Do you have an important interview soon? Is it about your absolute dream job? Then you have come to the right place: In the following, you will find part 3 of a 3-part crash course for the interview – how to prepare it and how to convince. A complete online training program – developed by the renowned application consultants Hesse / Schrader, exclusively for the career bible. We will show you what really matters in the interview, how you can convince your counterpart of your talents, strengths, and competencies in the long term and how you can prepare yourself for important questions in the interview. However, this is not a normal reading article, but a real online training program, including a few exercises. So please take your time. Let’s go.
How-to-set-the-course-for success
It’s almost done and you are perfectly prepared for your project. You have already learned a lot in the first two parts of the crash course. Therefore, at the end of this part, you should definitely read the summary and also take the short learning test, which shows you how well prepared you are for the interview. The third and last part is all about how you can save yourself from tricky situations in a job interview and still master the conversation.
Help in dealing with difficult situations
Let’s put it as it is: In an interview, things don’t always go smoothly – despite the best preparation. Questions can be unsettling, you have a blackout or say something stupid. Or you will be asked to provide information about termination or prolonged unemployment. Everything is tricky. But not irredeemable. The following tips and tricks can help you with this:
Keep calm
Probably the least popular question in the job interview is about your own weaknesses. Quite a few applicants stutter, hesitate, or re-enumerate their strengths to pretend they misunderstood the question. Everything transparent to embarrassing. The most important thing when it comes to difficult and uncomfortable questions is: keep calm, stay confident. Please don’t let that confuse you.
If in doubt, ask why this question is relevant to the advertised position. Or how it relates to your future area of responsibility. Sometimes it is just a stimulus word that blocks candidates. The real question behind it is unproblematic. Therefore, you can and should listen carefully or ask courageously. You can also always ask for a short period to think about a sensitive question. So you can decide how you want to answer and react to it.
Admit surprise
Part of the preparation is that you write down as many difficult questions as possible in advance and still think about short answers so that you do not get them into trouble. But if you do get caught on the wrong leg, show the best calmness by admitting your surprise. Instead of telling nonsense, just say that you can’t think of anything clever about it now. You would have to think about it a little longer yourself. That may not be brilliant, but it is honest and personable. Do not you believe? Trust us – we know it works.
Mastering body language
Politeness, friendliness, eye contact, and interest contribute significantly to gaining the sympathy of your counterpart. However, please never lose control of your body language while speaking. You can remain confident with words, while facial expressions and gestures reveal: “You have hit a sore spot here.” So please also practice this in front of the mirror, in front of a friend, or front of the video camera (smartphone): no hectic micro-gestures, speaking speed, and voice maintained. Stay relaxed.
Stay positive
The basic rule for sensitive questions: Don’t let yourself be provoked. Some of these so-called stress questions are supposed to put you under pressure to see how you react to stress. This is nothing personal, just a kind of test for the later job. So don’t sense a trap behind every question. The accusation, for example, that you switched too often can also be true. In that case, please don’t try to convulsively talk yourself out of it. Openness and admitting weaknesses or mistakes often have a much more disarming effect. Unless you are attacked personally. Then a limit has been crossed – and you should think carefully about whether it would be better not to break off such an interview.
Don’t blaspheme
Even if it would be seductively easy to find the blame on others – the lousy boss, bullying colleagues – in the event of a termination or unemployment. Resist the impulse and don’t talk badly about previous employers or bosses. Not even if you had every reason to. Note: It makes you a victim of your environment and therefore small. In any case, no future service provider looks like this. Rather take responsibility and show us what you have learned from it.
Using white lies
You also have the right to a white lie in the case of so-called “illegal questions” in the job interview. This includes private questions – such as a planned pregnancy, your financial circumstances, or political interests. Everything that has no direct relation to work tasks and the workplace is protected as a private sphere by the Basic Law. As an applicant, according to the Federal Labor Court, you neither have to answer nor answer true. Evasive maneuvers – in moderation – are generally allowed. There is only one thing you should never do: get snotty, react offended, and lose your professionalism.
Summary of the learning objectives
In the meantime, you have acquired a solid basic knowledge of all three parts. There are more than 30 important learning steps in the crash program. Let’s summarize again roughly:
Switchman & KLP formula
When it comes to preparing and optimizing your self-presentation, you can use the KLP formula as a guideline: competence, motivation, and personality. These three points are the main pointers in the interview and the basis of every personnel decision.
The KBA formula
With the KBA formula (formulate communication goals, discover messages, find suitable arguments) you can work out and convincingly present all arguments and unique selling points that speak for you. The focus is not only on your professional but also on your social skills. So how you deal with other people – superiors, colleagues, customers. The characteristics of empathy, commitment, and enthusiasm. And last but not least, the personal working style, including problem-solving skills, goal orientation, and discipline.
The 3 × 3 formula
The 3 × 3 formula, on the other hand, can help in the run-up to the job interview to identify your own strengths more clearly and to formulate arguments such as anecdotes from previous professional successes – by finding three adjectives, nouns, and verbs that correspond to your way of working, yours Describe values and traits (dynamism, temperament) optimally.
The VGZ formula
The VGZ formula also serves to convincingly answer or parry questions. VGZ stands for “past-present-future”. A convincing answer can always be built according to this pattern: What have I learned and achieved so far? What are my tasks and services? What do I promise to be able to do for this employer in the future?
You also got to know the classic process of an interview:
- Greeting & initiation (small talk)
- Motivation for application & career choice
- Education & Professional Background
- Personal Background
- State of health, restrictions
- Knowledge level, test & exam questions
- Company presentation
- Working conditions (start, duration, payment)
- Inquiries from the applicant
- Summary, conclusion & farewell
You know the 20 most important questions that can come up:
- What should we know about you?
- Why are you applying to us?
- Why should we hire you?
- What speaks for and what against you?
- What are your strengths and weaknesses?
- Why do you want to change jobs?
- How have you got on with your superiors/colleagues so far?
- What practical experience do you have for this position?
- What do you expect from this position?
- Where do you want to be in three, five, ten years?
- What does a typical working day look like for you?
- How would you describe the way you work?
- What relevant successes can you show?
- What do you like to do in your job, what less?
- Looking back, what are you particularly proud of?
- What added value will you add?
- What motivates you in general?
- What responsibility do you want to take on?
- Which ones have you already taken over?
- What questions do you have for us?
Test to check your learning success
You can use the following final test to find out how well prepared you are for the job interview and what you have learned from the crash course. The following applies to the test itself: It is based on multiple-choice tests. Means: When in doubt, not only one answer is correct, but all of the specified ones. So please make a note of which answers you “tick”. To do this, simply click on the box somewhere and ideally copy this and insert it after what you think is the correct answer. At the end of the test, you will find the resolution. You have 10 minutes to answer it:
- In which role should you appear as an applicant?
a) As a service provider.
b) As a doer.
c) As an experienced specialist.
d) As an entrepreneur and service provider.
e) As an all-around organizer.
f) No answer applies.
- What else is paid attention to besides your experience?
a) Reliability and loyalty.
b) Perseverance and perseverance.
c) The special contribution that you promise to make.
d) The willingness to learn and cooperate.
e) Everything is about the same. - What is important in personal encounters?
a) That you show what you can do.
b) That you report on your experiences.
c) That you are trusted to do the job.
d) That you get to the heart of your vita.
e) That you appear genuine and believable.
f) That cannot be said in general terms. - What are the most important switches in the selection of applicants?
a) Age and experience.
b) Reliability, loyalty, integrity.
c) Knowledge, ability, and goal orientation.
d) Experience and motivation.
e) Credibility.
f) Willingness to learn.
g) No answer applies. - Which keywords summarize the 3 most important interview questions?
a) Experience, understanding, courage.
b) Character, willingness, ability.
c) Sympathy, empathy, communication.
d ) Knowledge, ability, will.
e) Rationality, sensitivity, spontaneity.
f) Truth, authenticity, reliability. - What does the abbreviation KBA stand for?
a) Willingness to communicate and work.
b) Competence, willingness, work performance.
c) Communication goal, messages, arguments.
d) Concept, Professional goal, task description.
e) Concentration, talent, work performance.
f) Everything wrong. - Why should you bring examples to your messages?
a) Because the answers become more believable.
b) Because the answers are so more convincing.
c) Because it is my awareness of what is important, sharpens.
d) Because the answers are better understood by the HR manager.
e) Because it saves time.
f) All suggested solutions apply. - When asked what is particularly important to you in your current job, answer…
a) “Actually, almost everything.”
b) “Actually nothing, that’s why I’m applying here.”
c) “Especially that … and that … and that …”
d) ” I can’t say at all. ”
e) No suggestion gets to the core.