Guide to Job Interview Preparation

This document provides a comprehensive guide on preparing for job interviews. It covers various aspects like types of interviews, behavioral questions, situational questions, common interview mistakes, and strategies for answering effectively. The guide also includes resources from reputable websites such as Glassdoor, Hudson, and Money Instructor to further enhance your understanding and preparation.

Running Head: Summary of interview
Human Resource Management
Interview plan

Summary of interview
Table of Contents
Overview of the Interview.........................................................................................................2
Interview Plan............................................................................................................................2
 Pre-Interview...................................................................................................................3
 During interview.............................................................................................................3
 Post-interview.................................................................................................................4
List of interview questions.........................................................................................................4
Script..........................................................................................................................................6
Post interview summary.............................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8
Table of figure
Figure 1 Flow chart of 3 interview stages..................................................................................2
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Summary of interview
Overview of the Interview
The particular job vacancy is for the Associate human resource in the hospitality and
aviation industry. The interviewer is the Assistant Human Resource manager. The client is
about to complete his post-graduation degree which is Masters in Business Administration
under the human resource head and was selected in screening at the college campus. In the
organization, he will be having the personal interview upon which the final selection has been
based. The job description will be given to the client that states the candidate has to make
recruitment and for that, he needs to undertake various measures. He needs to maintain the
files of the recruited people and take care of the documents provided by the employees and
figure out the members who haven’t yet completed the entire documentation and verification
criteria (Money instructor, 2017). Also, it is the responsibility of the Associate HR to perform
joining’s and makes the arrangement for induction and training. He needs to manage the
events that could ever take place within the organization. For this, the level of creativity and
confidence of the candidate will be scrutinized to reach the final decision (Orion talent,
2017).
Interview Plan
Figure 1 Flow chart of 3 interview stages
2
Pre-
interview
Defining the objective before starting the interview
Selecting the questions
Building the team for interview
During
interview
Analysing body language
Accessing gestures and postures.
learning the confidence level.
Post
interview
Evaluating the interview.
Noting down the strength and weakness of interview.
Improving the sources for future.

Summary of interview
(Source: Author).
 Pre-Interview
First of all the job description and job specification has to be created and accordingly
the search will be made. The competency needs to be listed and blueprint should be drafted
so that the focus stays on the particular points and interview flows in a similar manner
without getting diverted (Career services, 2017). Prior conducting the interview the following
points need to be kept in mind:
 Defining the objective before starting the interview: The objective of the interview
should be made clear in the mind. Take a while and undergo the thought process that
what all activities need to be conducted. What are the points that need to be observed
and listing down the questions that may clarify the idea of interviewer whether to
select the candidate or not? For this, the duties and work specification have to be
created to judge the interviewee accordingly. Thereafter the success factors are
defined and measuring the quality with the previous top performers and setting up the
standards accordingly. The performance expectations are set and the candidate is
evaluated on the similar base (Eustace, 2017).
 Selecting the questions: Dependency on job specification and CV of the candidate is
not adequate. The interviewer has to select certain questions in advance. These
questions must be based on the expectations that the interviewer has with the
candidate and that these questions would help in figure out the competencies and
requirements that the person holds. The different techniques of framing the questions
are Icebreakers, traditional questions, situational questions and behavior based
questions, culture-fit questions (Recruit loop, 2016).
 Building the team for interview: More than 2 people must be selected to the interview
team. The team of interview helps in selecting the correct person for the correct job.
This is because the evaluation of more than one interviewer has their own perspective
and dual analysis results in selecting the best candidate (Kursmark, 2017).
 During interview
This was the study related to the pre-interview preparation. At the time of the
interview, the interviewer should observe the personality and confidence of the candidate.
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This could be studied through the body language, gestures and the posture of the
interviewee. The analysis starts the moment client enters the interview hall and ends till
he leaves the room. The way of entering, walking, wishing, shaking hands, sitting and
body movement all are noticed. The nervousness is also the point to be calculated and
above all the main focus should also be on the way the client is answering the interviewer
which reflects the level of confidence and increase the chances of a candidate to get
selected (Claeys- Jackson, 2017).
 Post-interview
The post-interview evaluation and feedback need to be made and the hidden points
should also be reviewed. Many times it happens that the candidate is nice and efficient
but the interview session was not up to the mark. To such candidates, the educational and
background check could be made to evaluate the authentication to choose the one or not.
The work experience of the client must be understood. Remarks on the skills and
screening of team management skills could also be understood by the way of group
discussion and analyzing the personality of the candidate. This also depicts the leadership
quality of the candidate. Through situational analysis, the problem-solving evaluation can
also be made. The attitude of a person is reviewed through the communication skills and
motivation level. The notes are prepared by the interviewer along with the
recommendations and drafting the SWOT analysis of the client (Brunt, 2017).
List of interview questions
There are multiple ranges of questions that could be framed to study the behavior and
attitude of the person towards the job. Not every question could be asked of the candidate as
it makes the session length and selecting the appropriate question is a tricky task. The
questions that are prepared should be as per the requirement of the job and what all is
expected from the candidate (Glassdoor, 2016). The certain types of questions that must be
studied and referred are quoted as under:
 Icebreakers: These are the general etiquette questions which are asked to the client to
make him feel comfortable and making the situation of ease (Themes, n.d.). These
questions are-
o Did you find the office well or had the trouble?
o Would you like to have water or a cup of coffee?
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Summary of interview
o Tell me about yourself.
 Traditional questions: These are the basic questions which are normally been asked
to figure out the skills and area of interest of the candidate. Even the client knows
these questions and they are well prepared to answer these sought of questions. They
are meant for making the environment healthy and releasing the stress of the
candidate so that further proceedings are smooth (Simpson, 2017). Certain example of
these questions are as under:
o What are your strengths?
o What are your competencies and skills?
o Why do you choose our organization?
 Situational questions: These are the stressful situations given to the client and their
analysis has been made. This is made to make a check upon how well the candidate
handles the adverse situation (Leddy, 2014). For instance:
o In what manner will you handle the cranky customer?
o What will be the first thing that you will do after getting hired?
o How will you manage the stress within the organization?
 Behaviour-based questions: In this particular session, the questioning upon the past
experience is raised. The complete response of the client is noted in the SAR form
which comprises of Situation, Action, and Result. The behavior-based questioning
helps in making decisions to take a prompt and correct decision as per the situation
and improving the skills Client need to fill up the form and cover all the entire topics
(Hudson, 2017). The sample of this kind of questioning is as under:
o Illustrate about the situation of crisis that you could have prevented? How
better could you have dealt with it?
o How will you build up the team to resolve the crisis?
o Generally, the crises are on an urgent basis and they are meant to resolve on
the immediate aspect. If given a little more time what better could you have
done?
 Culture-fit questions: These types of questions help in figuring out the motivational
level of the candidate and to gain knowledge regarding the performance of the client
in the unique environment (Dewar, 2017). For instance:
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Summary of interview
o What was the best achievement in the previous job? What was so good about
it?
o Why are you interested in this work?
o What are your motivational factors? Quotes certain examples.
Script
Scene 1:- The scenario of manager’s cabin has been created. The Assistant Human
Resource Manager is seated on his chair and within 10 minutes the interview is going to take
place (Ryan, 2015). The manager is reviewing the profile of the candidate and preparing for
the interview. The call to the client has been made.
 Client: May I come in Sir?
 Interviewer: Yes. Please be in, have a seat. Hope you didn’t face any problem finding
the office?
 Client: No it was quite well addressed. I reached safely.
 Interviewer: So, please tell me something about yourself?
 Client: Well, My name is Bryce Donald. I have accomplished my higher education
from Centennial College, Toronto and now at the final stage of my studies. I am also
one of the team members of the football team in college.
 Interviewer: Okay, it seems you are equally interested in sports as well. As per your
resume, you won many inter-college tournaments as well. What is the dimension and
circumference of the soccer ball? (A situational question has been served just to check
the confidence level.)
 Client (a bit confused but smiled): Exact ratio and measurement are not known to me
yet it is a beautiful question to be answered. The material weight might lie between
10-12 oz. and the correct air pressure has to be balanced so that appropriate inflation
takes place.
 Interviewer: So focusing on the academic portion you have got specialization in
human resource management and had the experience in Hospitality and aviation field.
What serious problem do you notice that highly affects the human resource in the
hospitality industry?
 Client: Yes, I have perused the training the hotel industry and the major cause that I
noticed in the industry is that growth criteria was slow and deserved one had to wait a
lot to gain the particular position and this resulted in high employee turnover as the
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Summary of interview
employees attachment towards the industry seem to be lost and they search for hike
and better opportunity.
 Interviewer: If you are hired as the Associate human resource in our company what
will be the first step you will take for enhancing the employee engagement?
 Client: Thank you for this opportunity to be the part of your organization. My
foremost step towards the betterment of the company will be that I will analyze the
entire organization and will figure out the points where the company and human
resources are lacking and accordingly I will prioritize the activities and incorporate
the required changes to bring newness.
 Interviewer: Great idea, for making these changes and observing the lacking points
will you prefer to have a team?
 Client: Yes of course! I will frame a team selecting 2 members from every department
and collecting the feedback and certain suggestions from them but the final decision
towards changes will be mine.
 Interviewer: Okay, it was nice to have these ideas from you. We will respond you
back within 1-2 days. Please feel free to raise your query if any.
 Client: It was my pleasure as well. I do have certain queries if you could resolve them.
What expectation will you hold with me in the initial 30-60 days?
 Interviewer: Well it is a nice approach. Initially, we would expect that certain
prevailing problems within the organization are repaired for the long term. You could
start with the small issues as well so that they do not grow up vast.
 Client: Can I know about the culture of the organization?
 Interviewer: The national integration is highly supported and employment laws are
strictly abided. No discrimination takes place and each member is treated equally
well. Also, the theme of tradition is followed in the company which drafts it unique in
the crowd.
 Client: Thank You, Sir, for resolving the query. Hope to hear a positive answer from
you soon.
 Interviewer: It was delightful to have you here. May you have a good day ahead.
Post interview summary
After the interview has been conducted the evaluation and analysis have been made.
In this study, the interviewer’s strength is learned and the area where are the improvement is
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Summary of interview
needed are marked so that further action towards it could be taken. The interviewer must keep
the interview short and meaningful. Only necessary things should be asked which are not
available in the resume (Lawton, 2011). To summarise the interview session it could be
concluded that the healthy interview was conducted. The client was aware of the profile and
confident enough towards his answer. He was true to the replies and contains adequate
knowledge of the field. The experience and training within the hotel industry act as the cherry
on the cake. The improvement if made could be that more authentic questions could have
been asked. The answers of the client were up to mark but they were rather sounding more
bookish than realistic which could be improved (Kuehne, n.d.).
References
Brunt. K. (2017). Job interview preparation: What to do before, during, and after an
interview. Viewed on 23rd September 2017. < https://www.theladders.com/p/1439/3-
step-job-interview-preparation>.
Career Services. (2017). Preparing for interviews. Viewed on 23rd September 2017.
<https://careerservices.princeton.edu/undergraduate-students/interviews-offers/
preparing-interviews>.
Claeys- Jackson. (2017). How to prepare for an interview. Viewed on 23rd September 2017. <
https://www.prospects.ac.uk/careers-advice/interview-tips/how-to-prepare-for-an-
interview>.
Dewar. J. (2017). 5 culture fit interview questions to ensure a great hire. Viewed on 23rd
September 2017. < https://www.lever.co/blog/5-culture-fit-interview-questions-to-
ensure-a-great-hire>.Vie
Eustace. D.J. (2017). Before, during and after interviewing. wed on 23rd September 2017.
<https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/students/graduate/before-during-and-
after-interviewing.html >.
Glassdoor. (2016). 50 most common interview questions. Viewed on 23rd September 2017. <
https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/common-interview-questions/>.
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Hudson. (2017). How to answer behavioural interview questions. Viewed on 23rd September
2017. <http://au.hudson.com/job-seekers/career-advice/behavioural-interview-
questions>.
Kuehne. J. (n.d.). Strengths and weaknesses analysis. Viewed on 23rd September 2017.
<https://www.ihire.com/careeradvice/pages/strengths-and-weaknesses-analysis>.
Lawton. A. (2011). Script for job interview conversation. Viewed on 23rd September 2017. <
http://drewseslfluencylessons.com/2-advanced/job-interview/script-for-job-interview-
conversation-in-english/>.
Leddy. C. (2014). 10 great situational interview questions to identify the best job candidate.
Viewed on 23rd September 2017. <http://www.middlemarketcenter.org/expert-
perspectives/10-great-situational-interview-questions-to-identify-the-best-job-
candidate >.
Money Instructor. (2017). Job interviewing overview-purpose & process. Viewed on 23rd
September 2017. < http://content.moneyinstructor.com/1078/job-interviewing-
overview.html>.
Orion talent. (2017). Types of interview. Viewed on 23rd September 2017.
<https://www.oriontalent.com/military-job-seekers/transition-resources/interviewing/
types-of-interviews.aspx>.
Recruit loop. (2016). 75 behavioural interview questions to select the best candidate. Viewed
on 23rd September 2017. < http://recruitloop.com/blog/behavioural-interview-
questions/>.
Ryan. L. (2015). Script for a perfect job interview. Viewed on 23rd September 2017.
<http://www.humanworkplace.com/script-for-a-perfect-job-interview/>.
Simpson. M. (2017). Job interview questions and answers. Viewed on 23rd September 2017.
< https://theinterviewguys.com/job-interview-questions-and-answers-101/#>.
Themes. H. (n.d.). Icebreaker questions. Viewed on 23rd September 2017.
<https://www.icebreakers.ws/small-group/icebreaker-questions.html>.
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