Answering Tough Interview Questions FOR DUMmIES‰ by Rob Yeung Answering Tough Interview Questions For Dummies® Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd The Atrium Southern Gate Chichester West Sussex PO19 8SQ England E-mail (for orders and customer service enquires): [email protected] Visit our Home Page on www.wileyeurope.com Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex, England Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London, W1T 4LP, UK, without the permission in writing of the Publisher. 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ISBN-10: 0-470-01903-4 (PB) ISBN-13: 978-0-470-01903-0 (PB) Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International, Padstow, Cornwall 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 About the Author Dr Rob Yeung is a director at business psychology consul- tancy Talentspace, where he specialises in management assessment – training interviewers, designing assessment cen- tres, and interviewing candidates on behalf of employers. He also tries to set aside time to coach individual job hunters on interview technique. He has interviewed candidates for jobs ranging from customer service staff to managing directors across industries as varied as banking, technology, law, accountancy, airlines, and advertising and media. He has written for Financial Times, Daily Telegraph, and Guardian and contributed to publications from Men’s Health and New Woman to Accountancy and Sunday Times. He has published eleven other books on career and management topics. He is often seen on television including CNN and Channel 4’s Big Brother’s Little Brother. A chartered psychologist of the British Psychological Society with a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of London, he is a popular conference speaker and presenter of a highly acclaimed BBC television series on job hunting. He lives with his partner in west London and can often be spotted jogging along the side of the Thames. Dedication To my parents – for giving me the opportunity to find my own path in life and for their eternal optimism and support. Thanks also to the Talentspace team. Especially to Steve ‘Puppy’ Cuthbertson for creating the space for me to get on with writing this monstrosity of a book and Ian ‘Spanky’ Gordon for running the business. Author’s Acknowledgements I would like to thank Jason Dunne at Wiley for tracking me down and offering me the opportunity to write this book – I’ve really enjoyed it. Thanks also to Daniel Mersey for his patience with my many questions and endless changes to the shape and content of the book. My heartfelt appreciation goes to Stuart Murphy, former con- troller of BBC3, and the BBC team for giving me the opportunity to work with job hunters up and down the country – and have it all filmed and broadcast to viewers on national television. But thanks must also go to my many clients. To my corporate clients go my thanks for allowing me to introduce new inter- view and assessment practices into your organisations. And to the individual job hunters that I coach, my thanks go to you for constantly telling me about the appalling techniques that some of the not-so-good interviewers use! Publisher’s Acknowledgements We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/. Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Production Development Project Coordinator: Maridee Ennis Project Editor: Daniel Mersey Layout and Graphics: Andrea Dahl, Executive Editor: Jason Dunne Stephanie Jumper, Heather Ryan, Content Editor: Simon Bell Erin Zeltner Copy Editor: Kate O’Leary Proofreader: Brian H. Walls Proofreader: Andy Finch Indexer: TECHBOOKS Production Services Technical Editor: Brenda Pugh, Achieve Greatness Ltd. Executive Project Editor: Martin Tribe Cover Photo: © Getty Images/ Infocus International Cartoons: Ed McLachlan Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director, Consumer Dummies Kristin A. Cocks, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies Michael Spring, Vice President and Publisher, Travel Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel Publishing for Technology Dummies Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher, Dummies Technology/General User Composition Services Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services Contents at a Glance Introduction.......................................................1 Part I: Making Sure You Shine in an Interview .....7 Chapter 1: Understanding the Interviewing Game.................................9 Chapter 2: Doing Your Job Interview Homework.................................17 Chapter 3: Polishing Your Interview Performance...............................27 Part II: Answering Tough Interview Questions ....33 Chapter 4: Talking about Yourself..........................................................35 Chapter 5: Talking about Problems, Perceptions, and People ...........53 Chapter 6: Getting to Grips with Questions about Your Work ...........73 Chapter 7: Talking about Why You Want a New Job ............................89 Chapter 8 : Thriving Under the Pressure Interview...........................111 Chapter 9: Succeeding at Competency-Based Interviewing .............133 Part III: Dealing with Tricky Questions and Other Situations ......................................155 Chapter 10: Responding to Questions for Graduates and School Leavers..........................................................................157 Chapter 11: Handling Questions Aimed at Experienced Candidates.............................................................173 Chapter 12: Handling Hypothetical and Analytical Questions .........193 Chapter 13: Coping with Illegal and Personal Questions ..................207 Chapter 14: Taking Control in Unusual Situations .............................227 Part IV: Securing the Job of Your Dreams.........235 Chapter 15: Asking Great Questions ....................................................237 Chapter 16: Dotting ‘I’s and Crossing ‘T’s ...........................................245 Part V: The Part of Tens..................................255 Chapter 17: Ten Cardinal Sins of Interviewing....................................257 Chapter 18: Ten Tips to Creating the Perfect Career.........................263 Index.............................................................271 Table of Contents Introduction .......................................................1 About This Book .........................................................................1 Conventions Used in This Book ................................................2 Foolish Assumptions ..................................................................2 How This Book