INTERVIEW TECHNIQUES WILL IMPROVE YOUR PERFORMANCE
Job skills can be easily demonstrated with Interview techniques. During job interviews, every candidate is evaluated for a skill set. These skills are required for performing the job successfully. Interviewer use different method of assessment, these assessment methods includes various tools and instrument. Many job applicants are not aware of these evaluation instruments and tools. One such tool used in every interview is a questionnaire. The questions asked during the interview are of different types, that assess different competencies.
Candidates are unable to answer these different types of questions due to two reasons. The first is lack of knowledge about interview question type and the second, is the use of interview technique. This article will introduce you to different interview techniques. It will develop your understanding of various interview techniques and ultimately help you to answer different types of questions asked during interviews.
INTERVIEW TECHNIQUE BASICS
The technique can be simplified as a “Way of doing something with specialized knowledge” OR “Using a particular method for doing an activity” Interview techniques can be understood as methods used for answering interview questions with the help of specific knowledge. During Interviews, most of the candidates are unable to recall the information that interviewers seek in the form of answers.
Learning interview techniques helps to overcome this common problem of recalling the required information. For using interview techniques successfully, one needs to accumulate knowledge/information through recalling and brainstorming. With this basic understanding of interview, techniques let’s explore the different techniques further.
INTERVIEW TECHNIQUE No1 - PAWS
Almost 90 % of the interview start with a common question like “ Tell Me Something About Yourself” or Please introduce yourself. These questions fall in the category of general questions and most of the candidates do not handle it the way expected by the interviewer. Candidates generally throw unwanted information whiling answering such questions that create a very bad impression and, push the candidate on the back foot.
Such questions in interviews give you an opportunity to create a positive impression, which can be easily done with the PAWS interview technique. The acronym PAWS represents different dimensions of candidates, that can be related to the job. The PAWS technique helps the candidate to establish himself as the right person for the job. PAWS stand for
P – Profile (Talk about the job profile-specific what attracts & interests you about the job. Mention your involvement in any particular activity or group)
A – Academic (Mention your educational qualification, training, workshops, certification course completed that will help you in completing the job)
W – Work ( You can specify any kind of voluntary, paid, unpaid experience relating to the job)
S – Skills ( This refers to transferable & technical skills you possess required for the job)
INTERVIEW TECHNIQUE No 2 - W5
The “W5 TECHNIQUES” is helpful to answer questions that are behavior-based. This technique makes use of What, When, Where, Why, Who, and How terms. These terms help simplify the situation and provide explanations for answering the question. The W5 technique helps the candidate to state a particular skill, knowledge, ability with the help of a past situation in the form of a story. Let’s understand with an example of the following question.
What project organizing experience do you carry?
You as a candidate will have to identify what skill is being assessed through this question. You need to state the skill, provide evidence of the knowledge and ability you possess. The above question is about organizational skills, You need to state the skill, you need to exhibit knowledge about organizing, and finally give an example that shows your ability in organizing tasks at hand.
INTERVIEW TECHNIQUE No 3 - STAR TECHNIQUE
Questions asked during interviews can be categorized, Most questions are behavior or situational-based. When candidates come across such questions many of the fumbles or get stuck with answers. This a very commonly observed, the main reason for such a scenario is the inability to recall experiences and connect them with the question.
For handling these questions successfully candidate needs to recollect the incidence for their previous jobs, academics, personal experience. Learning STAR interview technique gives you the opportunity to handle such questions with ease.
The acronym STAR stands for
- S- Situation ( Mention the situation that relates to expected behavior, Describe the situation you came across)
- T-Task ( Describe the task that you had to achieve in the given situation)
- Action ( List the action taken to address the situation with sufficient details)
- R-Result. (Mention about the outcome of the actions i.e. results you achievements
INTERVIEW TECHNIQUE No 4- CAR TECHNIQUE
This technique helps you mention something you did either as a volunteer or during your job. It helps to state the value addition you made over and above the expectation. It gives an opportunity to showcase the difference you made in the situation.
The acronym CAR stands for
- C-Challenge ( Mention the task or situation to had to overcome with the specific challenges)
- A-Action ( Explain the action taken by you to achieve the task or handle the situation)
- R-Result ( Discuss the result as an outcome of the action taken and always try to quantify)
INTERVIEW TECHNIQUE No 5- SOAR TECHNIQUE
This interview technique can be used for behavior and problem-based questions. This technique is similar to the previously explained interview techniques. The acronym SOAR Stands for
- S- Situation (Give a brief description of the situation you handled)
- O-Obstacles ( List the obstacles you had to overcome and how did you overcome them)
- Action ( Specify the action taken by you while handling the situation)
- R-Result. (Explain the results as an outcome for the actions). Learn Interview Techniques
Additional Reading
The author has served as Director of the Management Institute and Head of the Training and Placement vertical. The author has rich experience in training candidates for job interviews. The author is a certified Interviewing Professional, Psychometric Testing Professional, Instructional Designer, and L&D Professional. He has authored various research papers and received the best research paper award.