“WHAT ARE YOU like to work with, Mr. Jones?” Learn the techniques interviewers use to find out if you are manageable, if you will fit in, and most important, whether you are the type of person who is able to work toward common goals and with whom others like to work.
If you are offered the job and accept, you will be working with the other employees of the company, quite possibly including the interviewer, for fifty weeks of the year, so the interviewer really wants to know if you are going to reduce his life expectancy. Every employer wants to know whether you will fit in with the rest of the staff, whether you are a team player, and most of all, whether you are manageable. Fortunately, you have carefully thought through the behaviors of professional success and failure; and as a result, you have a clear idea of who you are and how you behave professionally. This self-awareness will help you handle the questions addressed in this chapter.
A big part of your job as that small but important cog in the moneymaking machinery of the corporation is to mesh with the other cogs in your department (and beyond) to support those departmental deliverables that are beyond the scope of individual effort. Once your ability and suitability are considered up to scratch, the final and most significant overall consideration of hiring managers is your willingness to take direction and work for the common good of the group. Here are the questions your interviewers will ask to assess this.
The interviewer wants to know whether you are open-minded and can be a team player. Can you follow directions, or are you a difficult, high-maintenance employee? The employer hopes that you are a low-maintenance professional who is motivated to ask clarifying questions about a project before beginning and who then gets on with the job at hand, coming back with requests for direction as circumstances dictate.
This particular question can also be defined as “How do you accept criticism?” Your answer should cover both points: “I take direction well and recognize that it can come in two varieties, depending on the circumstances. There is carefully explained direction, when my boss has time to lay things out for me in detail; then there are those times when, as a result of deadlines and other pressures, the direction might be brief and to the point. While I have seen some people get upset with that, personally I’ve always understood that there are probably other considerations I am not aware of. As such, I take the direction and get on with the job without taking offense, so my boss can get on with his job.”
It is a rare boss who wants his livelihood taken away. On my own very first job interview, my future boss said, “Mr. Yate, it has been a pleasure to meet you. However, until you walked in my door, I wasn’t out on the street looking for a new job.” You see, I had this case of wanting to start at the top rather than actually work my way up.
The interviewer wants to know if you are the type of person who will be confrontational or undermining. He also seeks to determine how goal oriented and motivated you are in your work life—so you may also want to comment on your sense of direction. But while ambition is admired, it is admired most by those far enough above the fray not to be threatened. Be cautiously optimistic; perhaps, “Well, if my boss were promoted over the coming years, I would hope to have made a consistent enough contribution to warrant his consideration. It’s not that I am looking to take anyone’s job; rather, I am looking for a manager who will help me develop my capabilities.”
Be short and sweet and shut up. People who complain about their employers are recognized as the people who cause the most disruption in a department. This question is the interviewer’s way of finding out if you’re going to cause trouble. “I liked her as a person, respected her professionally, and appreciated her guidance.” The question is often followed by one that tries to validate your answer.
This is a doubly dangerous question because you are being asked to describe how you handle criticism, and to detail inadequacies. If you have the choice, describe a poor idea that was criticized, not poor work.
Put your example in the past, make it small, and show what you learned from the experience. Show that you go through these steps to become maximally productive:
• Listen to understand
• Confirm the understanding
• Ask for guidance
• Confirm the desired outcome
• Show a satisfactory resolution
• Address what you learned and how the experience helped you grow
You might end with something that captures the essence of your example: “I listened carefully and asked a couple of questions for clarification. Then I fed back what I heard to make sure the facts were straight. I asked for advice, we bounced some ideas around, then I came back later and represented the idea in a more viable format. My supervisor’s input was invaluable.” Those are the steps you go through to become maximally productive in these situations.
You don’t have to talk about respect for others, the need for diversity, or how it took you ten years to realize Jane was a different sex and Charley a different color, because that is not what this question is about. If you respect others, you will demonstrate this by explaining to your interviewer how you work in a team environment (because this is, in reality, a “team player” question) and how you solicit and accept input, ideas, and viewpoints from a variety of sources. Give a quick, honest illustration of working productively with a person who is different from you in terms of personality or in terms of the demands his job places on him—and how you respond to maximize productivity and a harmonious work environment.
This question is meant to plumb the depths of your self-esteem and self-awareness. If you answer ten, you run the risk of portraying yourself as insufferable. On the other hand, if you say less than seven, you might as well get up and leave. Your best bet is probably an eight. Say that you always give of your best, which includes ongoing personal and professional development, so that in doing so you always increase your skills and therefore always see room for improvement. It helps to give an example: “I just read a great book on time management called How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life, and found that a daily plan/do/review cycle is a really useful tool for staying on top of and prioritizing multiple projects.”
Some questions, such as this one, can seem so off-the-wall that you might start treating the interviewer as a confessor in no time flat. Your private phobias have nothing to do with your job, and revealing them can get you labeled as unbalanced. It is best to confine your answer to the sensible worries of a conscientious professional. “I worry about deadlines, staff turnover, tardiness, back-up plans for when the computer crashes, or that one of my auditors will burn out or defect to the competition—just the normal stuff. It goes with the territory, so I don’t let it get me down.” Whatever you identify as a worry might then be the subject of a follow-up question, so think through the worry you state and how you cope with it.
The question probes whether you are a doer, someone who will look for ways to increase revenue and/or productivity—the kind of person who makes a difference for good with her presence every day. Be sure, however, that your example of initiative does not show a disregard for company systems and procedures.
The story you tell shows you stepping up to do a necessary job others didn’t see as important or didn’t want to do. For example, “Every quarter, I sit down with my boss and find out the dates of all his meetings for the next six months. I immediately make the hotel and flight arrangements, and attend to all the web-hosting details. I ask myself questions like, ‘If the agenda for the July meeting needs to reach the attendees at least six weeks before the meeting, when must it be finished by?’ Then I come up with a deadline. I do that for all the major activities for all the meetings. I put the deadlines in his smartphone and in mine two weeks earlier to ensure everything is done on time. My boss is the best-organized, most relaxed manager in the company.”
What matters here is less the specific content of your answer than the tone. Suggest what you know to be true and what your interviewer will appreciate as a breath of fresh air: Most people want to do a good job. Management should create an environment where striving for excellence is encouraged and where those retired on the job have the opportunity to change their ways or leave. Everyone would benefit.
The trick is to answer the question without showing yourself in anything but a flattering light. “I don’t spend my time thinking about how I am better than my colleagues, because that would be detrimental to our working together as a team. I believe, however, some of the qualities that make me an outstanding ________________ are . . . ” From here, go on to itemize specific technical skills of your profession in which you are particularly strong, and a couple of the transferable skills that apply to doing these aspects of your work so well.
It is tremendously important that you show you can remain calm. Most of us have seen a colleague lose his cool on occasion—not a pretty sight, and one that every sensible employer wants to avoid. This question comes up more and more often the higher up the corporate ladder you climb and the more frequent your contact with clients and the general public. To answer it, find something that angers conscientious workers. “I enjoy my work and believe in giving value to my employer. Dealing with clock watchers and people who regularly get sick on Mondays and Fridays really bothers me, but it’s not something that gets me angry.” An answer of this nature will help you much more than the kind given by one engineer who went on for some minutes about how he hated the small-mindedness of people who don’t like pet rabbits in the office.
You did not disagree.
The same goes for this one. No one admires a Monday-morning quarterback.
You could reply, though: “I have always had the highest respect for my supervisor. I have always been so busy learning from Mr. Jones that I don’t think he could have done a better job. He has really brought me to the point where I am ready for greater challenges. That’s why I’m here.”
If you and the interviewer are both nonsmokers, for example, and your boss isn’t, use it. Apart from that: “You know, I’ve never thought of our relationship in terms of like or dislike. I’ve always thought our role was to get along together and get the job done.”
This is one very sound reason to ask for written evaluations of your work before leaving a company. Some performance-review procedures include a written evaluation of your performance—perhaps your company employs it. If you work for a company that asks you to sign your formal review, you are quite entitled to request a copy of it. You should also ask for a letter of recommendation whenever you leave a job; you have nothing to lose. If you don’t have written references, perhaps say: “My supervisor always rated my job performance well. In fact, I was always rated as being capable of accepting further responsibilities. The problem was there was nothing available in the company—that’s why I’m here.”
If your research has been done properly, you can quote verbal appraisals of your performance from prior jobs. “In fact, my boss recently said that I was the most organized engineer in the work group, because . . . ”
The interviewer could be envisioning you as an employee. Encourage the thought by describing a supportive manager who outlined projects and their expected results at the start, noted deadlines, shared her greater experience and perspectives, and told you about potential problems. She always shared the benefit of experience. You agreed on a plan of attack for the work, and how and when you needed to give status updates along the way. Your boss was always available for advice and taught you to take the work seriously but encouraged a collegial team atmosphere.
The interviewer is looking for your involvement in groups, as a signal that you know how to get along with others and pull together as a team.
“I really enjoy most team sports. I don’t get a lot of time to indulge myself, but I am a regular member of my company’s softball team.” A recently completed survey of middle- and upper-management personnel found that the executives who listed group sports/activities among their extracurricular activities made an average of $3,000 per year more than their sedentary colleagues. Don’t you just love baseball suddenly?
Apart from team sports, endurance sports are seen as a sign of determination: Swimming, running, and cycling are all okay. Games of skill (bridge, chess, and the like) demonstrate analytical skills; despite the recent popularity of poker and recognition of it as a game of analytical, math, communication, and negotiation skills, I feel that mentioning poker should be avoided.
You know the answer to this one: It’s a brief recital of your transferable skills and professional values. You might say: “To be successful in my field? Drive, motivation, energy, confidence, determination, good communication, and analytical skills. Combined, of course, with the ability to work with others.” Your answer will be more powerful if you relate transferable skills and professional values to the prime needs of the job.
This question is usually used to determine whether you are a team player. Before answering, however, be sure you know whether the job requires you to work alone. Then answer appropriately. Perhaps: “I’m quite happy working alone when necessary. I don’t need much constant reassurance. But I prefer to work in a group—so much more gets achieved when people pull together.”
You are being asked to describe yourself as either a team player or a loner. Think for a moment about why the job exists in the first place: It is there to contribute to the bottom line in some way, and as such it has a specific role in the department to contribute toward that larger goal. Your department, in turn, has a similar, but larger, role in the company’s bottom line. Your ability to link your small role to that of the department’s larger responsibilities, and then to the overall success of the company, will demonstrate a developed professional awareness. Most departments depend on harmonious teamwork for their success, so describe yourself as a team player: “I perform my job in a way that helps others to do theirs in an efficient manner. Beyond the mechanics, we all have a responsibility to make the workplace a friendly and pleasant one, and that means everyone working for the common good and making the necessary personal sacrifices for it.”
This is a tricky question, especially because you probably have no idea what kind of work atmosphere exists in that particular office. The longer your answer, the greater your chances of saying the wrong thing, so keep it short and sweet. “One where the team has a genuine interest in its work and desire to turn out a good product/deliver a good service.”
If you can, state that you come from an environment where input is encouraged when it helps the team’s ability to get the job done efficiently. “If opinions are sought in a meeting, I will give mine, although I am careful to be aware of others’ feelings. I will never criticize a coworker or a superior in an open forum; besides, it is quite possible to disagree without being disagreeable. However, my last manager made it clear that she valued my opinion by asking for it. So, after a while, if there was something I felt strongly about, I would make an appointment to sit down and discuss it one-on-one.”
“I would make an appointment to see the supervisor and diplomatically explain that I felt uncomfortable in our relationship, that I felt he was not treating me as a professional colleague, and therefore that I might not be performing up to standard in some way—that I wanted to right matters and ask for his input as to what I must do to create a professional relationship. I would take responsibility for any communication problems that might exist and make it clear that, just as I took responsibility for the problem, I was also taking responsibility for the solution.”
Ouch! The way you answer depends a lot on the job offer you are chasing. If you are a recent graduate, you are expected to have high aspirations, so go for it. If you are already on the corporate ladder with some practical experience in the school of hard knocks, you might want to be a little cagier. Assuming you are up for (and want) a leadership position, you might try something like this: “I would be reluctant to regard anyone as a natural leader. Hiring, motivating, and disciplining other adults and at the same time molding them into a cohesive team involves a number of delicately tuned skills that no honest person can say they were born with. Leadership requires first of all the desire; then it is a lifetime learning process. Anyone who reckons they have it all under control and have nothing more to learn isn’t doing the employer any favors.”
Of course, a little humility is also in order, because just about every leader in every company reports to someone, and there is a good chance that you are talking to just such a someone right now. So you might consider including something like, “No matter how well developed any individual’s leadership qualities, an integral part of leadership ability is the ability to take direction from your immediate boss, and also to seek the input of the people being supervised. The wise leader will always follow good advice and sound business judgment, wherever it comes from. I would say that the true leader in the modern business world must embrace both.” How can anyone disagree with that kind of wisdom?
What a crazy question, you mutter. It’s not. It is even more than a question—it is what I call a question shell. The question within the shell—in this instance, “Will you sacrifice the appointment or sacrifice your job?”—can be changed at will. This is a situational-interviewing technique, which poses an on-the-job problem to see how the prospective employee will respond. A Chicago company asks this question as part of its initial screening, and if you give the wrong answer, you never even get a face-to-face interview. So what is the right answer to this or any similar shell question?
Fortunately, once you understand the interviewing technique, it is quite easy to handle—all you have to do is turn the question around. “If I were the manager who had to schedule a really important meeting at the last moment, and someone on my staff chose to go to the doctor instead, how would I feel?”
It is unlikely that you would be an understanding manager unless the visit was for a triple bypass. To answer, you start with an evaluation of the importance of the problem and the responsibility of everyone to make some sacrifices for the organization, and finish with: “The first thing I would do is reschedule the appointment and save the doctor’s office inconvenience. Then I would immediately make sure I was properly prepared for the emergency meeting.”
As long as you don’t explain that you faked a dentist appointment to make the interview you should be all right. Beware of revealing anything that might make you appear at all underhanded. Best to make the answer short and sweet, and let the interviewer move on to richer areas of inquiry. Just explain that you had some vacation time due, or took a day off in lieu of overtime payments. “I had some vacation time, so I went to my boss and explained that I needed a couple of days off for some personal business and asked her what days would be most suitable. Although I plan to change jobs, I don’t in any way want to hurt my current employer in the process by being absent during a crunch.”
This question only crops up when you have enough years under your belt to be regarded as a tenured professional. The interviewer’s agenda is to examine your emotional maturity and how realistic you are about future professional growth.
Your answer requires self-awareness. While the desire to rule the world can be seen as motivation in young professionals, it may not be interpreted so positively coming from a tenured corporate soldier from whom more realism is expected.
Your answer should reflect a growing maturity as well as a desire to do a good job for its own sake and to make a contribution as part of the greater whole. Here’s an example you can use as a starting point in crafting your own:
“I guess in earlier years I was more ego-driven, with everything focused on becoming a star. Over the years I’ve come to realize that nothing happens with a team of one—we all have to function as part of a greater whole if we are to make meaningful contributions with our professional presence. Nowadays I take great pleasure in doing a job well, in seeing it come together as it should, and especially in seeing a group of professionals working together in their different roles to make it happen. I’ve discovered that the best way to stand out is to be a real team player and not worry about standing out.”
At times we can all react to adversity in pretty much the same way we did as kids, but that isn’t always productive, and it isn’t what an interviewer wants to hear. Here’s a way you can deal with setbacks in your professional life and wow your interviewer in the process:
“I pause for breath and reflection for as long as the situation allows—this can be a couple of minutes or overnight. I do this to analyze what went wrong and why. I’m also careful to look for the things that went right too. I’ll examine alternate approaches and, time allowing, I’ll get together with a peer or my boss and review the whole situation and my proposed new approaches.”
You can go on to explain that the next time you face the same kind of problem you’ll know what to avoid, what to do more of, and what other new approaches you can try.
You might consider finishing your answer with a statement about the beneficial effects of experiencing problems. “Over the years I’ve learned just as much from life’s problems as from its successes.”
Inherent in the question is a request for an example, in which you’ll demonstrate how critical thinking and leadership skills help you make the unpopular decisions, while teamwork and communication skills help make them palatable. Your answer needs to show that you’re not afraid to make unpopular decisions when they are in the best interests of your job or the department’s goals.
Simultaneously, stress your effort to make the decision workable for all parties, and finish by explaining how everyone subsequently accepted its necessity and got onboard.
Say that you are shoddy and never pay attention to the details and you’ll hear a whoosh as your job offer flies out the window.
Your answer obviously lies in the question. You pay attention to detail, your analytical approach to projects helps you identify all the component parts of a given job, and your multitasking skills ensure that you get the job done in a timely manner without anything falling through the cracks.
You need to show that even though you’re more than capable of taking initiative, you’re not a rogue missile. Explain that the first thing you’ll do will be to discuss the situation with your boss or—if time is tight and this isn’t possible—with peers. That’s exactly what the hiring manager wants to hear. Make clear that in developing any new approach/procedure/idea you’ll stick to the company’s established systems and procedures.
Tread warily, show you believe in yourself, and have both feet firmly planted on the ground. “That depends on a few criteria. Of course, I cannot expect promotions without the performance that marks me as deserving of promotion. I also need to join a company that has the growth necessary to provide the opportunity. I hope that my manager believes in promoting from within and will help me grow so that I will have the skills necessary to be considered for promotion when the opportunity comes along.”
If you are the only one doing a particular job in the company, or you are in management, you need to build another factor into your answer. “As a manager, I realize that part of my job is to have done my succession planning, and that I must have someone trained and ready to step into my shoes before I can expect to step up. That way, I play my part in preserving the chain of command.” To avoid being caught off-guard with queries about your having achieved that in your present job, you can finish with: “Just as I have done in my present job, where I have a couple of people capable of taking over the reins when I leave.”
Wow. What on earth does the interviewer mean by that question? You don’t know until you get her to elaborate. Ask, “What would you like me to tell you a story about?” To make any other response is to risk making a fool of yourself. Sometimes the question is asked to evaluate how analytical you are. People who answer the question without qualifying show they do not think things through carefully. The interviewer may also ask it to get a glimpse of the things you hold important. The answer you get to your request for clarification may give you direction, or it may not; but either way it demonstrates your critical thinking skills.
You need to have a story ready that portrays you in an appropriate light. If you speak of your personal life, tell a story that shows you like people, are engaged in life, and are determined. Do not discuss your love life. If the story you tell is about your professional life, make sure it shows you working productively as a member of a team on some worthwhile project that had problems but which came out okay in the end. Alternatively, tell stories that show you employing transferable skills and professional values in some subtle way.
You’ve learned that little gets achieved without teamwork and that there’s invariably sound thinking behind systems and procedures. To get to the root of problems, it’s better to talk less and listen more. Most of all, you’ve learned that you can either sit on the sidelines watching the hours go by or you can get involved and make a difference with your presence. You do the latter because you’re goal oriented, time goes quicker when you’re engaged, and besides, the relationships you build are with better people. You might finish with: “There are two general things I have learned from past jobs. First, if you are confused, ask—it’s better to ask a dumb question than make a dumb mistake. Second, it’s better to promise less and produce more than to make unrealistic forecasts.”
The question examines manageability and asks you to explain how you see your responsibilities as a team player, both taking direction and working for the overall success of your department. Your answer will define cooperation as doing your job in a way that enables your colleagues to do theirs with a minimum of disruption. It’s your desire to be part of something significant: Through hard work and good will, you help make the team something greater than the sum of its parts.
Another “team player” question with the awkward implication that you do have problems. Say, “I don’t have any.” But don’t leave it there.
“I don’t have any problems working with people from different backgrounds. In fact I find it energizing; with different backgrounds you get different life experiences and different ways of coming at problems. The opportunity to work with people different from yourself is golden.”
You are never harebrained in your business dealings, and you haven’t been harebrained in your personal life since graduation, right? The only safe examples to use are ones from your deep past that ultimately turned out well. One of the best, if it applies to you, is: “Well, I guess the time I bought my house. I had no idea what I was letting myself in for and didn’t pay enough attention to how much work the place would need. Still, there weren’t any big structural problems, though I had to put a lot of work into fixing it up the way I wanted. Yes, my first house—that was a real learning experience.” Not only can most people relate to this example, but it also gives you the opportunity to sell one or two of your very positive and endearing professional behaviors.
This is a two-part question that probes communication and self-confidence skills. The first part asks how you interact with superiors and motivate those working with and for you on the project. The second part is saying, “Tell me whom you regard as your peer group—help me categorize you.” To cover those bases, include the essence of this: “There are two types of people I would interact with on a project of this nature. First, there are those I would report to, who would bear the ultimate responsibility for the project’s success. With them, I would determine deadlines and a method for evaluating the success of the project. I would outline my approach, breaking the project down into component parts, getting approval on both the approach and the costs. I would keep my supervisors updated on a regular basis and seek input whenever needed. My supervisors would expect three things from me: the facts, an analysis of potential problems, and that I not be intimidated, as this would jeopardize the project’s success. I would comfortably satisfy those expectations.
“The other people to interact with on a project like this are those who work with and for me. With those people, I would outline the project and explain how a successful outcome will benefit the company. I would assign the component parts to those best suited to each, and arrange follow-up times to assure completion by deadline. My role here would be to facilitate, motivate, and bring the different personalities together to form a team.
“As for comfort level, I find this type of approach enables me to interact comfortably with all levels and types of people.”
This is a straightforward, two-part question. The first part probes your critical thinking skills. The second asks you to set yourself apart from the herd. Outline the root of the problem, its significance, and its negative impact on the department/company. The clearer you make the situation, the better. Having done so, explain your solution, its value to your employer, and how it was different from other approaches:
“My company has offices all around the country; I am responsible for seventy of them. My job is to visit each office on a regular basis and build market-penetration strategies with management, and to train and motivate the sales and customer service forces. When the recession hit, the need to service those offices was greater than ever, yet the traveling costs were getting prohibitive.
“Morale was an especially important factor: You can’t let outlying offices feel defeated. I reapportioned my budget and did the following: I dramatically increased telephone contact with the offices and instituted weekly sales-technique emails and monthly training webinars—how to prospect for new clients, how to negotiate difficult sales, and so forth. I increased management training, again using webinars and concentrating on how to run sales meetings, early termination of low producers, and so forth.
“While my colleagues complained about the drop in sales, mine increased, albeit by a modest 6 percent. After two quarters, the new media/coaching approach was officially adopted by the company.”
You have a choice of giving an example of either good or bad work habits. Give a good example, one that demonstrates your understanding of corporate goals and your organizational or critical thinking skills. If you have taken the time to develop the time management and organization skills that underlie multitasking abilities, you have a great illustrative example to use.
You could say: “Maximum productivity requires focus and demands organization and time management. I do my paperwork at the end of each day, when I review the day’s achievements; with this done, I plan for tomorrow, prioritizing all projected activities. When I come to work in the morning, I’m ready to get going without wasting time and sure that I will be spending my time and effort in the areas where it is most needed to deliver results. I try to schedule meetings right before lunch; people get to the point more quickly if it’s on their time. I feel this is an efficient and organized method of working.”
Every new hire is expected to become a viable part of the group, which means getting an understanding of the group and its individual members. Understanding that everyone likes to give advice is the key to your answer. You have found that the best way to understand and become part of a new team is to be open, friendly, ask lots of questions, and be helpful whenever you can. The answers to your questions give you needed insights into the ways of the job, department, and company, and they help you get to know the person.
You have nothing to lose by giving a positive answer. If you checked your references, as I recommended earlier, you can give details of what your best references will say. When you demonstrate how well you and your boss got along, the interviewer does not have to ask, “What do you dislike about your current manager?”
Every interview is a stress interview, but sometimes interviewers will ratchet up the stress level. You need to be ready, and that’s where we’re headed next.