Consulting Journal: Techniques - How to be interviewed

Techniques: How to be interviewed

by David Blakey

If you've been interviewed by a market researcher, use that experience in job interviews.

[Monday 22 April 2002]

If you're about to be interviewed, consider the following and decide whether you need to do some of the exercises. You can interviewed under a variety of conditions. You can be interviewed for a position, working for someone else. You can be interviewed for an assignment, by a prospective client. You can be interviewed for your knowledge, by a market researcher who calls at your home. I suggest that you treat all these kinds of interview the same way. Let's start by looking at an interview by a market researcher.

The market researcher will have a set of questions. You will not know what the questions are, but you can be sure that they will be structured. If a question asks: ‘Have you bought paper for a laser printer or photocopier recently?’ and you answer ‘Yes’, then the interviewer may ask: ‘Which brand did you buy?’ If you answer ‘No’, then the interviewer will skip the second question. The entire interview will have been planned to get specific answers to specific questions, although those questions may not be the ones that the interviewer asks first.

Now, if the person interviewing you for a job or for an assignment had designed their questions the same way that a market researcher does, they might ask ‘Have you had any experience with corporate mergers recently?’. If you just answered ‘Yes’, they would have a second question, such as ‘What was the largest one you have worked on in the past six months?’. They would continue to work down the structure of questions, like a market researcher, until they obtained evidence that you had had a major role in the size and nature of corporate merger that they were considering you for.

But job and assignment interviews do not work that way. You are more likely to be asked if you have had any experience with corporate mergers recently, without the interviewer having any structure of subsequent questions. They may not have a route, although they will have a destination. You should help them to that destination. Say: ‘Yes, I have. Do you any particular size of merger in mind?’ They may say: ‘No, but I'm interested in work in the energy sector.’ Now you've helped them to lay out the route that they want to follow. You can answer the question.

Here's an exercise. You can base it on the questions you were asked in a recent interview or on your own experience. Write down a detailed question. If your experience is with electricity generation companies in one country purchasing other generation companies in other countries, then you can write a detailed question that could be answered by about fifty words describing your experience. It might be: ‘What is your experience with electricity generation companies in one country purchasing other generation companies in other countries?’. Now list three vague questions that could eventually lead towards this same question. They might be: ‘What is your experiences of mergers?’, ‘What is your experience of the energy sector?’, ‘What is your experience of international acquisitions?’. Consider each of them and how you might have answered them if you had not known what the final detailed question was. Are these answers ones that the interviewer would have wanted to hear?

The interviewer may start towards a destination but may give up before you reach it. If you are asked ‘Do you have experience with such-and-such?’ and your answer is just ‘Yes,’ then they may not be convinced that you really do have that experience. So they may not pursue that line of questions any further. Alternatively, your answer may be unconvincing by being too long. If you chatter away for two minutes about a single assignment, they may think that it was your only assignment. Imagine if you were giving a slide presentation on your career. You might have a slide with three significant previous assignments listed as (1), (2) and (3). Try to introduce the same list as you speak. If you've worked on three such assignments recently, then say: ‘The first was ... and then the second was ... and finally the third was ...’ Keep the interviewer aware of where you are on the list. Keep your descriptions of each list item brief.

Here's another exercise. Base it on a recent question or on your actual experience. Think of some area that you excel in. Think of three assignments that show how good you are. Draw a slide, with a heading for the actual experience, a subheading that says ‘Three recent assignments’, and a list of three assignments. Imagine talking through those assignments by referring to the slide. Then, out loud, describe the three assignments without referring to the slide but by emphasizing which of the three assignments you are discussing at any time. Consider sentences such as ‘While I was working on this second assignment with X, I used some techniques that I had also used on the first assignment, with Y.’ Remember to mention that these three assignments are not the only three, but that you consider them to be your three most significant recent assignments. Do this at the beginning and again at the end.

There are three questions that a market researcher may ask.

One question may be answered by ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ or by giving a short answer. ‘Do you eat fruit?’ ‘Do you travel away from home on business at least five times a year?’ ‘Which brand of toothpaste do you buy most often?’
A second question may ask for a list. ‘What kinds of fruit do you eat regularly?’ ‘Which hotel chains do you prefer to stay at?’ ‘Can you name some brands of toothpaste that you have seen advertised recently?’
The third kind of question asks for an opinion. ‘Why do you choose a particular fruit?’ ‘What services do you expect of a good hotel?’ ‘Why do you choose that brand of toothpaste?’

When a market researcher asks you the third kind of question, they have a list of possible answers. As you mention these answers, they tick them. The list may contain twenty possible answers, and sometimes even more. There may be some items on the list that you do not mention. They may ‘prompt’ you, asking ‘Do you consider an overnight laundry service to be important?’ If you answer ‘Yes,’ the interviewer will tick that answer in a second column. The first column will be headed ‘Mentioned’ and the second column ‘Prompted’.

Again, an interview for a position or an assignment may not be so planned or structured. The interviewer may have a list of answers that they will mentally tick as you mention them. They may not give you an opportunity to give those answers by prompting you. You will have to ensure that you mention everything that you need to or that you prompt them instead: ‘Is there anything else you need to know?’

Here's my last exercise. You will need someone to help you with the second part of the exercise. Write a list of all the things that make you a good consultant. Take your time over this. Try to get at least fifteen items on the list. Put the list to one side. Now get someone to set a timer for 30 seconds, ask you ‘What makes you a good consultant?’ and start the timer. As you name each item, they will write it down. Stop after 30 seconds. How many items did you mention? Did you mention some more than once? You may find it useful to continue practising until you can name at least 10 items in 30 seconds.

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