Preparing for Employment and Interviews

A request for evidence

Almost everybody prepares for an interview as though it were a test of whether they are impressive. That produces rehearsed answers full of adjectives, and it is the reason so many interviews feel like a performance that went nowhere. An interview is not a test of what you are like. It is a request for evidence. Nearly every question is a disguised version of the same one: show me a time. And the difference between the two kinds of answer is enormous. "I am a good team player" is an assertion. Everybody in the queue outside can say it, nobody can check it, and it tells an interviewer nothing. "When our group lost a member two days before the deadline, I redivided the work and took the part nobody wanted" is evidence. It could only be said by the person it happened to. So carry one question through this module: could I name the actual occasion, or am I describing myself? How an employer runs a recruitment process from their side is a different topic; this is the candidate side of the same table.

Five words used exactly

The first two are the pair the whole module turns on, and the last is the one most people skip entirely.

Two answers an interviewer can weigh

Five answers to the question: tell me about a time you worked well with other people. Tap the TWO that give evidence rather than a description.

• I am a friendly person and I get on with everybody
• At the cafe, two of us were meant to cover a Saturday and one called in sick, so I rang round and swapped my Sunday to cover it
• I have always been a team player and I enjoy working as part of a group
• I look after my younger brother after school, so we worked out a routine where he does his reading while I cook
• I have strong communication skills and I am very reliable

Two ways to spend an evening

Two people have an interview tomorrow. One spends the evening writing and memorising answers to the ten questions they think will come up. The other writes down six things that actually happened to them in the last year, in detail. Who has prepared better, and why?

• The second, because the questions cannot be predicted but the occasions cannot change, and one occasion can be turned to answer several different questions
• The first, because being word-perfect on the likely questions is the safest preparation
• They are equally well prepared, since both have done an evening of work
• Neither, because interviews cannot be prepared for

What you say, and what you can show

Interviewers are not being difficult when they push for detail. The left column genuinely gives them nothing to work with, however true it is.

Five questions, five different things being asked

How to prepare, in order

Somebody has an interview in a week. Put the preparation in a sensible order.

• Read what the job actually involves, line by line
• Find out something real about the organisation and what it does
• Write down six occasions from your own life, in detail, whatever they came from
• Match each occasion to the parts of the job it shows you could do
• Have somebody ask you questions you have not seen, out loud
• Write down which question caught you out and what you would say instead

Three things worth knowing

Lead with the occasion, not the adjective. If you find yourself saying you are hardworking, stop and say when. The adjective is what the interviewer will conclude for themselves, and it counts for far more when they got there on their own. Say what you learned, especially about the things that went badly. An occasion where something went wrong and you can say what you would do differently is stronger than one where everything worked. It is also much rarer, because most people hide those. ⭐ And your evidence does not have to come from a workplace. A part-time job counts. So does looking after a younger sibling, running a club, keeping a team going, finishing a project when a group fell apart, or sorting out a falling-out between friends. Everybody has six occasions. Nobody needs a work placement, a family contact or anything that costs money to have them, and an interviewer who is any good is listening for what you did rather than where you happened to be standing.

Would an interviewer be able to weigh it

For each answer, decide what it gives the interviewer. Three lives.

The reference for the flat

Somebody applying to rent a flat needs a reference. Two people offer to write one, and both mean well. The first writes that the applicant is a lovely person, very trustworthy, and would make an excellent tenant. Warm, generous, and completely useless to the person reading it, who has twelve of these and no way to tell them apart. The second writes that the applicant rented their spare room for two years, paid on the first of every month without once being reminded, and left the room cleaner than they found it. Not a single compliment in it. It is the one that gets the flat. ⭐ And notice what the second letter did NOT do. It never claimed the person was trustworthy. It described two years of behaviour and let the reader arrive at that on their own, which is exactly why they believed it.

What would actually improve the answer

Somebody answers "tell me about a time you solved a problem" with: "I am good at solving problems and I stay calm under pressure." Select every change that would genuinely improve it.

• Naming one specific occasion and when it happened
• Saying what they personally did, rather than what the group did
• Saying how it turned out and what they took from it
• Adding two more qualities they have
• Saying it more confidently

Finish the interview sentences

A claim about what sort of person you are, with nothing attached, is an _____, and an interviewer cannot weigh it because anybody could say it. A specific occasion that actually happened, with enough detail that it could only be yours, is _____. How well what you can show matches what the job actually needs is your _____, which is why reading the job description matters before anything else. Something you can do that would be useful in work you have never done is a _____ skill, and it can be learned anywhere at all rather than only in a workplace. Preparation is not rehearsing answers but collecting _____ from your own life, because the questions cannot be predicted and those cannot change. Afterwards, naming the question that caught you out and what you would say instead is _____.

Build the answer

The question is: tell me about a time you had to deal with something unexpected. Assemble the answer that would earn most.

One application, four decisions

Somebody is applying for their first paid job, at a local business. Each stage sets out where they are and hands you the decision.

• They have no paid work experience at all and are about to write that they have none. Decide.
• They have written a good application and are about to send exactly the same one to eleven other places. Decide.
• In a mock interview they are asked about a weakness and say they work too hard and care too much. Decide what to tell them.
• The interview is over and they think it went badly. Decide what to do this evening.

Prepare for an interview

Imagine you have an interview next week for a part-time job of your choosing. Explain how you would prepare, and why preparing that way works better than memorising answers.

• Say what the job is, and one thing you would find out about it before the interview
• Describe TWO occasions from your own life you would take with you, and say what each one shows
• Explain why an occasion is worth more to an interviewer than saying what you are like
• Say what you would do about the question asking for a weakness
• Explain what you would write down afterwards, and why the same evening rather than later
• Finish by explaining why somebody with no paid work experience is not starting from nothing