Greetings to you, dear readers. I will say right away that this is not an ordinary article about how to find a job and pass an interview, which is full on the Internet, I will say a little later what originality is. Here I will not only talk about how to successfully pass a job interview, but I will also explain how not to sell cheap and get the maximum salary for yourself. In this series of articles, I will touch on how to prepare for the interview, how to correctly answer the most tricky questions of HR employees and how to make a competent resume. I will also explain how to be confident and not to feel nervous during an interview.
This will be a whole series of Anti-HR materials devoted to this issue. While two articles are ready, this is “Anti-HR: How to successfully complete an interview for work” (actually this article) and “Anti-HR: how to answer questions at an interview” later in this article I will give a link to it, as I recommend reading order and start with this text.
What does an effective interview mean?
Effectively pass an interview, in my understanding, means not only to get a job offer from the company where you came to get settled. This also applies to choosing the right organization and position in which you plan to work, having previously assessed your desires and opportunities. This means getting a job on the most favorable conditions for themselves: wages, bonuses, social package and prospects. Work is an important part of our life, employment in many ways determines our future and present. I will tell you how to do this in order to achieve the maximum beneficial effect in your job search and not make a mistake. I hope that the advice in this article will help not only to have an interview and find a job for the soul, but, as a result, will improve your life.
After all, this is a blog about self-development, and not about work, so I try to consider the issue broadly, within the context of your whole life, and not be limited to a dry listing of hackneyed advice to applicants. I approach this critically, somewhere I can allow myself more bold judgments than is required by the format of articles about employment.
Why are these articles called Anti-HR?
But the unusual nature of this material is explained not only by this. The series of articles is called Anti-HR. Because these texts are not written on behalf of a professional employee of the personnel service, who, creating recommendations for applicants, proceeds from their own interests, and they, in turn, express the goals of the organization that he represents. Therefore, I consider such recommendations not entirely honest.
HR will advise you to behave as he himself wants you to behave. For example, they were honest and sincere. He does not want to be led by the nose, the right to be cunning and trickery, he wants to keep only for himself. Therefore, in all these manuals it is advised never to lie, for the reason that a lie is supposedly always revealed. This is complete nonsense, firstly, the personnel service employee, there is no lie detector built into the head, and secondly, not all information can be checked. Meanwhile, without exaggeration of the merits and concealment of some facts, it is sometimes difficult to achieve the desired work. I will talk a lot more about this in these articles.
I lead the story on behalf of the applicant, the one who is looking for work, and does not accept new employees. And I will tell you how to achieve the best result for yourself, and not to come to a miserable compromise, the balance of which will be shifted towards the interests of the corporation!
I, in search of the most suitable work, passed a lot of interviews, probably about fifty. At first, I was haunted by failure, because I was not sure of myself and had difficulty imagining what to say and how to position myself. But then, as I gained experience and knowledge, the presentation itself began to bounce off my teeth and job offers began to pour in among me, among which I could already choose. In the end, I managed to find the job I was looking for. This article is the sum of personal experience of interviewing and knowledge gained from books on recruitment and information provided by HR themselves.
If you want to know what to say at the interview, then it is best to read the textbooks for HR themselves. Of these, you will gather a lot of information about the tactics of conducting an interview with the applicant, that is, with you. You will find out by what signs a company representative determines your motivation, whether you're lying or telling the truth. But since I read these textbooks, you don’t need to do this, I will set out the main points of them here and comment on them.
Material articles can not be called short, but it is still a lot less than all the textbooks on relevant topics. I lost a lot of time for all these interviews, filled a bunch of cones and stepped on a lot of rakes. Only experience, trial and error, allowed me to draw the right conclusions about how to successfully pass the job interview, which I actually implemented, but it cost me hundreds of hours of my time. So it is better for you to spend some part of your leisure time on reading this article than to stuff the same bumps. I assure you that this time will more than pay off, literally: it will pay off financially as well.
How to set yourself up for an interview
So let's get started. Before giving advice on the interview, for a start I want to set you up in the right way. Without this, it will be harder and I cannot guarantee the quality of the result. That's what I want you to understand.
First: The interview is a negotiation and not an exam!
Consider the interview as a negotiation of a mutually beneficial agreement. Whatever pathos would catch up with the employees of the company who communicate with you, calling the interview "competition", in an attempt to impose on you an idea of this event as a hard choice among a multitude of talented applicants, each of whom only wants to take this position. This is done so that you will be more willing to make concessions if you receive a job offer (for example, you agree to a lower salary, because you are afraid that they will take another instead of you) and rejoiced at the mere fact of receiving this position as passing a difficult exam in strong competition.
Understand, to find a good employee is very hard, whatever you may say about contests. If it comes to that, then the interview is not only a company verification of you, you also look closely and check a company that is very interested in intelligent specialists and if something does not suit you, then this company does not pass your “competition”. This is a search for mutually beneficial terms, remember this and set yourself up accordingly.
You do not have to agree to everything, if this is not necessary. Know your worth and do not lose dignity. The company will still have to prove that it deserves an employee like you.
Of course, this pathos is not always suggested; basically, these are big international companies that are trying to play on their behalf, and it’s not a fact that working conditions and prospects are better there than everywhere else. This is also characteristic of different scam. So if you have come somewhere, and you are constantly being told about the "selection" that you are among the ten applicants selected from a hundred, you should know this is the standard trick of all sorts. Do not get fooled, after these words get up and go out of there, you can even slam the door.
Second: Everyone deserves a good salary.
You deserve a good, reasonable, appropriate to your needs and current realities, salary. Life now is not the simplest: to provide yourself and your family with everything you need is not an easy task. In Russian families, often, both men and women have to work in order to feed all family members. Food prices are not the smallest, but I don’t even talk about the opportunity to purchase real estate, especially in the capital. You deserve a good salary in order not to be in trouble and not to drown in loans. I'm not talking about all sorts of excesses, but about a normal, reasonable consumption of material goods.
If you get a full-time job, then you will not have the opportunity to work in a second job, so the level of compensation must cover your basic necessities of life! Keep this in your head and demand more, if possible. Do not hesitate, corporations with large profits will not lose, if they make an increase to your salary, but for you extra capital will become a tangible increase to the budget.
But know that the fact that you deserve the best does not mean that a potential employer shares this conviction (organizations do not care about your problems and no one will pay you much just because you need it). You get paid for what you are an employee or how you showed yourself. You will have to prove that you deserve a certain salary. You should not come to an interview with a high nose and act as if all of you have to. (but also you should not bash your nose, keep it straight))
You need to understand that when you go for an interview, you accept certain rules of the game. You should not deviate from these rules: it is better to conduct your chess game in a subtle and delicate way, setting traps for the enemy than just mindlessly throwing pieces on the board, ignoring the laws of the game.
So, now I can finally turn to the tactics of effectively passing an introductory interview when applying for a job.
Preparing for an interview and resume writing
Any interview begins with a summary. I will write a separate article about how to compose it, you can subscribe to my newsletter immediately under the article and get a notification that such an article has appeared. Here I will touch on this only briefly. Put the expected salary more than one and a half times more than your last - you will not lose, as there is a wide variation in the amount of compensation for the same positions on the market. Different firms pay differently. You will only be able to lower it when you realize that no one will give such money for sure, and this is a real hopelessness.
Also, wait for the article on how to prepare for the interview, it will also appear soon, I promise not to delay its publication.
How much can I get the most?
Be sure to overestimate the salary at the previous places of work (again, one and a half times), this will help us to achieve a greater level of compensation in the new place. In the hiring guides that I found on the network, it is advised not to do this in any way, since all this can be checked. This is nonsense, they will not check anything, if you do everything right, in the article that I promise to publish in a short time (it will be called: how to achieve the highest possible salary at the interview), I will write how everything can be carefully checked and why, stay tuned or subscribe .
Interview Questions
In this article I will try to provide general tips on how to successfully pass the interview. If you want to know how to answer questions at the interview, then click on the link.
How to behave at the interview. 10 tips
Tip 1. Take the correct posture!
We keep our hands on the table in front of us; we don’t need to pull at something in them, we shouldn’t support the face with our hands. Watch your pose. The back is straight, the chin line is parallel to the table. This is not only to portray dignity and confidence. When you constantly pay attention to how you sit, how you speak, it increases your vigilance, you start to feel, how the racer feels, the car which well controls. This increases the degree of self-control, you do not have to expect unpleasant surprises from yourself. As a result, your self-confidence grows and you are more relaxed.
Tip 2. Do not be nervous! Or, at least depict external calm
If we start to get nervous, we try to stabilize the breath, we take deep breaths and exhalations. If you can not cope with nervousness, use my advice from the article how to stop being nervous. Meditation before the interview helps very well, it will make you cool and calm as a boa.
At least we should not in any way show the representative of the company that we are under stress. Your concern may tell HR about our mental instability, which may be incompatible with our future work. Therefore, even if we are very nervous, then we try not to show it, we depict complete calm. And the calmer we want to seem, the more we calm down, it acts on the principle of feedback: our pretended state becomes real, it is a fact.
Tip 3. Speak confidently, look into your eyes
We speak clearly and confidently. Look in the eyes. No, of course it will not be good if you stare at HR, as if you are trying to hypnotize him, look away sometimes. But do not keep them lowered all the time. I guess this is the most obvious.
Tip 4. Try to engage in dialogue.
This is the most important point and success factor of the interview. Do not turn this process into an interrogation! Let it be a lively dialogue. Try to dilute the situation with jokes, witty remarks, response questions. HR conducts interviews every day, do you think they are not tired of him? He will be glad at least some dilution of the everyday routine of humor and communication. But then of course, stick to the edges of reasonable, I think it is obvious.
It is especially important to create a dialogue in a conversation with a future leader (all the same, HR itself doesn’t need it as much as is necessary with your potential leader), you should like it. Here you should not be particularly brief, concise in your presentation: bring living examples from life, talk about situations at work, tell us about how your specialty is taught at institutes (if you graduated recently), it will be interesting to people of the old school. Smile and laugh at jokes. But everything must be organically intertwined with your presentation, it is not said without reason, and you must always abide by the measure. I hope this is understandable and is already at the discretion of everyone.
I repeat once again that this is very important and I began to pass the interview easily, only after I began to adhere to this rule! Only then did I begin to have a choice of several offers from different companies, and I did not have to agree on the only thing that was being offered.
Tip 5. Avoid the words parasites
We avoid such turns as: “in principle,” “in general,” etc. They ask: “did you have good relations with colleagues in your previous work?” They answer: “Yes, good” and not “Well, in principle, good” - the latter is a marker of uncertainty and even deception. These words do not carry any meaning, they are not needed in speech and only give you away. Indeed, when I am not sure about something and cannot answer 100% with a statement, since this is not entirely true, I begin to involuntarily use the words parasites. Therefore, I try to remove them from my speech.
Tip 6. First speak and then think.
This advice should not be taken literally. It refers to the fact that it is difficult to quickly make any decision like this on the fly. For example, everything suits you, but HR, says that the office will move to the other end of the city in half a year and is interested in whether it suits you or not. Without thinking (after a theatrical pause), say, “yes, for me this is normal” (even if it is really far from you).
Immediately agree with everything that requires deliberation, you do not have to talk now about your final decision. And then, in a relaxed atmosphere, you will think it over. It may turn out that you did not take into account the absence of traffic jams on this route and that the road, in fact, will not take much time, and you will understand that this is not a critical factor. And maybe so stop at the original decision.
But it is better to offer you a job, and then you already think about accepting this offer or not, than if HR immediately puts an end to you, since you will not agree with any conditions at the interview. This gives you more freedom to choose. So feel free to agree with everything, then think about it.
Tip 7. Do not say too much
Remember the phrase from American movies about police? "Anything you say will be used against you." Also at the interview, almost every question of HR is an attempt to learn about you as much as possible and understand your ulterior motives. Try to look at yourself from the outside, understand what kind of image you create with your behavior and manner of dialogue. Be sociable, but do not communicate too much, say only what to hear from you though. This is not a reason to shut yourself in and keep silent, this is an action aimed at concluding your interview in a certain framework, without which it will not understand what. Но все равно ведите диалог, не нужно отвечать лишь в сухом и формальном ключе, просто следите за презентацией и за тем, что вы говорите.
Возможно вам придется еще что-то скрывать на собеседовании, а какую-то информацию, откровенно исказить. Я не вижу ничего плохого в этом и считаю что вы имеете полное моральное право на это. В статье можно ли врать на собеседовании я попытался рассмотреть этот вопрос очень подробно.
Почему нам не перезванивают после собеседования?
И напоследок. Не расстраивайтесь, если вам не перезванивают или отвечают отказом, назвав, какие-нибудь туманные причины почему вы не подошли! Это может быть не ваша вина и это может не означать, что вы не подошли или плохо выступали во время интервью! Здесь может быть другое, поделюсь своим предположением. Данный вывод носит характер предположения, пускай довольно логичного и обоснованного, но точной информации на счет того что оно верно на 100% у меня нет. Но все таки, я его выскажу, так как думаю, что в нем есть смысл.
Почему нам не перезванивают (хотя, казалось бы мы подходим идеально и много не требуем). Для начала представьте как работает HR. Открывается вакансия в каком-нибудь отделе. Формируется список обязанностей и требований, на их основании формируется так называемый «профиль вакансии» (здесь я могу быть неточен в терминах, но общий принцип, думаю, способен передать). В нем отражены особенности данной позиции и перечислены те качества, которые должны быть у человека, который, на взгляд компании, будет идеально подходить под эту вакансию. "Нет плохих претендентов, а есть только люди, неподходящие определенной позиции" - так говорят HR-ы и это правда. Например, если берут на работу менеджера по продажам то в нем хотят видеть нацеленность на результат (продажа = результат), нежели чем на процесс, тогда как, например, от бухгалтера ждут как раз-таки того, что его завлекает сам процесс, менее чем результат. Это все должно быть отражено в профиле вакансии.
После того, как профиль готов, осталось лишь начать поиск претендентов и проводить с ними интервью, что и делают HR-ры. После общения с каждым претендентом они оставляют свои пометки и смотрят на сколько тот или иной участник интервью соответствует профилю вакансии. Таким образом, они сравнивают и оценивают соискателей. То есть, их работа это не только провести интервью с вами, но и составить профиль и оценить.
А что происходит, когда HR молодой и неопытный и его надо обучить? Или чем им заниматься в тот период, когда компания не ищет сотрудников на вакантные места? Теперь понимаете к чему я клоню? Создается несуществующая вакансия! Вакансия, на которую, все равно никого никогда не возьмут! Ее создают лишь для того, чтобы обучить неопытных эйчаров или занять существующий штат сотрудников отдела персонала. Пускай потренируются создавать профиль, оценивать разных сотрудников в "полевых" условиях а не в теории! Он посмотрит разных кандидатов, оценит их и представит результаты начальству, так может приниматься решение об окончании испытательного срока этого сотрудника без всяких рисков для организации! Это ничего компании не стоит, тратиться время только ваше!
Таких вот фиктивных вакансий, на мой взгляд, на рынке не так мало. Хотя я этого не проверял и допускаю, что может все и не так, как я себе представляю, но, все же, мне кажется это весьма вероятным. Так что не расстраивайтесь, если вам пришел очередной отказ о приеме на работу, быть может вы были просто для кого-то предметом для обучения кадров! Но тем не менее не стоит особо на это рассчитывать, если вам ничего не предлагают после многих собеседованиях лучше задуматься о смене своей тактики и презентации, чем пенять на заговор HR-ов!
Заключение. Ничего не бойтесь!
Не надо бояться и чувствовать себя неуверенно. С вами беседуют обычные люди, несмотря на то, что они понадевали пиджаков и всеми силами пытаются напустить на себя важность. За этой формой скрывается человек, со своими слабостями и желаниями. Не нужно робеть и замыкаться в себе. Будьте более открытыми, там где этого требует ситуация, но не говорите лишнего! Чаще всего с вами будут разговаривать не самые толковые работники HR, которые задают свои вопросы, только затем, чтобы хоть что-то спросить.
Или же вы будете сразу беседовать с вашим будущим руководителем, который ничего не понимает в тонкостях ведения интервью, и поэтому многие мои советы тут покажутся излишними. Но я пытаюсь ввести вас в состояние полной боевой готовности и подготовить к встрече с самым сильным, хитрым и проницательным противником. А такие среди HR-ров безусловно имеются.
Так что желаю вам удачи в поиске работы и прохождении интервью!
