1. FARMAN ALI THARA
(Peshawar: 15 November 2015)
Interview Skills

2. Interviewing Skills - Purpose
• Employers
• Is the candidate qualified?
• Are they a good fit for the company?
• Determine of you are invited back for a second interview and ultimately
whether you are offered a job.
• Job Seekers
• Opportunity to meet and connect with the prospective employer.
• Sell your skills and abilities.
• Help you determine if you are a good fit for the company.

3. Prepare for and
succeed in an
interview
3

4. Communication is Irreversible:
You can’t really
take back
something once
it has been said.
4

5. Communication is Inescapable:
Even silence or absence is a message. 5

6. You got the call
Now what?

7. Accept the first date and time offered to you

8. Check your documents

9. Prepare
• research the company
• prepare a few questions
• rehearse replying to
standard questions

10. Know yourself
• Know your resume inside and out
• Be prepared to answer questions, give examples or tell a
story about every job you have held and every achievement
and education noted on the resume
• Provide skills and strengths that you possess that are
relevant to the job
• Know your personal and professional goals and how they
will fit with the company goals
• BE TRUTHFUL. Don’t exaggerate or give inaccurate,
misleading information

11. End

12. Typical interview questions
Tell me about yourself:
• Highlight:
– Skills
– Experience
– Abilities
• Related to the position

13. Typical interview questions
Why do you want to work here?
• Explain your interest and
motivation for wanting to
work with this employer

14. Typical interview questions
Where do you see yourself in
5 years?
• Tests ambition
• Align your goals to the
position and the company

15. Typical interview questions
Why should we hire you?
• Tie to key performance areas
• Sell your talents
• Meet the employer’s
requirements

16. Typical interview questions
What are your strengths?
• Communicate any special
‘abilities’

17. Typical interview questions
What are your weaknesses?
• Know your weakness
• How to correct weakness
• Turn your weakness into a
strength

18. Interview from Participant
02 Minutes

19. Helpful pointers
• Get to the right place at least 30 min early
• You are being watched
• Dress appropriately
• Switch your phone off
• No chewing gum or nail biting or knuckle
cracking
• Greet people by name
• Shake hands
• Sit when asked to
• Accept water
• Manage your body and voice
• Smile
• Make appropriate eye contact

22. First impressions
It takes 3 - 30 seconds

23. First impressions
At least half will not
change

24. First impressions
Only a third are may change their opinion after
interacting with you

25. First impressions
Less than 30% of the first impression is to do
with WHAT you say

26. Managing your first impression

27. Handshake

28. Unconventional Hair

30. Piercings
http://img.ehowcdn.com/article-new-thumbnail/ehow/images/a03/7g/2r/care-nose-piercing-

31. Male Earrings

32. Tattoos

33. Non traditional clothes
Medium
influence

34. Beard/Mustache

35. Grooming
.

36. Body odour

37. Second Interview from Participant

38. First impressions & body language
How you handle your body marks you as confident,
shy or arrogant

41. Body language during the interview...
• Give the appearance
of energy as you
walk
• Smile
• Shake hands firmly
• Wait until you are
offered a chair
before sitting
• Sit upright and look
alert and interested
• Look the interviewer
in the eye
• Be careful for folding
hands and arms and
crossing your legs
• Do not fiddle!

42. First impressions & dressing the part
Dress to match the context: this will determine
how much you are perceived to “fit”

43. http://wellnessrounds.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/dressing-for-interview-copy.jpg

44. Your impressions?

45. What goes wrong?
Sending mixed messages We know that we are capable to
do the job.

46. What goes wrong?
Not enough attention to what the person you are
communicating with wants or expects

47. What goes wrong?
Prejudice and stereotype (accent, gender, etc.)

48. What goes wrong?
Power relationships
Who has the power?

49. What goes wrong?
Different CULTURAL ways of doing things:
• Greeting peers or older people?
– First names
– Titles
– Generic name like “aunty”?)
• Who greets first?
• Do you sit down?
• Do you knock?
• When do you enter?
• Saying thank you?

50. What goes wrong?
Preconceived assumptions

51. How to fix it

52. Fixing it
Carefully monitor reactions and adapt to these

53. Fixing it
Ask questions to clarify your
understanding and theirs

54. 3rd Interview from Participant

55. During the interview
Some guidelines

56. During the interview
Don’t lie, your answers should be
truthful, sincere to the point

57. During the interview
Don’t answer with a simple “yes” or “no”
Explain using examples

58. During the interview
Don’t lose your temper, control
your emotions

59. During the interview
Speak as clearly as possible

60. During the interview
Never bad mouth or complain
about a previous employer

61. During the interview
Do not assume that the interviewers read
your CV in detail, tell them about yourself

62. During the interview
Avoid sensitive issues such as topics related
to politics and religion unless directly
linked to the job

63. During the interview
Sound enthusiastic about the position and
the company

64. During the interview
Have a few questions about the job or
company ready

65. During the interview
Let the interviewer raise the issue of salary
and benefits

66. During the interview
Thank the interviewer/s for the opportunity
and ask when you can expect to hear from
them

67. If you get the job...

68. If you get the job...
• Reply in writing
whether or not
you accept
• Be polite if you
turn it down
• Possibly Negotiate
salary

69. If you don’t get the job...

70. If you don’t get the job...
• Be polite and gracious
• Learn what you can from the
experience
• Try to find out (or work out) why you
did not succeed and then do
something to address the issues
• Ask the company!

72. Best of Luck!
And THANK YOU