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Tutor Mark Roy 's Column

Ace your job or university interview!! Part 2

Aug 7, 2020

Hi, over the next few weeks I will be publishing regular advice on how to ace your job / university / MBA, or PhD interview. If you would like to book a lesson with me, I will provide you with a 28 page document that I have written with some sample questions and advice on how to answer them. In these articles that I am publishing, you will find a group of questions and the appropriate advice on how to answer them, and in some cases you will even find some sample answers. During a lesson, I will go through the questions with you, let you answer as if you were in an interview environment and then I will check, and if necessary, correct the content of your answer. I hope you find the following information useful and I really look forward to seeing you online if you choose a class with me! I am also offering a 20% discount for any new students for ANY of my lessons.

Questions About Your Previous / Current Job

·       Name of company, position title and description, dates of employment…

The interviewer will want to know about your previous/current job, what responsibilities you have/had, and how long you were, or have worked there. Try to emphasise important roles, management of people or projects etc. Explain about any promotions or increase in responsibilities you were given.
 

·       Tell me about yourself / go through your resume / tell me about your career to date.

 

Explain the career steps on your CV and the reasons that you made any job changes. If you have had many job changes within a short period, explain why you only spent a short time in a position and your reasons for moving on.

 

·       What were your expectations for the job and to what extent were they met?

 

Did or does your job live up to the expectations you had about the job when you first started it? The interviewer will ask this to see what you want from a job and measure this against what the new company can offer you. If your job did not meet your full expectations, describe why and what could have been done to help the situation.

 

·       What were your starting and final levels of compensation?

 

This question may be asked as a way of measuring your performance. For example, if you were employed by a company for 10 years and your salary doubled in that time, this may indicate that you are a high-performer. If on the other hand, your salary only increased by a small percentage, then this may indicate a performance issue. However, try to justify your answer by giving an explanation like “the company was suffering from financial problems and so all employees’ salaries were frozen for a certain period”. If your salary increase was high, do not be afraid to boast about the reasons behind your success!

Lesson link:
https://cafetalk.com/lessons/detail/?id=11273&key=ec0e3f840eb8c5a75b04f6306f25dd66

This column was published by the author in their personal capacity.
The opinions expressed in this column are the author's own and do not reflect the view of Cafetalk.

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