BY: PROMISE EDEM NUKUNU
Career success hinges on speedy and efficient delivery of projects and assignments. Your stakeholders will form far-reaching conclusions about you based on your general posture and attitude towards work and opportunity. Certain behaviours convince others of your reliability and commitment while others erode the confidence of others in you. Here are some tips for inculcating and communicating the speed and urgency required for successful execution and career progress:
Learn important lessons only once. Don’t let your boss keep repeating the same thing over and over.
Appreciate the deadlines involved in every assignment. Exhibit the right level of urgency in handling responsibilities.
Always walk briskly and upright, especially at the beginning of the day. It is a signal of your readiness.
Avoid contradictions or dichotomy. Your words must match your actions.
Avoid unnecessary shyness. Step up to the plate when asked to do something and do your very best to excel.
Shun complacency and indifference. It makes your superiors less forgiving when you make mistakes.
Always write things down. Don’t trust your memory.
Avoid forgetting instructions. Use technology (alarms, phone reminders etc.) to help you if necessary.
Avoid slouching in your seat or wrong body language.
Give periodic feedback ahead of final delivery. It helps your bosses to relax and assures them of progress.Peace & Many Blessings,
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10 Tricky Interview Questions & Sample Answers
Interviews are like speeches. When it comes to answers, as Dale Carnegie said, there are always three of them for every one you actually gave…. The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you had given. Preparation helps synchronise these three and reduce the variances. The following questions often come up in interviews and simple as they might seem, they could be tricky. We have therefore provided sample answers for your consideration.
1. Tell me about yourself and what makes you the best candidate? The interviewer is not interested in where you were born, your favourite cartoons and your football team etc. Perhaps you could actually ask “What would you like to know about me?” This then gives your interviewer the chance to get you to tell them exactly what information they are looking for. Preferably try and keep this part of the interview as brief as possible and focus purely on positives which relate to the job you are applying for. For example; if it’s a sales role you could say “I am a veryorganised person who enjoys finding a new prospect, working with it and closing the deal. I have the ability to work on a transaction from start to finish.” In a sense, this question is about your unique selling proposition and is a good time to let the interviewer(s) know what you bring to the table that makes you different from all others.
The USP is the single most important question you must anticipate in a competitive interview. Depending on how you deal with it, this could either make or break your chances of success at the interview. You should have prepared and internalized an answer to this ahead of time. Moreover, in presenting it, do well to make it as natural as possible, rather than a drab recitation.
2. What is the biggest challenge you’ve ever faced in your career? You are more than likely to be asked this question and it is a really great opportunity to sell yourself. Identify a challenging situation in which you have been successful and explain how you overcame it and what the outcome was. This question can also be used by the interviewer to gauge what you consider to be a challenge, so your example must be one in which the task was really daunting.
3. Why do you want to leave your present job? Many people will be trying to leave a job because they can’t stand what they do, dislike their boss or simply want better conditions. However, your focus in an interview should be on the future. Consider giving an answer like “I have had a great time and learnt a lot in my current job. I yearn for a new role and a different kind of challenge that will enable me make an even more significant contribution as part of a team. I also hope to expand my skills further in the process.” Leave it at that. Whatever you do, avoid being negative about your current boss or the job you are leaving. This question aims at measuring your loyalty and integrity. Remember that the person interviewing you may well, at some point in the near future, become your boss and they are probably sizing you up.
4. How long would you expect to work for our organisation? No employer wants to go through the hassle and cost of hiring and training a new candidate only for them to leave to another firm after six months. The recruitment process is a long and expensive one. It’s probably a good idea therefore to intimate that you would like to work for this firm for quite a number of years. You could therefore say, “I like the way your company is continuing to expand and I would like to be part of that on a long term basis. I would therefore like to think that I could continue to work for you for a lengthy period of time providing my career continues to progress”.
5. What is your biggest weakness? No one wants to show their weaknesses but we all have them. The most comprehensive way of dealing with this question is to try and turn a weakness into a “positive” from a “negative”. So you could perhaps say “I easily become forgetful when I get excited about something so I tend to prepare detailed checklists in my dairy and to keep it close by everywhere I go.”
6. Where do you see yourself in five years’ time? As a general rule, avoid an answer like “sitting in your position!” Whereas you may have designs for the top job in future, most interviewers would not appreciate the seeming comparison or the idea that you are a potential threat to their job. Your best bet is therefore to try and answer the question positively but not too arrogantly. You could for instance say “I have always been very career minded and ambitious. I would like to keep progressing up the career ladder and am confident that this organisation will be able to offer me that opportunity”. There are rare exceptions like the case of Ishmael Yamson who told the interview panel at Unilever that he would become Chief Executive in twenty years and went on to do exactly that; subsequently holding that position and achieving success with the organization for several years.
7. You have only been with your employer a very short time – why? This is another tricky and likely question if you have any history of short engagements in your CV. If any of your previous employments have been for a short period of time you need to find an answer that will reassure the interviewer that you will not repeat it if hired. You could reply that “Yes I have only been with my existing employer a relatively short period of time but have found that I have to move to gain more experience and enhance my career. I think that this can be achieved within your organisation and I feel that I am ready to settle down in a position I am comfortable with for a long period of time”.
8. What part of your job do you dislike the most? This is another tricky question because leaving to another job automatically implies some level of dissatisfaction. You could therefore opt for a line like “I really do enjoy my current job and quite frankly there aren’t really any areas that I can say I dislike. However, the company I work for is small and I don’t get much chance to deal with new business very often. This is an area I find exciting and feel that this job would be able to offer me that opportunity.” Of course, if you decide to bring out the area you dislike in your job, try and create a positive out of it. For example “Considering the nature of my job, I depend in the editorial department’s output to do my work and for a long time they were almost always late and this affected my ability to consistently meet my time lines. I therefore decided to work with them to improve efficiency and reduce lead time. There has been some improvement since, but I certainly wish I did not always have to deal with the uncertainty that this kind of situation brings.” Whatever you say here must enhance your chances of landing the job you are applying for without attacking your current job.
9. We think you might be overqualified for this job! Expect to be asked this question if you have considerably more than the minimum requirement for the job. For example, if you hold a Master’s degree and apply for a job in which the advert specified a diploma or first degree, you must prepare an appropriate answer to this question. An interviewer does not want to give you the job because you are desperate. No future employer wants to give you a chance if you are likely to get bored in a few months and start looking elsewhere again. This is a difficult question to answer but you need to assure the interviewer that the job profile fits your area of interest and that you are confident that given the chance you would excel and rise up the ladder in the organisation.
10. What salary would you be expecting here? You must anticipate this question and prepare accordingly. Going for too much or too little can be a mistake. You must ideally find out how much is being paid for that kind of role. If you don’t know what level of salary a position pays you can do some research on that. One school of thought suggests that you could also consider asking the interviewer a question like “What level of salary would you be expecting to pay for this position?” An appropriate answer to this interview question might be “I am not only motivated by the salary. I would be more interested in the entire developmental package.” You can then follow it up by suggesting a minimum salary based on what you have found out. By saying this you are being non committal and it will make negotiating an acceptable package far easier. Another school of thought is that you must carefully shop around to know how much similar industry players pay and use that as a guide to ask for a specific range. One thing is certain…. Never set a maximum. Don’t say between 700 and 900. Asking for a minimum of 700 would be fine but NEVER STATE A MAXIMUM!!!!!!!!!!
BONUS QUESTION TO CLOSE
I have a bottle of juice here – sell it me! This is an interesting question and a constant for a sales job. Indeed many employers will ask you to do this even if you aren’t applying for a job that involves selling. The reason behind this is to see if you can sell the benefits of the bottle of juice but the whole experience that comes with consuming it including health benefits, fun etc. It is all about the bigger picture. Another possible reason for a question like this is to check out your public speaking and corporate presentation skills. If you are able to clearly outline and confidently articulate the benefits of the fruit juice you are likely to impress your interviewer.
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