How to be SMART at your next job interview!

Speaking of interviews... I just had my third interview with the Senior Director of Marketing Analytics and Customer Segmentation at CIBC. I have high hopes for this position; it's a level 8 position. This could really help me with my financial situation...Many ways to approach interviews.

As fledgling MBAs, we were thoroughly trained in several techniques, such as the "STAR" technique, etc. If I can help one person by writing this, perhaps they can pay me some of their earnings The STAR technique has many advantages for both candidate and interviewer(s). As a candidate, you appear professional, analytical, and--above all--organized. As an interviewer in a structured interview, it is very easy to identify the competencies being communicated by the candidate, assess how genuine the candidate is, and have concrete material to back up the competencies identified for the job description.

It involves a lot of preparation (which also looks good to prospective employers), thought, and a little bit of role-playing the part of a human resource manager. One thing to remember when you get an interview is that time is money; and usually an employer won't spend the time interviewing you unless they have an intention to hire you if you fit the bill. The method I'm proposing will help you fit the bill, to a "T," and present it in a way that can't be missed.STAR is very simple. It stands for (S)ituation, (T)asks, (A)ction taken, (R)esults.It helps if, before the interview, out of courtesy, you ask if you may take notes. This has the added benefit of making you look very organized, interested, attentive, and analytical.

Trained human resource professionals--experienced interviewers--know that flying by the seat of their pants and going by gut feeling has a very low validity; during my advanced studies in Recruitment and Selection as part of my MBA program, we studied the statistical validities of the various interview methods. By far the most reliable is the structured interview, with either behaviour-descriptive (use examples from your past to demonstrate specific competencies--the STAR method fits this method like a glove) or situational (what would you do if...?) In all structured interviews, desired competencies for the position (e.g. analytical skills, quantitative skills, relationship-building, time management, adaptability, etc.) are identified first during a thorough job analysis.

Questions are derived to assess whether or not each candidate has each competency identified. Scoring is pre-determined and standardized for sample answers to the question (again, you will see why the STAR method really shines in structured interviews). The same set of questions and answer scoring paradigm is applied to every candidate--no ad hoc questions, no scoring by "gut feeling." This is the interviewing technique that large corporations are adopting to be defensible in their selections, to be accurate in their selections, and in some cases--to abide by law; all chartered banks, transportation businesses, and some others are covered by federal jurisdiction employment laws requiring rigorous recruitment and selection procedures be followed.

But I'm getting off-topic a little.When you are asked a question, if it is a good, structured interview, the purpose of the question will be to identify whether or not you have a specific competency. Your job, the night before, was to do a job analysis, yourself, on the position and try to identify as many competencies as you think are important to the position. Your job, the night before, was also to think of an example or two from your previous jobs, volunteer positions, or anywhere in life, where something you did shows that you have that specific competency (such as leadership--the time you had a school project and there was chaos people doing a lot of work, other people doing none, so you showed strong leadership, divided the project into work packages, delegated the work packages, tracked their progress, etc.), and then come up with answers in the "STAR" format.

In fact, I'll use this exemplar to illustrate how to prepare your answers using the STAR format in your preparation for the interview the night before:

Suppose you are going to interview for a position as a camp counsellor.

List out competencies you think a camp counseller requires: creativity, people-skills, leadership, initiative, time-management, dealing with crises--I'm sure you can come up with more given a few minutes.Let's take "leadership" as an example to prepare your answer the night before.

A question that might be asked tomorrow during the interview would be, "Can you give an example of a time you showed leadership skills?" This question obviously is designed to assess whether you have demonstrable competencies in leadership, initiative, management, people-skills.

Situation: What was the situation?- "One time, during a chemistry group project and presentation, we were placed into assigned groups. Naturally, the group dynamic began to show signs of chaos--some people seemed eager while others just joked around; some people came to group meetings with a lot of work, while others forgot they even had a meeting until the teacher told us to get into groups."

Task at hand: What did you have to do?- "In the interests of doing well on the project, I decided (showing initiative) that I had to bring cohesiveness, organization, and responsibility to the group."

Action taken: What did you do?- "I brought cohesiveness to the group by reminding everyone that this project was worth 50% of our grade in the course and that we had to have a more organized effort so that we could do a really good project. The other group members agreed."- "I divided the work to be done into logical work packages, and knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each one in the group--or finding them out if I didn't--I assigned these work packages to each group member... I found that even the members who didn't care about the project seemed to take an interest when I assigned them something to do that involved something they were good at!"- "I set up a chart that I put on a web page for everyone to see that outlined the important dates and so they could report on their progress. This seemed to spur some friendly competition in the group and I found after a while that even the group members who weren't so enthusiastic about the project were not just meeting their deadlines--they were beating them!"

Results: Quantify the results if possible.- "As a result, our group put on the best presentation of the class, earned a grade of 96%, and the teacher even asked if she could keep our project and presentation as an example for later years."

This should give you an example of about how much effort and thought you should put into preparing an example for each competency you identify.

During the interview, when the question is asked, you again remind your interviewer(s) of your organizational and analytical skills by asking for a moment to prepare your answer (taking your time to answer during an interview is something most people don't do--but should). Turn to a fresh page in your notebook, write out the headings: S, T, A, and R vertically and begin filling in your story.When you're good and ready--don't rush!--give your answer. You are sure to shine above the other candidates when you complete the whole interview with this level of organization. And what about unstructured interviews? If you can give this level of preparation, organization, and analysis, you'll wow your interviewer and blaze ahead of the competition.The most important thing is to give yourself ample time and effort the night before, doing a thorough job identifying competencies, examples from your past that show these competencies, and fitting them into the STAR model.

Even if a question takes you by surprise, don't worry; you can do a STAR analysis right on the spot--the important thing is not to look rushed or scared. Just ask for some time to prepare your answer, which they'll be more than happy to give (they want a good answer too, not one blurted out stream-of-consciousness style that goes nowhere and shows no competencies), try to identify the competency desired from their question, and open a fresh page...Of course, there are other interview techniques, but I think this one will help the most people get the most jobs.