Digby Morgan - HR Resourcing - Candidate Services

The Interview
There are many types of interview from the classic "talk me through your CV" to more complex competency based interviews that involve situational behavioural questioning and psychometric testing. The primary objective however, of all interviews is to address the following questions:

Have you had the right experience?
Have you learnt from that experience?
Can you apply that experience in the future?
Will you fit into the team/organisation?

The interview is an opportunity to add colour to your CV through your personality and by presenting specific examples of work and projects that you have been involved in. Remember it is also a chance for you to look at a potential employer and see if they are right for you. The majority of interviewers are not professionally trained and will often be just as nervous as you are.

Preparation
Preparing for an interview is extremely important. It will increase your confidence and will demonstrate to the employer that you are professional and keen. Try to think of responses that will demonstrate your positive attributes. Examples of projects and situations are always useful.

Think about where your strongest skills lie. This is what sets you apart from the rest. Where have you been successful in the past? Outline what you did - and the results.
Showing enthusiasm to learn new skills is vital. Think about past occasions when you have actively taken on new skills and methods.
Problem-solving is a key area for employers, so prepare some anecdotes about problems you have encountered and overcome.
Interests or pastimes are important to a recruiter because they demonstrate your motivation, values and in some cases, your intelligence. Think about leisure activities that may have relevant attributes for your potential career. Don't be reluctant to talk about them if appropriate.
Prepare some questions in advance to ask at the end of the interview. Nine times out of ten you will be asked if you have questions for the interviewer. It can look bad if you don't have at least a couple.

Your questions
It's important to have a few questions to ask the interviewer at the end of the interview. Prepare in advance. Try to ask about things that will show your enthusiasm for the position. For example:

Ask them to expand on the details of the job
Ask what the team is currently working on
Ask what type of training is provided
Be careful with respect to questions about promotion. It's a minefield. You are better off asking an "oblique" question, such as, "How do you see the role developing?"
Ask if you can meet the team and look around
Ask why they are recruiting for this position - is it a new role or has someone left?
Avoid asking about working hours or terms and conditions - these are best asked by us

Research

Company

We will always brief you about the company and will provide an insight into the company culture. However, in order to make the best impression on your prospective employer you should also do your own research. Company websites are the best source of information. It's a good idea to keep an eye on the press for relevant information and speak to anybody you know in the organisation. Not only will this prove that you are enthusiastic and interested, it will help you to make sure the company is right for you.

Role

We will brief you on the responsibilities of the role but it is worth thinking about the role in advance of the meeting, analysing the job description and preparing to match your experience and skills to the requirements of the role.

Location

The last thing you need is to get lost on the way to your interview. Make sure you know exactly where you're going and how long it will take to get there. Write down the address, phone number and full name and job title of the person you will be meeting. Keep your consultant's phone number with you so that you can call if you are unexpectedly delayed.

Top Tips for Optimum Performance

Look your best. Always wear a formal business suit even if you know that the company's dress code is informal.
Ensure that you are up to date with developments in your field of expertise. For example, check that you are aware of new employment legislation.
Never be overly critical about former employers or organisations - it can come across as unprofessional and negative.
You are not just being judged on your skills and experience - the interviewer will also want to see how you might fit into the culture of the organisation. Be as open and friendly as possible so that the client can see what you would be like to work with on a day-to-day basis. You may be asked about your working style or your opinion on topical issues.
Never be overly familiar or too relaxed even if the interviewer adopts this style.
Sometimes examples of overcoming adversity on your own demonstrate more than a string of successes that you have only played a small part in.
It is a good idea to avoid using plural phrases such as "we" and "the team" as interviewers will feel you are hiding behind numbers.
Lastly - be prepared and be yourself!

Is your image helping or hijacking your career development?

You may have the capabilities, experience and exposure to go a long way at work, but if you don’t project the right image, then you won’t be going anywhere. Sarah Brummitt offers some practical advice on how creating a powerful image will support candidates to succeed with their career goals.

At the beginning of our working lives, our efforts may well be focused on paying off student debts, finding somewhere to live, getting to grips with our new boss, colleagues and working routine. Just when we thought studying was over for good, we find ourselves continuing our professional development in order to build strong, marketable business skills. We start to network, learn from our mistakes, and increase our commercial experience. The question is: is that enough if we want to get to the top? You might have thought so. However the reality is that if we don’t pay attention to our image at work – no matter how skilled and well networked a professional we are – a poor image can and will hold back our career development.

Seeing Is Believing
Like it or not, we are all influenced by what we see. On meeting someone for the first time we start to form impressions extremely quickly, based largely on what we observe. It can take up to twenty further interactions (a luxury not afforded in the interview process!) to change those first impressions. HR professionals as well as CEOs admit that they can be more influenced by ‘soft skills’, including image, in the recruitment process, than business or technical capabilities. If you want to succeed as a business leader in the long term, you need a combination of the right image, exposure and capabilities to deliver. A consistently professional image therefore plays a vital role in your success. If you’ve not yet done so, now is the time to give your image the attention and significance it deserves.

Dress To Impress Or Depress?
Image management is simply using your appearance to positively influence others. The challenge before us is to create the appropriate impression for a wide range of professional situations. For example, when might we want to look more authoritative? When might we want to look more approachable? And how would these different situations affect how we manage our appearance? Let’s look at some practical business examples.

If you were attending an interview, delivering a presentation to a business conference or pitching to a prospective client, you would probably want to appear more authoritative, effective and persuasive in order to engender respect and maintain control of the situation. The look here is ‘formal business’ and to achieve it, select a dark suit or separates (black, grey or navy) and combine it with a white or pale pastel shirt or top for ladies. Why? Because if you create a sharp contrast of colour through clothing you create what humans perceive to be a strong, bold and authoritative appearance. Consider the police or legal professions for example, who routinely wear black and white at work.

If you were having some challenging performance reviews with your team, or needed to have a difficult conversation with a colleague, then you may well want to appear more approachable so that others could be encouraged to contribute and engage with you, without fear of intimidation. To achieve this through your image, select lighter or softer tones in order to create less contrast. The result is friendlier and less intimidating.

In addition to having the flexibility to dress appropriately for different business situations, it is also important to align your clothes to the culture and values of your organisation. In a young, dynamic business you’ll probably need to dress more casually and be more aware of the latest fashion trends. In a more traditional environment then a greater formality is typically the order of the day. If you can successfully match your image to the culture of your organisation, or the one you wish to join, then your career prospects are distinctly enhanced. Remember the maxim: “dress for the job you want – not the one you’ve got.”

Dress Code Confusion
No discussion of professional image as a component of your career development strategy would be complete without considering the tricky subject of dress code. Have you ever been under or over dressed in a business situation? Felt the need to apologise for what you were wearing? Or simply wished you’d worn something else instead? Dress codes vary widely between industries, professions and even within functions of an organisation. Our sartorial challenges have increased dramatically in recent years with the advent of business (or smart) casual. A wonderful oxymoron. The biggest challenge with business casual is that when asking professionals to describe it, they do so in terms such as “dress down”, “weekend clothes”, “no jacket or tie needed” and “I can wear jeans” etc. There’s rarely any adjectives used which describe business casual in terms that include “commanding respect”, “retaining credibility” or “remaining professional”. To explore this contentious area in full would require a lot more space than we have here, so let me offer some principles which should guide your choice of attire.

First and foremost your image at work should always be consistently appropriate. To gauge ‘appropriate’ accurately you should consider a number of factors (a) your audience and their expectations (b) the situation and the environment (e.g. an interview at the company’s head office vs. a team-building away day at a country hotel), (c) your objectives for the situation (d) your industry. If you’re not consistent in your approach to your choice of clothing, then you will project an inconsistent impression on others whom you are looking to influence. Unfortunately it is human behaviour for others to remember the occasion when we (a) didn’t have time to iron a shirt (b) wore a top or skirt that was too revealing (c) flashed white socks under trousers (d) laboured under the misapprehension that dungarees/flares/elbow patches/sandals with socks were back in fashion.

Sarah Brummitt is a qualified Image Consultant and runs her own training, executive coaching and image consultancy business. She can be contacted at Sarah.Brummitt@btinternet.com