INTERVIEWSUCT Careers Advisory Service Team

When faced with questions about your weaknesses, the way in which you engage with this question says a lot about you. Never write yourself off as hopeless or not very good at something. Rather respond by talking about these as areas for development and reflect on how you might improve them. SELECTION INTERVIEWS

When you’ve submitted application materials and are invited for a job

interview it usually means that the employer has established that you meet the main requirements for the position. Nevertheless, it is important to take the interview seriously, no matter how good your CV is, as the selection interview is one of the means by which employers will choose between you and a number of other suitably qualified candidates on their shortlist. The interview gives the organisation an opportunity to flesh out the paper version of you, received from your CV, cover letter and other application documents. It is also an opportunity for you to make yourself stand out from other candidates.

The main objectives of the job interview are:

1. To establish that the candidate meets the requirements of the post and matches the ‘person specifications’ or employee profile that the organisation is seeking to recruit

2. For the applicant to build on the information outlined in their CV to demonstrate that they have the skills, competencies and attributes necessary to add value to the organisation

3. To facilitate dialogue in order to establish that the candidate is a well-rounded person with good ‘soft’ skills (e.g. communication, interpersonal, teamwork skills)

4. To provide an opportunity for the candidate to find out more about the employer and what the job entails

5. To explore the fit between the applicant’s career development needs and goals and the demands and priorities of the company or organisation.

You may be asked about industry knowledge. Professional publications, online databases, newspapers, company websites, professional association websites, social media and other online platforms are all useful starting points for this kind of information.

Brain teaser questions test your ability to formulate a systematic and logical answer under pressure. For example, if you are asked, “How many golf balls are there in the air in Cape Town right now?” nobody expects you to even hazard a guess as to the number. You should however, be prepared to engage with the question and talk about how it might be possible to arrive at an estimate.

And finally …Always be prepared to ask the interviewer thoughtful and informed questions. It demonstrates a genuine interest in the company and that you want to establish that the opportunity is right for you.

Keep in mind that some questions you may want to ask are not appropriate in an initial interview. Be wary of asking questions about salary, leave and other perks. This information can be asked at a later stage in the selection process or sourced outside of the interview.

Job applicants have rights under South African Labour Law. No candidate should be discriminated against on the grounds of race, gender, disability, health status, age, political beliefs or sexual orientation. Know your rights and familiarise yourself with the main thrust of the legislation against discrimination in the workplace.

Accepting a job is a big decision. You need to know as much about the organisation as they need to know about you to ensure that the fit is mutually beneficial.

This article is based on the “Preparing for Interviews” talk presented by the UCT Careers Service. �

Don’t fall for clichés such as claiming that you’re a perfectionist to a fault and will work overtime to get the job done. Rather draw on your experience and give an example of a situation where you had to grapple with challenges and go the extra mile to overcome them.

If you are asked why you applied for a particular position you should relate your answer to your interests and aptitudes, knowledge of the organisation, and the requirements for the advertised position.

If an interviewer probes gaps in your CV, setbacks or academic failures, you should be prepared to account for these. It is more important to convey how you overcame these difficulties than to justify why they happened. Don’t be defensive. Take responsibility for what happened and mention extenuating circumstances if necessary.

The key to a successful interview is preparation. The more you know about the organisation, the job, the interview process and what you have to offer, the more confident you will come across during the interview. You can prepare even further by working through practice interview questions. To a certain extent the job interview is a performance and an exercise in self-promotion - the more prepared and confident you are in this regard the better you will do.

COMMON INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

“Tell me about yourself” is a common starting point in interviews and while it

might seem to be a bland and open-ended question, you can narrow down the set of possible answers by asking the interviewer whether there is any particular aspect that they want you to focus on. Try not to waffle. Be concise and remember that the interviewer is not really interested in you as a friend but as a potential colleague.

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UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN CAREERS SERVICE GUIDE 2013 UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN CAREERS SERVICE GUIDE 2013