Interviewing Skills Q&A

Oct 11th, 2007 | By Bill | Category: Employment News



Interviewing Skills Q&A

Most interviews don’t go exactly to script. In fact, I don’t coach my clients to attempt to script their interview; however, that’s what most people do and that’s how many folks, if they even rehearse for their job interviews, blow up during the interview. Most people tell me before their job search interview: No, John, I am really confident about my interview skills. I can handle it. On they go. Here’s what I hear from people who thought they didn’t need interview skills after they interview, if they are honest with me: Well, it didn’t go exactly as planned but I think I did all right. This means that they blew it. Here are some sample interview questions and answers that should give you a perspective on appropriate responses to questions. Look at the details. From one of our recent clients, I fictionalized his responses from what I call Interview Rehearsal. Practice and rehearse the environments you may face during the interview process then come up with your own responses.

Tell me about a time when you ensured that each leadership team member was an equal contributor and what you did to build those team members.

Would it surprise you to find out that my most recent leadership achievement with xyz company illustrates my team building? During December of last year my directors recommended that we let one of our main customers go. Due to our company’s problems with delivery times of the parts to build their main product we were told that the company would amicably part ways. Immediately I requested a meeting with my immediate supervisor. After a few hours, he decided to let my team attempt to win back the account. The problem? We had only one month. So immediately I brought the 12 members of my team together. We met that day, the next day and off hours that weekend. We broke what we called the Renew Account project into 12 parts, each member disassembling the reassembly the pieces. We found many errors in client communications and, after analyzing our logistics processes, it became quickly apparent. The previous team’s lack of communications led to a six-day late delivery time on average to our main customer! This resulted in loss of revenue and what looked like a loss of the client. We recommended key changes that in one month led to a two-year renewal of this main client and a total per annum profit of $670,000. That’s because I knew my team, developed that team and they solved the problem.

Describe a time when you implemented a change initiative and encountered resistance. What did you do?

Just before the Y2K concerns surfaced in 1999, many of our technology directors at the national level presented a $49 million solution to our division. This so-called solution meant that our division would lose 17 employees. I politely but seriously objected after two weeks of careful competitor analysis. Our industry rivals all put forth the same solution. What did I find out? The solution served the hysteria of Y2K but did not help the company gain revenue or reduce costs. So I wrote a five page, highly detailed memo. Several directors privately emailed me to thank me for my research; however, two were not convinced. It took six meetings at our corporate offices in New Jersey, six more detailed papers and multiple private phone calls to convince all the directors. The result? The multi-million dollar plan was scratched, Y2K happened and the company saw no burden to the software, our deliveries and we had saved 17 jobs in our division alone. In most of my writing and speaking I acknowledged each director level concern but made sure that each person, their point of view and their concerns were considered. That helped me win friends and not alienate anyone. If I had rammed through the change initiative I would have been right but I would have made a lot of people angry. Instead, we all achieved our main goal – what was best for each division and the company. The bigger picture of course was that for the last five years we have had a clear edge and a lot of cash vs. our competition!

How have you gone about conceiving and implementing a new vision for companies/departments in the past?

There are several examples of this new vision implementation over the past five years. Let me focus on one. Our chief competitor took 23% of our market share in less than six months. This presented great anxiety for our Southeast division, my division. Tasked with turning around and handling this problem I approached what I call my mastermind team. For the past 10 years I have developed teams within teams. My mastermind team consists of those who I work with and also a few trusted friends, colleagues from my past leadership assignments. Throughout the better part of a month I and my team, with the blessing of my supervisors nationally, decided that I should write a business plan, something that had never been proposed before. But I count on my instincts and my teams to help me think creatively to solve problems. I wrote and with the team edited the business plan. The buy-in nationally was 100% partly out of necessity and partly out of desperation. In nine months after the components of the business plan were implemented, we regained market share. Each month succeeding we added market share until we once again dominated market share. New products were introduced and cycle times were reduced by 56%. These successes continue today.

In what ways have you ensured that budget performance met required goals?

Just like individuals and especially families live better with some rules and a within budget parameters, I have never forgotten this lesson – so must a company. Let me say this: I treat budget performance seriously. That’s why each division that I have been responsible for has accomplished staying within a budget. This has not hurt us in reaching our goals; it has helped us stay focused and disciplined. A simple example comes to mind from last year. We needed to cut costs by 41% in the Southeast division to help us restructure the company nationally. I instituted an audit in August, investing even part of my bonus to bring in an outside auditor. This auditor found 32% of the costs that needed to be cut. I put forth his recommendations. I eliminated one branch but saved three jobs by redeploying the talent to the consolidated branch, focusing on sales and adding 4% to the division as a whole. We cut 8% more by reducing our division’s debt load on borrowed money, essentially refinancing the debt. The result? Not only did we win the President’s Award for this restructuring, many of our innovations were instituted nationally after I campaigned for my auditor to be hired full-time.

Describe a situation where you had to coach or counsel a performer who had lost his or her ability to meet company expectations.

I realize that people respond to different motivations at different times in their career. One challenge I had early in my career was handling a former #1 company business developer who had left the company for five years. He re-applied and was hired not by me but by his former boss. Without consulting me as a branch manager, they assigned him to my division. My first meeting with him could be characterized by the first thing he said to me, his new and younger boss: I am a cowboy. I don’t take orders from anyone. Just let me do things my way. He did this in front of my entire staff. His performance over the next six months was poor. I needed to help rescue a few accounts. But I did it, always trying to build a better coaching and mentoring relationship with him. He confronted me, even insulted me a few more times. Then he hit bottom. He was told by his former boss that he would be fired if he didn’t get his numbers up. I won’t forget when he came into my office that May. Instead of his usual bravado he said this: I just want to thank you. Your non-judgmental attitude has led me to embarrass myself in front of the team. Your team has told me 100 times to apologize to you. Even though you are younger, you impress the heck out of me. Now I need your help. Help me do better; I need to keep this job. Finally, he was in a listening mode. I coached and counseled him, teaching him the new, more technical aspects of the product line. He made big effort to change his attitude too. In fact, he has retired today but I would consider him one of my friends and still a mentor. He stayed on with the company five more years, winning several awards for his performance and he thanked me each time. I just had to swallow my ego and learn to listen early in my career.

John M. O’Connor is the President of Career Pro of NC Inc.(www.CareerProInc.com) a comprehensive career services organization specializing in Executive Search, Talent Acquisition, and Consulting.

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