Interview Fun!

Someone I know asked me to set them up with a few interview tips, but I am not really an expert. My first three interviews were actually pretty straightforward. I got into Exeter University, then got my first job, and then my first promotion. Three interviews, three successes, I can’t remember a single question they asked me – it just went well.

So, on the face of it, there isn’t much I can say. Instead, I have decided just to share some anecdotes, a few true stories. If you find them useful, or even just amusing, then I shall be pleased.

By 1980 I had set my sights on getting a job in London, and in London, as always,  they were desperate for teachers. They were desperate for any teachers, and they would get them wherever they could.

A case in point was a guy who I will call Geoff Ranger [Not his real name.] On leaving university he had taken his first teaching job somewhere up north, but he wanted to be back in the London area.

He was offered an interview and he travelled down to London, but unfortunately he forgot to bring the paperwork with him. So, as you did, back in those days, he phoned directory enquiries and got the number of the school, then phoned the school secretary and got directions to the site, and he turned up bang on time.

The staff on reception seemed a bit confused and they kept him waiting about half an hour, until, at last, a deputy-head turned up who apologised for keeping him waiting, but explained that they didn’t have a spare office. In the end they put two chairs in a large staff toilet and interviewed him there!

But that’s not the funny part. After Geoff had accepted the job, they explained to him that they weren’t expecting him because they hadn’t advertised for a teacher. It turns out that directory enquiries had given Geoff the number for a different school with the same name, and the school he went to was so short of decent teachers that when he turned up they just offered him a job anyway, then they rearranged the timetables so they could fit him in. He did well for himself and became an advisor in the end.

[Learn from this: Employers need staff just as you need a job – be confident and aim high.]

Against that sort of background I felt fairly positive when I came up to London to be interviewed for a job as the Head of History at a Comprehensive School in Barking.

I drove up to London the day before and stayed with an old friend. His place was only ten minutes’ drive from the school. I had bought a new suit for the interview, a very light shade of tweed, it was sage green almost, with burgundy leather shoes, well polished, and a burgundy leather briefcase to match.

At this particular school the head’s office was right next to the “cookery rooms,” and attached to those rooms was what they called “the flat.” It was what we might normally call a bedsit; one room with a bed, cooker, table and chairs and an ironing board. It also had a bathroom at the back. When it was built the idea was that schoolgirls could learn all the basics of domestic life, especially how to make the beds and keep the house clean, but times had moved on and that sort of approach no longer had a place in the curriculum, because it was considered sexist, so the flat just got used as a kind of a mini-staffroom That was where they put us to wait for our interviews, and the cookery teachers served us lots of coffee.

I was number four in the running, so when number three went in to be interviewed, I took the opportunity to go through into the bathroom, taking my coffee and my briefcase with me. No sooner had I looked in the mirror than there was a bang on the door. The third man had pulled out and they wanted me straight away.  I hurried to respond as fast as I could. With my briefcase in one hand and my mug in the other, I tried to get out of the room but the door-handle was a bit tricky, my brief-case swung back against my other hand, and half a cup of hot coffee went right down the front of my pale green suit.

The effect was horrific. I found myself with a great big wet stain all the way down my inside leg, to just above my right knee. It was still steaming and it looked for all the world as if I had wet myself. No amount of talking was going to explain all that. If ever there was a time for giving up and running away, this was it, but I really wanted the job.

I abandoned the coffee mug and walked out with the briefcase in my right hand, angled across my front to hide the wet patch. In the interview room I switched the case to my left, holding it in front of me while I shook hands with everyone, then I sat down with the brief-case on my knee. I have no idea what questions they asked me, my brain was completely running on auto-pilot, but I managed to get back out of the room still shielded by the briefcase and without anyone noticing my problem. Ten minutes later they called me back in and offered me the job, wet trousers not withstanding. I can certainly assure you that after surviving that incident I would never, never, ever, have any kind of interview nerves again. I had snatched a triumph from the jaws of disaster and nothing else they could throw at me would ever bother me.

[Learn from this: One mistake does not ruin an interview, you have no time to get embarrassed – just keep going.]

So, that was my own most memorable moment, now let’s consider a few more and see what you can learn from them;

First of all, don’t let yourself down!

Make sure you have had your CV checked by someone who understands spelling and grammar. I once sat through an interview where a chap had one tiny typo error on his CV. It seems that he had been on a course on “Young People and Drugs.” but on his CV it actually said “Young People and rugs.” One of the interviewers even gave him a little dig about it, “I see you have been on some interesting courses. Tell us a bit about them.”

It was only a small mistake but as far as the panel were concerned it showed that he had not taken enough care with this important issue. 

There are many other examples of this sort of problem, from arriving late to turning up with dirty shoes. You need to show them that the job matters to you and you are coming in with a winner’s mentality.

Often you may be asked to deliver a talk or teach a lesson or perform a practical task. This is a chance to show what you can do, so make the most of it. I was once on an interview panel where each candidate had been asked to demonstrate “something” involving ICT. That gave people a pretty wide range of options, a chance to show off just how clever they were. One gentleman chose to demonstrate “How to plug in a memory stick.” needless to say, he didn’t get the job.

[Learn from this: Use the interview to show that you can do things well, don’t look for shortcuts or the easy way out.]

Now we come to the central part of the interview: what questions are they going to ask you? Wouldn’t it be easy if you knew what the questions were going to be? Well, actually, you do! Almost all interview questions can be predicted in advance.

Let’s assume there could be a question on what you have been doing in your last job, what did you achieve and how did you measure those achievements?

Assume there will be one on what you see yourself achieving in the new job, and what performance indicators you will use for that.

You should always expect a question on how you will motivate your team, how you will get more out of them and what kind of a leader you are going to be.

There are two things which I always try to squeeze into my answers, somehow;

When I am asked how I would deal with an issue or a problem, I always start by saying “First I would make sure that I had read the official policy.“ Management like that. They like someone who actually checks their policies rather than just making it up as they go along.

When I am asked about what contribution I would make I give as full an answer as possible, but always include a line that is something like “showing support to my colleagues and loyalty to the management.”  Try to look the boss directly in the eye when you say those last few words. Loyalty matters to managers, more than they would ever admit. There’s always some fool who thinks they should “stand up to the boss” but in my humble opinion, that’s not a great idea in an interview.

At some point you may get a difficult question. It’s unlikely to be “How many lines can you get on a spreadsheet?” although you ought to know that as well. In every field of employment there will always be one or two areas which people dread being asked about.

In teaching or nursing or social-work it might involve safeguarding.

In finance or it might involve compliance or data protection.

In many jobs it could be health and safety,

These are fundamental issues which can make or break your employers business and your own career, so you should expect to have a perfect answer ready.

[Learn from this: Research and rehearse the questions, especially the ones you don’t want to be asked]

There’s more to it than just the answer.

Some of my students used to go for interviews at a top medical school in London. One year they were given this problem to deal with:

“A friend of yours is getting married and has asked you to collect the wedding cake from the cake-maker. As you walk out into the street someone bumps into you and the cake goes under the wheels of a bus. In a few seconds one of our students is going to come in pretending to be the bride and you have to explain the bad news about the cake.”

Now I am not going to give an opinion about how useful or sensible that exercise was, but it was meant to test the candidate’s powers of empathy and expression.

The following year it was the same basic question, but it involved a pet rabbit which had got out onto the road and got killed. In essence, the same skills were being tested.

[Learn from this: Before you respond to a question, try to ask yourself, what are they after here? What skills are they trying to detect?]

Be prepared for a question where there is no satisfactory answer. A friend of mine attended an interview with a group teamwork exercise where the candidates had to use as many letters as possible to create a kind of scrabble set-up of words connected to their job. The person who suggested the word would get the points. When they finished it was time for lunch. After lunch they were asked to set it up again in order to be assessed. What they didn’t know was that some of the key letters had been removed to make it impossible. Of course, a massive argument then broke out as different people tried to recreate an impossible situation. The management wanted to see how the candidates would react when they were under pressure. So now they were in danger of losing points. Would they stay calm? Or would they turn on their colleagues.

[Learn from this: Whenever there is a group activity remember to focus on teamwork skills, not just showing off your own abilities.]

There is a story that a young man went to his university interview, and in his hand he was carrying, not a briefcase, but a cabbage. He did well in the interview, but at the end the person conducting the interview asked one last question.

“Why have you brought that cabbage?”

The young man smiled as he replied.

“You won’t forget me, will you?”

The point of the story is that you need to try to be special in some way. What is your “hook” which will make you stand out?

Now, whether the story is true or not, it brings me to that last phase in the interview when they tend to ask “Have you got any questions for us?”

Most people would advise you not to ask anything at that point. In fact, on one occasion, I have seen someone ask a question about official policy which led to two members of the panel having a heated argument with one another. That would not help your chances at all.

I personally don’t ask a question, instead I generally say;

“There’s no actual question, but could I just say that I think one of my strengths is …”

That’s how I bring in anything that I want them to know, but they haven’t asked me about.

Finally, I would like to share with you a most hilarious, ridiculous, fantastic absolutely true interview story which really did happen and which I think is a great illustration of how to win or lose in an interview.

In the 1980s   I was the Chairman of Governors at a large primary school. It was my way of trying to give something back to the community. There were governors meetings once each term and now and then I would also go in and visit the school during the day to meet some of the staff. Then the deputy-head retired and we had invited applications for a new one. There were about four possibles who looked good on paper, and I was on the interview panel along with the headmistress and a local education officer from the town hall.

One of the candidates was a Mr. Morton. The headmistress asked her question and that went well enough. I asked mine, and he managed to answer that without any problems. Then came the man from the Town Hall. His question was something like this;

“If you were the deputy head of this school, imagine that its winter and the head has gone off on a three day course. The caretaker phones you up at 7.30 in the morning to tell you that the heating boiler has broken down, the pipes are frozen and there’s no heating on in the school at all, but there are already children arriving in the playground. You are the person in charge. What are you going to do?”

There was a fairly long pause, and then Mr. Morton gave his answer;

“I think I would make myself a cup of tea.”

I think I smiled slightly, assuming that he was starting his answer with a touch of humour, perhaps buying himself a little time, but  no, that was it. That was all he had to say. We waited for a moment but he didn’t come out with anything else at all. In the supreme moment of crisis, this gentleman had so little idea of crisis management that all he could do was to make himself a cup of tea.

That was his interview finished and we thanked him for his time, then the headmistress showed him out.

The three of us sat looking at each other, totally stuck for words. It was difficult to believe that any experienced person could so completely fail to answer a question.

The next candidate was a Mr. Haigh, a slim young gentleman with a sporty moustache and a nice smile. The headmistress asked her question and I asked mine. Then came the man from the town hall. He posed exactly the same question about the boiler breaking down and the school being frozen.

“So what would you do, Mr Haigh?

This chap had plenty of answers.

“Well, first of all I would get a message to the headmistress to let her know about the situation, and I would get a message to the town hall and the chair of governors.

“I would get a notice put up at the school gates to tell parents what was happening and to suggest that they take their children home if they could. As for the children who had already arrived, I would get the secretaries to phone around and see whether any of the parents would come and collect them.

“As regards those children who couldn’t be taken home, I would concentrate them all into a few rooms where I would try to get some temporary heating arranged and some hot drinks and I would contact other schools to try to get school dinners sent across.

“During the day I would let the children keep their coats on, and we would have activities that involved a bit of running about. Then at the end of the afternoon I would go down to the school gates and explain the situation to the parents …”

On and on he went, decisive and full of confidence. It was all there. He had hardly stopped for breath and he had given a textbook answer. There were a whole list of good ideas, all of them clearly explained. I was filled with admiration for anyone who could perform like that under the stress of interview conditions.

We gave him the job and there were handshakes all round.

“Could I just ask you something?” The education officer was looking thoughtful.

“Certainly.” Mr Haigh replied with a big smile. “Anything you like.”

“Well, I was just wondering,” said the man from the Town Hall “Were you, by any chance, on that promotion course that I ran last year?”

“I certainly was,” said Mr Haigh with a smile, “And I’m so glad to see that you are still using the same question.”

Bruce W. Johnson.

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