Vacancy Interview Question

Q1. ‘Tell me what you know about this organisation.’

There is no excuse for not having a response to this question as it often comes up. Whatever the particular job that you are applying for, the interviewer will expect you to have some knowledge of the organisation, and the more the better.

Whether you have seen an advertisement, been sent a job description or person specification or read literature about the company, you should have some information to offer. Even if you do not really know much about the organisation and it is one of many that you are applying for, you need to remember that the employer concerned thinks the job and the organisation are unique. The more you know, the more suitable you will seem.

Make some effort to search the internet for any information that may exist. First look up the name of the organisation using a search engine. Most medium to large organisations now have a website which outlines their main business and gives details of current priorities and past endeavors. If you can find nothing on the company directly, try looking up a competitor or reading about the sector in which the company is based. If you do not have your own computer, try the local library. They will have helpful and knowledgeable staff who will help you, and many reference materials, printed and computerized, that they can introduce you to. Try to evaluate the information you research – can you draw any conclusions about the organisation from the

way it is presented?

If you have found no prior information then at least use your eyes and ears in the interview. Are there brochures or posters in evidence? How do the staff seem to relate to each other and outsiders? What first impressions have you gained? Get talking to reception staff about how they find working there. Sharing your thoughts on these topics, always stressing positive points, will show you are alert and interested.

I once interviewed someone who had arrived for her appointment knowing nothing about the organisation. She had been sent no information when applying for the post but spent her time wisely once she arrived. When I asked her this same question she replied:

‘Well, I saw that the walls of the main corridor are covered with thank-you letters from your clients so I know that you offer a good service to them. The waiting area is clean and tidy, which means you care about the impression you are making. I can see that the center is full so you must be successful and your receptionist, Janice, was very friendly to me when I arrived so I know your staff like working here.When I came in I picked up your annual report and can see the variety of work you carry out with local people, which is very impressive.’

So was she and, needless to say, she got the job.

Q2. ‘Why do you want to work for this company?’

Answering this question depends on the type of work offered and how much you know about the company concerned. You need to stress the particular type of organisation in relation to your own skills, strengths and personality. Your ideas about what you would do if offered the job are worth contributing here. Try to make the case for a good match between the company’s aims and outlook and your own. Enthusiasm for what you can offer will be much more impressive than what you hope to gain by getting the position. Try to give the impression that your career so far has been leading you to this point today.

Q3. ‘If you were offered this job, how do you think you would spend your first two weeks with the company?’

This is a more general question designed to check that you have a realistic and sensible approach to work. In most jobs, unless you have worked for the organisation before, you would need to spend your first few days getting used to the new environment. This means finding your way around, meeting your new colleagues, and familiarizing yourself with the rules and working practices. You would also probably spend some time with your new manager learning how the work is done and about current priorities.

Q4. ‘What do you think are the most important issues facing this organisation at the moment?’

This question may well be posed when certain political, environmental or financial issues affect an organisation. Examples of such organisations could be charities, not-for profit organisations or local authorities. Your answer would depend on the exact nature of the employer, but could include: generating income; allocating scarce resources; setting objectives; implementing cutbacks; quality control; managing grant funding or some particular campaign with which the organisation is involved. You will really have to do your homework though in order to answer this convincingly. Can you find out what the press profile of the organisation has been lately? 

Q5. ‘What do you think you can contribute to this company?’

This is one of my favourite questions. As far as an employer is concerned, this represents the crux of the whole interview. This is your chance to shine, by saying exactly why you decided to apply for the job. You will need to bring out your particular strengths and show clearly what you can offer not what you want to get from the job. Quoting your experience and skills will help to impress on the employer that you will be a valuable addition to the team. Don’t forget to include good points about your personality here. Move on to explain how you would use all these things to help build on the success of the organisation.

Take care not to appear arrogant. Even if you can see weaknesses in some of the present activities or direction of the organisation, you should only convey these in terms of what could be improved. You need to be very aware of your audience. The Marketing Director of a large company asked a candidate at an interview to comment on the latest marketing campaign. The candidate effectively ruled herself out of the job when she answered that she thought the work had been complete rubbish from start to finish. None of us

responds well to negative criticism, whereas constructive and creative points are often well received.

Q6. ‘Why are you applying for the post?’

This is another variant on the last question and should be answered in the same way. Try to structure your answers. Give three key points such as:

1. my skills and experience.
2. my character and personality.
3. my vision for this particular post.

In this way you will give a clearer response while still including everything you need to say.

Q7. ‘Which areas of the job description are you weakest at and how would you compensate for this?’

The employer does not want to hear that you fall short of the requirements in many respects so evaluate which of the areas asked for is your weakest. You need to show what you have done already about boosting your skills and experience in this area and what else you can do in the future. If budgeting is the area you like least you could say: ‘I know that the area I need to work hardest on is managing budgets as I have least

experience here. It is also the most important area for having control over the work of the department. I recently went on a course for budgetary management which gave me more confidence in this field and I would be keen to work closely with the finance manager for the first six months to ensure that I was on top of this part of the role.’ Showing self knowledge plus an interest in learning and development is impressive.

Q8. ‘This job is too highly paid isn’t it?’

Sometimes you will be asked a provocative question like this, but the interviewer may think that this could be a question put to you by funding bodies or journalists if you get the job, so it is a good one to test you out on. If you are going for a high-profile job in the not-for-profit or charitable sector, you could be challenged on this point by the press or members of the public. Are you confident that the remuneration is worth what you would contribute to the job? Do you know what other people in similar roles are paid? None of us can really

prove that we are worthwhile except by reference to work of similar value elsewhere. You will be expected to answer this with a robust defence of your role though. Talk up what special skills and talents you bring to the job and what ideas you have for developing your remit to make the organisation more impressive, effective or dynamic. Your next salary increase may depend on how convincing you are in your

response.

Q9. ‘This job needs to be filled by a motivator – tell us how you would do that.’

Getting people to do what you want can be difficult. You may be being asked this question as a result of current economic difficulties. If it is a sales-based job, how will you inspire your team to work harder and better? Have you had experience before of motivating people successfully? What did you do and why did it work? How are you seen by other people – as a leader and trail-blazer? Or as a safe pair of hands who can be relied on to do the right thing? How do you propose to set the expectations of your new workmates

and what will you do if they do not want to work your way? Try to find examples of how you have used motivation before, or how you have been motivated by other people or circumstances in the past. Show that you are confident in this area and keen to use your skills and enthusiasm to get the team going.

Q10. ‘You will have some difficult characters in your new team. How will you handle them?’

We cannot choose the people we work with so we have to find ways to get along with them. Team work is vital in any job and a good team player will always be attractive to employers. You need to draw on your past experiences whether from the work environment or outside work, to say how you would handle these new team mates who are difficult. They could be any type of people and just because they have been troublesome in the past, they could get on with you much better than they did with your predecessor. If

you arrive in this organisation determined to be a productive and settled team player, that in itself could have a beneficial effect through your own behavior helping to set a new standard for other people. You may be applying for a job where part of your role is to solve problems such as this, in which case looking at the way the individuals in the team perform in their jobs and trying to iron out any difficulties they are encountering would be a good place to start.

It may just be that you would be employed as a member of this team. Most of us respond positively to those who treat us fairly and involve us where possible so both those points should feature in your answer. How were you treated in the job you liked best from the past? Are there pointers there for the way that your new team should be managed? If there are insurmountable difficulties in a team in a large organisation, it might be possible to split up the team and reform the group differently. Sometimes bringing in an outside mediator to

bring people together to sort out their differences can be helpful. All of these ideas are constructive and will help reassure the interviewer that you will be part of the solution to this long-running issue, not adding to the problem.

Q11. ‘What do you think we should be doing to survive the economic downturn?’

Unless you are applying for a job with some kind of responsibility for strategic planning in an organisation, it is unlikely that you will be asked a question like this. However, the interviewer may want to see how you would approach answering a question about the economy or current affairs generally. There are no right answers to this question. If there were, we might not be facing difficult economic times. The interviewer will be interested to see what you think the possibilities for success are at the moment. Have you been keeping

an eye on the quality press lately? Creative thinking, flexibility and diversification are three recommendations that writers in the business press are making currently. Can any of these three be applied to the job on offer? What scope is there for flair in developing new markets, ways of working or products and services? How flexible is the organisation to be able to change its ways to respond to new emerging opportunities? Can the company diversify to find new markets instead of relying on the old?

Q12. ‘What do you think is the best way to deal with poor performers?’

You will be applying for a job that is concerned with the way that individuals perform at work if you are asked a question such as this. That can mean that you will work either in the HR department or that you are a supervisor or manager of other people. Setting expectations of the way you expect people to perform at work is the place to start. Working with individuals to help them reach the standards required and investing in staff to train and develop them to the best of their abilities is crucial.

Monitoring production or performance in work is key to understanding what is happening and then giving feedback on effective working, and encouragement to motivate people can be helpful. If you have worked in this field before, describe an example of the way in which you have raised standards of performance elsewhere and show how you increased satisfaction at work. What did you do specifically to help change the situation? What are the key factors that allowed you to make the difference? Most important of all, what have you learned about staff performance that you can now bring to this new job?