[High]

Hi Everybody

OH got a work interview!!!! :clap They're going to phone him (we're still in the UK) BUT we have no idea what to expect!!! :eek:

Has anybody been through this? What kind of questions do they ask?

Please help!

[Avalon]

Can you tell us what type of job its for? It will make a difference.

[High]

Of course- sorry!

I think I've lost my mind - we're flying in 3 weeks and all the packing and organising is driving me insane! :o

He's in IT, helpdesk support.

[diforsyth]

They will ask exactly the same questions as they would in a face to face interview. The biggest advantage of a phone interview is they can't be influenced by body language, it goes purely on the answers. The slight delay on the phone call also gives a fraction more thinking time to compose an answer.

Best of luck.

[StevieD]

Yeah, very easy going I found. It is easier than a face to face purely because you are in your own domain and the delay does allow that extra thinking time.

Good luck to your OH!!

Steve :nice1

[High]

Thanks everyone!

So, do they ask competency based questions? Like "What are your strong points" or "Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a difficult colleague"? I hate those!

[diforsyth]

So, do they ask competency based questions? Like "What are your strong points" or "Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a difficult colleague"? I hate those!
They will most definately ask these types of questions, they are designed to assess your character and your potential ability to integrate with a new team. Prior to the interview sit down and think about the questions. Your strengths are your natural traits - determination, thorough, helpful, polite, problem solving etc - you don't really need to give examples for all of them because they can be displays e.g polite.

A difficult colleague is the classic question. Every situation is different and every individual will act differetly. Ask for a specific example and just answer it truthfully. Some people hate confrontation and would need to refer to a 3 party whilst others would just steam in and have it out with them on the floor.

Just remember, the interviewer is not out to catch you out, just to be sure that you are honest.

Good luck.

[sizzlingbadger]

They may also ask for a techinical interview as well, to gain your level of knowledge.

Be aware that if your OH does get offered the job it may be on a reduced salary. My OH had a job offer from a well known company in Wellington but the salary was reduced by at least $10k because they hadn't seen him in person.

Just make sure you relax and don't pretend to know stuff when you don't. My OH's technical interviewer was really impressed when he couldn't answer stuff properly, he just said he'd never worked with whatever before. His interviewer said it's amazing the number of people he had interviewed that tried to blag their way through and failed because they weren't honest in not knowing certain stuff. As the interviewer said you can't know everything and it was a test to gain what level you are at.

Good Luck hope it all goes well :nice1

[StevieD]

Yup have to concur with that, don't try and bluff your way through, not worth it, if you don't know it, admit it!

I going for a job which I do not have any formal experience in, but I do have more than enough experience to cope. They recognise this and are still very interested in me for the position. Just got to shift this bloomin house now !!

[sidabrine]

I had a few job interviews over the phone in NZ and the first one took me by surprise: all the questions were "can you give us an example of how you dealt with a...?" It seems that they have a check list of competencies that they have to go through and they ask for examples from the previous job experiences in relation to that list. This is so called "behavioral" job interview (correct me if I'm wrong).

And I was ready, of course, for the classical "what are your strengths and weaknesses?", "what can you do for us that others can't?". All the following interviews went much better, as I was ready for this type of questions. So try to think about the high points in your career and use those as examples to illustrate, for instance, "an example of having limited resources and dealing with various people to carry out a project successfully" :)

And be ready to "have you encountered diversity in your work and how did you use it for the benefit of the project/situation". Usually what they mean is that you're culturally sensitive and don't have issues with people of different cultures/races/religions. Have an example of that. There wasn't a single interview where they haven't asked that.

And good luck!