I have always been an overall strong interviewer. I’ve given interviews as a reporter and enjoy helping people open up to share their stories. Knowing how to write effective interview questions and put an interviewee at ease has really helped me when I am on the opposite side of the table.
In the US, I was accustomed to fielding interview questions that allowed me to expand on my passions and preparation for the job in question. I enjoyed imagining different interview questions and thinking of stories that I could share.
When I moved to NZ, I anticipated that finding a job would be a little challenging because I was competing in a field without local employment shortages. No one is going to look at an academic from a US small institution with some industry background (albeit on a good level, but not too recent nonetheless) when there are so many well-connected Massey, AUT and Otago graduates with local and OE experience. I hoped that interviewing well would give me the edge.
After the first few months of applying and hearing crickets, a few interviews started to roll in by early 2014. I found a possible role with a US State Department agency (not the Embassy) that could have been a good fit. I knew their program inside and out (having been involved in it myself to some extent in the US) and basically memorised the information on the website. I was excited to talk about my interest in their program and to show my expertise at the interview.
Most interviews I’ve had here follow the following formula to some degree, but the US State Dept. interview was by far the most extreme. I came into an afternoon interview slot (never again if I can help it) to a big room where four people sat around a table. They were obviously fatigued after lunch, and I was just another number to them.
After brief introductions, they each pulled out some type of guide or paper and began reading questions off the paper, barely engaging with me. “First question: Tell me about a situation in which you managed a difficult task.” “Second question: Tell me about a goal you achieved.”
A few minutes into the interview, it was obvious that the interview was bombing quite badly. The problem is that not only did the interviewers fail to offer a few opening questions to set the tone and relax me, but I was also completely unprepared for the interview style. They didn’t seem to recognise that I didn’t understand the interview structure. Or, maybe they didn’t care; after all, it is my responsibility in another country to adapt to the style. It was incredibly frustrating because I was a great fit for the role, but the interview was not structured in a way that allowed me to put forth my best self.
Following this experience, I located a local job coach who helped me understand why the interview went so wrong. We talked about the competency-based interview structure and how to answer the questions using the “STAR” approach. I bombed the initial mock interview that we had, but I caught on quickly after I learned the formula.
The competency-based approach is not difficult when you learn how to properly prepare and think a different way. The key is to think of examples and scenarios that match the job’s competencies. Practice using the right interview questions and response formula is key.
The result is that my interviews completely turned around. Finding a permanent job that uses my skills has still been much more difficult than I imagined, but I can work on my remaining problem of needing to relentlessly networking to get past the 50 applications for some of these roles. The local market is flooded with Communications graduates. It’s also obvious that I need to be more creative about job options and also apply to less saturated fields.
A former colleague asked me if I have noticed any cultural nuances that I did not see during my sabbatical here in 2012. One of them, no doubt, is interviewing style. I don’t know what I was thinking; of course interviewing styles differ across cultures, and it’s no surprise that the competency-based structure is often used in Britain, too.
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