4 Pillars to Ace Interviews - Final Part

So, I will be sharing knowledge and also clear some grey areas in interview sessions.

I will give a bit of a background....

No matter how beautiful your CV is, it can never land you a job unless you are able to make a story and communicate what you have in your CV to the panel or audience. A well-crafted cv will get you an invite to a job. But making a story out of the cv is what lands you the job. 

Interview in recent times have MOVED from academic exercise to sharing real life experience using story telling. Story telling is a strategy to convincing the panel that you not only understand the question asked but you have a compelling life experience to back up your answers or responses.

 THE 4 QKS 4 PILLARS FOR ACING INTERVIEW

 1. Storytelling.

2. Organizing your thoughts.

3. The strategic Plan.

4. Motivation statement

 Yes this 4 pillars are my personal experiences and have helped me ACED interviews back to back. It is my strategy and has worked over and over again.

 Story Telling

Story telling is a winning strategy used to:

Ø Elaborate more on a question.

Ø 2. Show to the interview panel members you have got experience with the questions asked.

Ø 3. Tell a lot about your personality

 For every question asked, make a story not just a story but a compelling one! Keep the story catchy, brief, succinct and on point without digressing!

For instance, if asked a question like ...

·      Why do you think you are the best candidate for the job?

·      Can you tell us when you have to take an unpopular decision?

·      Can you tell us about yourself????

 Don't just answer and say for question 1

I think I am level headed, I have enough work experience, I am hard working, can manage work pressures bla bla bla…..

When asked tell us about yourself don't just mention your school, where u work, your name etc. You need to tell a story around every question asked.

What it does it tells the interviewer that the candidate knows what he or she is doing. It tells them this guy will be confident and have excellent presentation skill to mention but a few.

Now here is a response I will give when asked to tell about myself....

 My name is Olaide abiola, I graduated with First class honours in biochemistry. A strong and sound knowledge on HACCP and its implementation in a new and modified line. Experience span across beverage and dairy. I have achieved several food safety certifications for all the organizations I have worked for and passed unannounced audit with no majors ...

I have a strong collaborative skill and my decisions are guided by taking a risk-based approach with the interest of the business taken first and also letting the stakeholders who my decision will affect know the reason why it has to be taken.

I am very confident and I can engage stakeholders from MD to directors.

I have a passion for developing people with skill set that will develop them on their jobs ....

Finally, when issue arises, I focus on the incident and not the people

From the above when carefully analysed you will realise, I have set a bait for the panel members. Already telling them my area of strength, achievement, collaborative skills, my problem-solving skills, my audit ability etc.

 For a young job seeker, I don't expect you will be applying for a Quality manager role .You can keep it at:

·      Education level.

·      Your class of degree.

·      Trainings you have attended.

·      Your personality.

 So for a fresher seeking a job and being asked can we meet you. Of course, you can also say a story around you and not sound too casual because of little or no experience.

My response to Can we meet you:

 My name is Ehidiamen Lucky, graduated with 2nd class upper division in Biochemistry from Uniben. I am level headed and emotionally stable. I have a strong knowledge on HACCP and Food safety. I have been committed to personal development and that has seen me attend trainings on current trends in the Food industry. I have taken trainings in HACCP, Food safety, Complaint management as well as people management. I am a great team player as I believe in no man should work in SILO. I am keenly interested in problem solving.

 See my response above for a young graduate who with little or no experience .Now carefully look at it. You must not be clueless or not to have planned your own personal development to add to your story.

 What story will you tell when you don't commit to personal development????? .So no matter your level of experience create a story with what you have, trainings you have attended and with what you can do.

 So there are levels to it ...if you are experienced and applying for more senior roles your stories should be more, catchy, succinct, spot and not overly ambitious

 So for every question and at every level you must share a compelling story worth listening to.

When asked about a problem or an issue you have solved during interview you need to tell a story.

 Component of your story:

 Ø Brief background about the issue.

Ø Financial implications of the issue.

Ø How you constitute a cross functional team.

Ø How you did a deep dive to knowing the root cause.

Ø What correction you put in place.

Ø What corrective action put in place to prevent re-occurrence?

Ø What the trend of result is and achievement applied

 All this can be said in less than 3-4 minutes

 That is where organization of thought which is the second pillar of the QKS strategy for acing interviews comes to play.

Your story must be:

Ø Owned.

Ø Witness to become your own

Organizing Your Thoughts

Words HR and business leaders want to hear from a progressive minded candidate is:

Ø Collaboration.

Ø Business minded.

Ø Team player.

Ø Team building / people development

Ø Problem solving.

Ø Emotional stability and level headedness.

Ø Never work in Silo.

Ø People engagement.

Ø Quality never about policing but working together for a common purpose

To mention but a few

 You can see I use these words interchangeably

I know when to use them, how to use them and what scenarios to use them.

That is the power of organization of thoughts

What set you apart from other candidates from experience is how you organise and choose your words.

Each of these words have their importance and talks about your personality.

For instance, when you mention collaboration, it shows you are a team player, you never walk in silo and you believe that your decision affects others and you are willing to let them know on how you can come to a logical conclusion. It tells the recruiter something about you. That this candidate will make a difference as he has shown from his words that he never subscribes to working in Silo

We have said a lot about word choice.

Now organization of thought is articulating and organising your responses to questions in such a manner that is almost impeccable.

 You need to know when to say what and how to say it.

In organizing your thoughts:

Ø You need to have already compelling stories to tell for every questions and scenarios

Ø Already know in advance what questions they will likely ask and how you will respond.

Ø How to stay on point and maximise time...

 This is the intentional strategies that must be part of you before u are convinced you are prepared for the interview.

The Strategic Plan

The strategic plan is a proactive and intentional pattern of letting your interview panel know what your plan will be in the first 6 months of being employed.

 Now let me say this can be the thin line between you and the next brilliant applicant or candidate.

This strategy will give you an edge over everyone.

 One question that may come to mind is how do I know what challenge the business is facing when I have not worked there to be able to put up a strategic plan

 Common Food Industry Challenge:

Ø Experience has shown one thing is common to every food industry as a challenge:

Ø Complaint management.

Ø Waste reduction.

Ø Cost minimization.

Ø Employee engagement on Food safety culture.

Ø GMP/GHK.

To mention but a few

 So, the next question will be how will I know the metrics to use when I don't even know the KPI .... You need not to worry here you give a forecasted value for every of your strategic plans.

 So, this strategy will work when asked:

Ø What value will you add when employed.

Ø What will you do in your first 6month of employment?

Ø How will you turn around the department?

Ø When not even asked .... you initiate it yourself..

 So if Kiki ogunlaja is asked what value will you add to the business if employed.

What comes to your mind are those common challenges I have mentioned that is common to most food industry.

 So her response will be ...

I am passionate about disruption, innovation and process improvement.

In my 6month of employment. 

I will reduce complaints by 70% by putting up a complaint reduction program, do a deep dive into historical data about the top 3 complaints or bottle neck and use the CRP to nip the issue in the board by creating a team with the sole aim of eliminating or reducing the top 3 complaints.

I will also ensure 90% improvement in GMP/GHK by creating hygiene ambassadors to be a model for other employees as well as initiating a tool box session to get insights from the shopfloor team on the challenges and way forward.

I will increase the food safety culture by 65% in my first 6month by championing employee engagements across the board and putting up programs to drive same.

I will also seek ways to reduce cost by reviewing sampling plans, validating processes, make use of modern method of analysis by eliminating or minimizing chemical usage this I will drive through a program called Tactical lean management.

When fully deployed and approved, cost of indirect spend will drastically reduce by 80%.

 You can see my response...

No panel member will get a response such as these and don't pick interest in you.

The response is proactive, ambitious and a briefly mentioned what program to put in place.

 Also note I don't have to know what their complaints is like, or GMP status or waste is like but all I have mentioned is how to improve on them.

You don't have to wait until you are asked before you tell your strategic plan if employed.

 There will always be an opportunity to ask a question. That point you are asked can you ask us any question.

In your response just say thank you for the opportunity to ask you a question but before I ask my question then u can now mention the strategic plan

Or you mention it when asked like what value will you add, why should we employ you, what innovation will you bring

Also note that the examples above for the strategic plans can be used to answer questions on problems you have solved, innovation you have done to mention but a few.

 Always note that you cannot do it alone

Ø You will get management buy in and once approved you go ahead .

Ø You constitute a cross functional team.

Ø You do a presentation to communicate before and after

 The Motivational Statement

Here is just a quick 1–2-minute statement you give to the interview panel to sell yourself and reinforce all your point.

Tell them ....

 Adding me to your team will bring great diversity to the strength of the team. Emphasize on your key experience that will be a plus to them ...

 This concludes the 4 pillars of the QKS pillars for Acing interview.

 Always remember you have the power to turn the interview to a chat no matter the question thrown at