Interview Day III: The Bank Job

Evening all! I'm glad to have more positive news to report with regards to Operation: Swordfish, the quest for more gainful employment, which would have made the blogosphere last night if it weren't for me running on fumes and caffeine by the time I eventually made it home. That's a story for another day though.

As you've probably guessed by the title of this post, the news is that I have another interview lined up in the near future. The very near future.. Tomorrow in fact! After a successful phone interview, one of the leads I mentioned in an earlier post (the one one with a leading financial institute, or as I've come to think of it lovingly, "The Bank Job")  has come good, offering me a very real opportunity to change my circumstances for the better.

If I get this job it'll more than halve my travel each day, and nearly quadruple the money I'm currently bringing home! Quadruple! That's one hell of a jump!

So to prepare I've been getting myself into the right mindset. I'm 99% sure that this is going to be a competency based interview, so I'm casting my mind back over my career and my achievements looking for examples of stuff I believe they're likely to want to touch upon.

Give me an example of a time when you have gone above and beyond? Tell me about how you deal with conflicting priorities? Tell me about a time you've overcome a problem? Tell me about a time when you failed to deliver upon an expectation?.. We all know the sort of questions that I'm on about.

Historically I haven't done well with these questions. I tend to come off as rather negative. Which is very easy to do under the pressure of an interview, and given the generally negative phrasing of the questions. They're almost designed to make you say the wrong thing.. They're evil!

So that's why it's all about mindset for me at the moment. Whilst I may not have a list of the exact questions they're going to ask (chance would be a fine thing), I can go in there thinking positive; with a catalogue of my achievements, successes, and the obstacles I have overcome fresh in my memory.

As I see it, this should give me the best shot. As at the end of the day whilst an interview carries the pretext of being about a job; it's really about the person, an how well that person is going to fit into the role and the team. The interviewer is asking themselves, can I work with this person going forward?

I want that answer to be a yes, and the best way to ensure that yes is to put across the best you. Being bright-eyed, bushy tailed, positive and upbeat. Take yourself to a great memory, or an event you really enjoyed and replay it in your mind. Capture what made it so good, and inject that into everything you say and do during the interview.. Just try not to sound too much like an over-excited puppy!

Wish me luck guys!