Ep.47 How To Nail A Job Interview From An Employers POV [SOLO EP]

0:00Today we are discussing nailing a job interview and we will also be answering some dilemmas and I have added some of my own opinions on nailing a job interview as an employer Did you know only 5 % of applicants who apply for a job get to interview stage? Do you think I should go for it? Well, if you were hiring Patala, what qualities would you look for? I would recommend looking at jobs that have the title you want, maybe not in the sector you want. I need some help. I have an interview next week with my dream company and I am scared. Think about it. I would never hire someone who didn't have a good interview not to terrify you.

0:33My top tip, top, top, top, top tip, if you take away one thing.

0:45Hello, hello, welcome back to Working Hard Hardly Working. Today we are discussing nailing a job interview. You will go out of listening to this podcast knowing exactly how to do a job interview. Did you know that around only 5 % of applicants who apply for a job get to interview stage? So, you know, it's no surprise that it is pretty terrifying going into an interview, but I have collated a load of advice both from like best-known sources in terms of how to nail the job interview and we will also be answering some dilemmas and I have added some of my own opinions on nailing a job interview as an employer because I feel like that is the best advice I can give and I do think interviews are incredibly important.

1:22I would never hire someone who didn't have a good interview not to terrify you but I also feel like in that way it's a very good way of seeing if someone is right for the job, seeing if you would be well suited to working with that person etc etc etc remember though a job interview is both ways a job interview is not just for the job to see if they want you it's also to see if you want the job so remember that it will probably just give you a little bit more confidence just so you can feel comfortable as you're going into it first things first we're going to talk through general top tips about nailing an interview before we go on to the dilemmas so first of all it's a really important to perfect an elevator pitch you will most likely be asked the question something along the lines of tell me about you tell me where you'd be perfect for this role.

2:05You can expect that from the off, so practice it. There is no point catching yourself on the back foot on like the easiest question. And you also don't want to be rambling on for ages. I think most employers know that most people are nervous coming into an interview, so don't worry too much about like appearing nervous, but I will say obviously confidence does generally help. So practice this, prepare like a short intro to you, get it down to something succinct, something friendly, something fun, unless you're not friendly and fun and you also don't want to be friendly and fun in the workplace because there is also not necessarily any good in pretending something you're something you're not because you are going to be stuck being that person for the entire time you have that job so do remember to be yourself but I will say get a like succinct good little intro down about yourself that portrays your personality well portrays your interests well and obviously makes you come across in a good way on this make sure to have your experience, your qualifications, and generally anything you think will likely recommend you for the job.

3:05You don't want it to sound like you're reading from a script, so definitely don't like practice in front of the mirror too many times based on getting exactly what you want in word for word. But there'll be a few loose things on the job description, like we want someone enthusiastic, we want someone high energy, we want someone super organized, whatever it might be. Any of those kind of light things, those softer skills that you can get in there, as well as your general qualifications that just feels like you naturally coming across in that way, I would say is generally very helpful. Like you don't want to be completely scripted in the way that you will be thrown off.

3:35This is not a GCSE French oral. I would also say something that's not mentioned as much and is incredibly important is to do as much research into the company as possible. And I don't just mean in terms of like their mission statement and all of that. I was once asked, and to be fair, this was for like a grad type role. I was once asked what the share price was that morning of the company. And thankfully I'd read something that was like literally know everything about the company and I literally on that morning as well I saw the share price so thankfully I was able to say it but that would have caught me off guard and I think that person was like wow this bitch wants this job.

4:06Interviews often last obviously around like 30 to 45 minutes so you want to be able to have like a conversation that feels like you merge with the values of the company. It goes without saying that you don't want to come across as like a completely different person because you don't need to merge with the values of the company and you don't need to like change your whole self for a company at all. In fact, I'd say that's generally not recommended, but I would say if you really want this job, you want to feel like you align with that company in some way. I'd have a little look into recent projects they've done, anything they've kind of publicized, anything more niche.

4:37And for extra points, based on things, it seems like they really value, kind of like the soft skills I referenced in the last point. If you have any experience or like projects or general work that you've done that kind of fits in with these values, just like a soft sentence in there that kind of links back to what they see as their view of success as a company. Like they may be completely results driven in terms of targets, they might be completely results driven in terms of brand and PR etc etc. So as much as you can show that you understand what like success looks like for them as a company I think is incredibly important.

5:10Another way to do this is to look at job review sites like Glassdoor. Of course on any site like that you're always going to have some negative reviews, the likelihood is you're going to those sites to leave a review if you've had a negative experience but I would say you're also likely to get a little bit of a feel for what they like as a company like the types of people they go for the types of things they encourage whether that's like really hard working or like in the office all the time or like any of these things again you do not need to change your entire personality to get a job and as I've said before I do not think it is recommended I do not think that a company is a be-all and end-all but if you really want a job I would say this is important Then my top tip, top, top, top, top tip, if you take away one thing, choose three things before the interview that you absolutely must have them know by the time you leave the room and make sure you get them in there and really rehearse those three bits.

6:01So it could be something about your experience. It could be something about what you're aiming for in your career. It could be something really valuable that you brought to your previous job role, whatever it might be. if you have these three things then even if you kind of freeze up in that you're able to come back to that again and again and also remember that people usually need to hear things a few times to actually take them in so if you feel like you have things that are really strong and really appropriate for the role you can repeat them a few times as well because you're literally telling that person why you are perfect for the job they're not going to know your whole background they're not going to know your whole experience they're not going to know every single project you've done you want to do the work for them in telling them exactly what you are good at and last point kind of like a reference earlier remember that an interview is an interview both ways this is an interview for them as much as it is an interview for you so make sure you have some good questions in there in terms of actually like finding the right place for you because if there are some real non-negotiables you have with work and you pretend they're not non-negotiables for you when going for that job it's the same as like in a relationship and like with dating you're just going to shoot yourself in the foot and I completely understand that sometimes you just need a job and that might mean that you might need to compromise some of those things but if you are in the fortunate position that you can be a little bit more direct about what you want and a little bit more selective about that then I think that is incredibly important and I would also say kind of goes without saying but dress how people would dress at that job if you don't know what they would wear generally go smart casual you can stalk their literal office building on Instagram or LinkedIn and try and see what generally people go for but smart casual works unless you know it's something that's definitely not like that.

7:32Like corporate, go smart. And also from the second you are in that building, be polite and friendly. You would not believe how much you find out about an interview applicant once they have left the building with the other people that deal with them. Do not just be nice to the person who is interviewing you. Be nice to the door person. Be nice to anyone you encounter on the way up. Be nice to other applicants. Whatever it might be, you never know when you could get caught out. Right, that's quite enough of me rambling. um we are going into the first dilemma hey hi I have my first proper job interview on Thursday for a head of operations role and I'm still not 100 % sure if I want the role but I figured this was great practice anyway what do you think and what questions do you think they will ask so first of all I am assuming you are saying you have your first proper interview for this job specifically rather than the fact that you've got to the point in your career where you're in a head of role and you've never had an interview but we're just going to roll with it in the way that I would like to see it and if this is wrong I'm very sorry but hopefully the advice will be appropriate either way first of all not 100 % sure you want the role but figured it's great practice anyway agree agree agree agree if something could be the right role for you but you're still not sure give yourself the chance you might meet the people you might absolutely love it I think a lot of the time we're swayed by like the name of a company or something feeling like prestigious or whatever it might be and it might end up not being the right role for us same way something from a much smaller company might be exactly the right role for you.

8:56I'm not really sure I just made sense, but what I really mean is like, you don't really know if something is right for you until you put yourself in that situation and do just see if it's right for you. So I'd say always, if you get the opportunity to interview, great practice, whether you get it or not. And who knows, it might be fate. You might be there for a reason and it might be the absolute perfect job for you. So I think that's incredibly important. And then what questions do you think they'll ask? It's obviously a specialist role. It's a head of operations role so I would assume that it's going to be entirely based on your experience.

9:24From my experience when you go higher and higher in terms of the types of jobs they are being interviewed for it's more a conversation about the role itself and kind of what that specific company's needs might be. So for example at Tala we hire a lot of people into the role for the first time so we might have never had a head of design and we're hiring a head of design or we might have never had a head of people and now we're having a head of people. So generally when we're interviewing that person because they're the one coming in with the experience usually though that interview process is based on their experience but also the company and it's more of a conversation about like what we might need that they might be suited to what they generally think of our problems it will more be quite like situational analysis so we might be being like oh we're currently having an issue with this how would you fix that and then it kind of puts you into the position of being in that role but generally I find for head of and higher up roles it's more talking practical and situational analysis of what might be helpful for the company and how you might fit into that.

10:24So it sounds like if you're in a head of position or you're going for a head of position you generally know your role pretty well and it's going to be far less like a kind of like grad interview job where it's like are you enthusiastic, are you hard working and far more about like these are our problems, how do you think you might fit in there are you the right person for this do you get stuck in or are you more of like a delegator etc etc etc do do do do do do do do do experience that was a lot on the old throat hi grace i've been at my company for the last 10 years and i am looking to move into a slightly different sector i have built up loads of experience where i am but i don't think i've got enough experience for the new role i want and i'm probably not senior enough do you think I should go for it?

11:08Well, I think you know what I'm going to say. What have you got to lose? I ask 100%. If you apply for the job and you don't get an interview or don't get to the next stage or whatever it might be, it's not right for you. Fine. But you literally have nothing to lose apart from maybe a few hours on a Thursday evening where you were going to be scrolling on your phone anyway, just to apply for this job. And just remember that nothing happens until you make it happen. So you're looking to move into a slightly different sector. It might not be this one, this might not be the right role for you, but until you start trying, you are still going to be at the same distance from making that move, if that makes sense.

11:42You know that whole concept of like, if you had a breakup, or if you had got fired, or if you made a big mistake, or whatever, and you knew you had to make a hundred of those mistakes, or a hundred of those breakups, fucking hell, god forbid, or a hundred of those being fired in order to find your dream job, you would be pleased every time that happened because you got closer and closer. I feel like that's a very important thing to think about when you're thinking about something like job interviews, especially as it gets really exhausting as you get rejected over and over and over, as often happens, less so in the like 10 years of experience, more so in like the grad role place.

12:16But until you start trying to make these changes, you will not move even slightly in that direction. So I'd say 100 % go for it. You might not be senior enough and you might not have enough experience. Generally, it's very rare to get a role that's asked for more than 10 years of experience. People would rather have someone with five years really good really applicable experience in the market now remember markets change a huge amount in 10 to 15 years and so it sounds like it's more about that quality of experience rather than quantity of experience and you've got 10 years of experience anyway so I would go for it 100 % you might not be right for it you'll likely get some good feedback and at least you've made the step when you know that you want to start moving in that direction so I'd say 100 % go for it.

13:01Graduate. I graduated from university last year and I've always wanted to work in the fashion sector. I know I might not get my dream job right away but I'm struggling to even get my foot in the door. What am I doing wrong? Do you think I need experience? If you were hiring for Tala what qualities would you look for? So first things first I will say fashion is a shit show. The way fashion often works is that you have to do internships before you kind of get your foot in the door and they are usually unpaid internships which is trash and the reason we don't do internships at Tala is because we want to get to the point where we can offer proper good effective internships both for the company and for the people and we need to offer them paid because I refuse to offer internships that are going to value people differently based on whether they can live in London, have parents who live in London, are able to be financially supported, whatever it might be.

13:48So that's a little rant, but I will say that the fashion industry is a little bit fucked up in that way. I don't know what you graduated in. It sounds like you didn't do fashion, which is why you're saying this, but I might be wrong. And I also don't know what type of fashion you want to get into. I don't know whether you would like to be a paid marketing manager at a fashion company or whether you'd like to be a fashion designer. And obviously that's quite different, but I would say that if you want to get into something that's not specific to fashion design, I would recommend looking at jobs that have the title you want maybe not in the sector you want and you're much more likely to be able to get into that and be able to sidestep into something like fashion for example if it is that paid marketing role we won't necessarily hire people from fashion all the time at all we will hire people for the role itself so I would say if it's not a fashion design for example specific role I'd say you can sidestep into that quite easily so I'd say go for that and apply for as many jobs as possible with the title you want rather than in the sector you want, then we're much more likely to hire someone who's great at the job rather than someone who's worked in the sector.

14:50Then secondly, I would say if you are talking about something like fashion design, it might be that you need a little bit more experience, not necessarily even to do it, but just to be able to get your foot in the door. So I would say if there's an extra qualification you can take, either by going back to university and doing like an extra add-on course in something, a master's, a foundation, whatever it might be, or if you can do like a night course alongside or part-time etc etc etc there are so many options but I in general say any feedback you can get on why you're not getting those roles it's great that you're not expecting to get your dream job from the off but it might also be that there are just so many people with the qualification that you need to get that before you go into it don't worry that doesn't mean you need to get a three-year degree in it but it might just be that you need some official qualifications so that the company doesn't have to sponsor that if they're being presented with loads of other applicants that are in that position.

15:39Oh God, sorry, I went too high. Wait, that's too low.

15:46Interview prep. Good, because that's what the episode is on. I need some help. I have an interview next week with my dream company and I am scared. I have wanted to work for this company for years and already know quite a bit of information from doing some research when I applied, but how much research should I do before the interview? It's an hour long interview. What should I prepare? Great question. Hopefully I've already generally answered this in this episode, but I will answer this specifically. Great that you know a lot about the company. I would look for up-to-date information, general things they're doing on LinkedIn, Twitter, social media, so that you can really show your enthusiasm.

16:18It goes without saying that interviewers and companies in general love to be complimented. I think they generally feel like if you're a big fan of the company that you're more likely to stay there longer because you love it and you feel like you're in your kind of dream role. And as we know, companies always like people to stay places for a as long as possible generally because it is a nightmare to rehire. So I'd say first of all you're already in a great position. I would say that you can pretty clearly show your enthusiasm. I wouldn't say that's all you want to show in the interview. You don't want to just be like just a fangirl but actually kind of not talk a lot about your experience.

16:49Remember that your experience and what you're bringing to this is what you should be talking about most but maybe find parts of that that you can link up to things that you know they do or things that you know they value or things that you know they see as their view of quote-unquote success as we kind of talked about before. So it sounds that you're in a great position already. I would just make sure that you don't spend too much time talking about how much you love the company at the expense of talking about what you are actually bringing to the role. Because I assume you are not interviewing to be a fan.

17:16You are probably interviewing to actually do some work. So I would make sure that's there. And in terms of what you should prepare, hopefully I've already answered this in this episode. Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. Job interview fashion. Interesting title. Hello, Grace. I have my first in-person interview since COVID. I'm used to living and working in pajama bottoms. Help. What should I wear? What would impress you? I'm really conscious I don't want to stand out, but I also don't want to look boring. Tough. I understand. So as I kind of mentioned before, I think it's incredibly important to dress probably how people in the company you work will dress at, but I would stay on the smarter side of that.

17:54So I would generally maybe not go with a crop top to an interview. Sorry, I know probably some terrible undertones there, but I would generally say it's just not worth the risk, even if people might wear that in the office. If they don't, you're fucked from the second you walk through the door. So I would just make sure you go on a little bit on the smarter side of what they already wear. In terms of what would impress me, I very rarely look at what someone's wearing to an interview, unless it's like completely off-kilter. So I would just bear that in mind. Try to dress as close as possible to what you think people will wear there, maybe have a little look at their LinkedIn, maybe have a little look at their Instagram, maybe have a little look at the office building and like the photos you see, or whether they work in like a workspace or whether they work in like a WeWork or like whatever it might be.

18:38It can give you a little taster about how they approach work dressing. It's probably more likely to be a little bit more casual if they're in a joint workspace and a little bit more corporate if they're in like an office building. Definitely don't go in your pajama bottoms. Don't overthink it. Go smart casual if in doubt, even if it's a really casual office, they're not going to care if you come looking lovely in a pantsuit. Just be confident about it. So that's all for the dilemmas for today. I want to end out as I always do, she says, having done literally one solo episode before, with some fun facts on job interviews so that you feel like you go away from this episode feeling educated and inspired and enthusiastic and alive, awake, and alert.

19:22So 77 % of recruiters see grammatical mistakes and typos as deal breakers. Roughly 4 % of, no, roughly 40 % of people lie on their CVs. I would say an outright lie is not recommended. Do not do anything you can get caught out on. However, I have known people to say, rather than like assisted in creating presentations, said created presentations because you probably have the skill. Apparently you only have seven seconds to make a good first impression, but that seems terrifying to me. Maybe don't think about that one. Millennials and Gen Z will comprise 75 % of the global workforce by 2025. That's just a fun fact for you.

19:57On average, 118 people apply for a single job. Whoa, that's a whole lot. I would also say in general with job applications, we keep some of our applications only up for like 24 hours because often if a company has a big LinkedIn following, they get filled up pretty quickly and it's better to shut it down and then open it again. So I would say anywhere you really want to get a job, put notifications on for that. I don't even know if you can put LinkedIn notifications on. Maybe literally check it once a day or twice a week. Then, last fun fact, 90.6 % of employers prefer their candidates to have work experience.

20:28Nearly 91 % of employers have stated that they're preferred candidates who have had work experience. Specifically, 64.5 % indicated that they preferred candidates with relevant work experience and 26.1 % that they preferred work experience of any type. Only 5.1 % said that work experience isn't a significant factor when hiring. and I feel like that is terrifying because then it makes you feel like that if you haven't done this exact job before then you are already on the lower hand and I wouldn't say that is always true at all just remember that someone's going to have to pay a premium for someone coming in from that exact job you're likely to hire someone who's coming from a rung lower or a sidestep of an industry that's not going to mean that you're going to pay as much of a premium on that person so don't think you have the lower hand I would say when it comes to like maybe applying for a job that you haven't done specifically before just go for it what's the worst that can happen 47 % of recruiters said they would reject a candidate who had little knowledge about a company when they're applying I also think this is not actually about knowing the company it's about it shows it's like how you do anything shows how you do everything it's kind of like if you don't revise about the company for a job interview then like you're going to prepare badly for all other work is how I see it.

21:41Maybe that's wrong. The average interview process in the UK takes 27.5 days to complete. Not on my watch. I am like too high and fast and get it over and done with. And an average job interview will last between 30 and 45 minutes. And that is all my fun facts for the day. I feel like that was an overdose of fun fact. I feel like no one is even listening at this point anymore. But if you are, thank you so much for listening to this episode. Please rate, like, subscribe, whatever the appropriate action is on the channel you are watching I have nothing else to add. I hope you enjoyed this episode I hope you learned a lot if you didn't please leave a hate comment down below and I hope as always you have a lovely day.