Preparing for Interviews
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
If Job Boards Don’t Work, What Does?
Sarah Johnston is a resume writer who recently shared her thoughts on LinkedIn about preparing for an interview.
She wqrote, “I’m going to let you in on a secret.
If you have an interview coming up, there is a good chance you have access to the hardest questions / or types of questions that you’ll be asked.
The job description is the road map for the opportunity. The hiring team is (or should be!) assessing their candidate pool based on the requirements in the JD.
Let’s look at a real job description. I was just on ZipRecruiter and found an assistant general counsel opportunity with Nu Skin. I went through the requirements and underlined the content that I thought was important to the role (simple term: OPP/opportunity pain point)
You want to look at each line and consider that they could turn it into a behavioral-based interview question.
For example, the third line of bullet point #1 states that the role will involve coordinating the use of outside legal counsel.
💡 Knowing this, it’s highly likely that a question will come up in the interview about managing outside counsel.
What would *𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭* in regards to outside legal counsel?
– Cost savings?
– Diversity/representation?
– When does it make sense to work with outside legal counsel?
If these are OPPs for this specific requirement, consider the questions that could come from this:
– Tell me about a time that you helped control costs or reduced outside counsel spend? How did you do it and what was the impact on the business?
– Was there a diversity value at your past employer? If so, did you make an impact on this?
Have you ever used a job description to help you ace an interview?
I added:
This was the job description that existed at the beginning of the search. How was it generated? Well, some are created when the General Counsel calls their HR person on a Friday afternoon at 4:30 and asks, “Do you have that job description we used to hire Juan for me? Yeah, he just gave notice and will be leaving in three weeks. Can you get that posted on our website, send it to the search firms and maybe post it a few places and see who you can get on my calendar for Tuesday or Wednesday.” No one has updated it for the current requirements. Yes, you start with the job description to prepare. You are correct about that. However, it is essential to here from the first few interviewers what the role really is before they start asking “Tell me about yourself” or “Walk me through your background,” or other lazy open-ended questions.
I’m Interviewing For a Job and Saw That It Has Been Re-Posted
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. His work involves career coaching, as well as executive job search coaching, job coaching, and interview coaching. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 2400 episodes.
Are you interested in 1:1 coaching, interview coaching, advice about networking more effectively, how to negotiate your offer or leadership coaching? People hire me to provide No BS career advice whether that is about a job search, hiring better, leadership, management or support with a workplace issue. Schedule a discovery call at my website, www.TheBigGameHunter.us
My courses are available on my website, www.TheBigGameHunter.us/courses The courses include ones about Informational Interviews, Interviewing, final interview preparation, salary negotiation mistakes to avoid, the top 10 questions to prepare for on any job interview, and starting a new job.
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