling-to-keep-the-mini-van-full-and-causing-Global-Warming" you.:D

[Rogue]

I use "Performance Based Interviews" also called "behavioral interviewing".
Different animal altogether, but the results are worth it.

[1stTimeCaller]

I use "Performance Based Interviews" also called "behavioral interviewing".
Different animal altogether, but the results are worth it.
never heard of those. how do they work?

[Rogue]

In a nutshell "past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior."
And in most positions there are certain elements that are more important than others. In some jobs, critical thinking and quick decision making are important. In others, working well with teams is essential. Sometimes, technical skills are the most important factor to consider.

So, instead of asking hypothetical questions such as "Do you work well with teams?" I'd ask you to "Tell me about the last team with which you worked. Tell me your role and specific contributions, what challenges the team faced, and one of your biggest accomplishments together." Or, "tell me about a time you worked with a team where there were significant conflicts. Tell me who was involved, how you responded, and what were the outcomes. Be specific" Then I'd ask who could confirm things you tell me that about if I want to know more about them.

I usually ask 7 or 8 good questions, plan for about 45 minutes per interview, and check the hell out of some references. I always have interview panels rather than 1:1 also. It is time and resource intensive up front, and well worth it IMO.

Other examples:
"Tell me about the most difficult dilemma you faced at your last job. Who was involved, what specifically did you do, and what was the outcome."

"Describe your most significant accomplishment in the past year. Tell us why it was significant, and what you did to make it happen. Did you receive recognition for your efforts?"

They really are more challenging interviews, especially if you aren't expecting this type of format. I've found that it works best if applicants expect it and are advised to "google" behavioral interviewing, arrive about 20 minutes before the interview and are given a list of the questions to review, make notes, etc., and are redirected to give specific examples when they (almost inevitably) attempt to give vague or general examples such as "what I would usually do in that situation is..."

[Rogue]

Some related searches and questions:

http://www.quintcareers.com/sample_behavioral.html

http://www.career.vt.edu/JOBSEARC/interview/Behavioral.htm

http://www.careerfair.com/tips/behavioralinter.asp

[soonerboomer93]

I had to do behavioral interviewing in my last job. You get some good suprises because people just aren't prepared for them (though we did warn them at the start that we expected them to relay past experiences). We had maybe 8 preliminary questions and then another 10ish secondary questions if we didn't eliminate after the first 8. There were some people I eliminated based on just 1 answer. I think my hire rate was only like 30% or so.

[Rogue]

I'm a believer in this process although one down side is that it tends to 'weed out' those folks who get real anxious doing interviews but might make a very good candidate otherwise. When done properly though, it has not yet resulted in me hiring someone who was the succ.

[soonerboomer93]

it actually helped me weed out many people who on paper and in initial questions appeared to be a good candidate. Alot of times, I would initially hit a question, rephrase it and they still didn't have much of a response that was a pretty big clue to me. I would later go back to that question, rephrasing it again and get an answer.

[Okla-homey]

Admiral Hyman Rickover, father of our nuclear submarine fleet and the nuclear Navy generally, used to personally interview every officer applicant for admission to nuclear service. His interviews are the stuff of Navy legend to this day. I'm old enough to have known a few guys who interviewed with him.

His favorite tricks involved checking out people's reaction to unexpected stuff.

Examples: During the interview, he would eat roasted peanuts out of the shell, then, as he ate them, he'd pass th empty shells across his desk to the hands of the interviewee to observe how he reacted. The ones who kept responding to his questions while promptly dropping them into the wastebasket by his seat without making a fuss were fine. The one's who attempted to hold onto them, and/or became distracted ended up not getting the gig. Some guys apparently even tried to stuff the shells into their coat pockets instead of using the wastebasket at their side. Not sure what that said about them, but Rickover didn't like that response either.

Also, another favorite trick was to ask the interviewee, mid-interview, to please open a particular one of the office windows because the admiral felt "the office was a bit stuffy and it was a nice day outside." When the interviewee tried to open the window, he discovered he couldn't b/c the sash was secretly nailed shut. He would usually add, at this point, "what's your trouble? That window worked fine yesterday." The ones who became flummoxed didn't get the gig. The ones who ended up telling him, "Admiral, this window simply won't open." and didn't get freaked-out because they failed to open the window were fine.

Rickover wanted guys who could quickly assess a situation and adapt without losing focus or panicking. Important qualities in a nuclear submariner no doubt.

[Rogue]

I've read a few accounts of Rickover's interviews. A couple different accounts of Jimmy Carter's interview with him. Most suggest a man that made others squirm in order to 1) observe their reactions and 2) enjoy their squirming. 1 is important, 2 is pathology.

[picasso]

It went well. Found a company I can really like and I think they like me. All this without a masters. SUCK IT majors!!!
http://www.revolvermagazine.nl/images/heibel-borat-1838.jpg
"I like you, you like a me?"

[Cam]

We call it competency based interviewing. There are over 100 questions broken down into 20 separate competencies and each interviewer is assigned on basic competency and must ask two questions from the pre-determined list. After the mandatory questions, the rest of the interview is can be what ever the interviewer wants it to be.

I kind of like the peanut shell example. May have to use that.

In a nutshell "past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior."
And in most positions there are certain elements that are more important than others. In some jobs, critical thinking and quick decision making are important. In others, working well with teams is essential. Sometimes, technical skills are the most important factor to consider.

So, instead of asking hypothetical questions such as "Do you work well with teams?" I'd ask you to "Tell me about the last team with which you worked. Tell me your role and specific contributions, what challenges the team faced, and one of your biggest accomplishments together." Or, "tell me about a time you worked with a team where there were significant conflicts. Tell me who was involved, how you responded, and what were the outcomes. Be specific" Then I'd ask who could confirm things you tell me that about if I want to know more about them.

I usually ask 7 or 8 good questions, plan for about 45 minutes per interview, and check the hell out of some references. I always have interview panels rather than 1:1 also. It is time and resource intensive up front, and well worth it IMO.

Other examples:
"Tell me about the most difficult dilemma you faced at your last job. Who was involved, what specifically did you do, and what was the outcome."

"Describe your most significant accomplishment in the past year. Tell us why it was significant, and what you did to make it happen. Did you receive recognition for your efforts?"

They really are more challenging interviews, especially if you aren't expecting this type of format. I've found that it works best if applicants expect it and are advised to "google" behavioral interviewing, arrive about 20 minutes before the interview and are given a list of the questions to review, make notes, etc., and are redirected to give specific examples when they (almost inevitably) attempt to give vague or general examples such as "what I would usually do in that situation is..."