I don't interview well

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: In the workplace, I react the same weight, I will give people leverage to do what they’re supposed to do, but if they don’t , I usually take it upon myself to do it because I feel like for the job to be well done I have to do it myself.

First off, I agree with PP that the fact that you can diffuse a difficult situation and not get confrontational is great. (I am personally very confronational by nature and have had to put in great effort to not let it run my professional interactions). Just think of examples that illustrate that. I think getting a friend/trusted colleague to help you answer questions is a great idea.

Now, to the quote above. Not only would I not bring that up in an interview, I would actually change your MO on this. Especially if you are going to work at Big 4 (I am a former Big 4-er myself). That kind of strategy will not serve you well. You just can't do other people's work for them if they are not pulling their weight. You will either not be seen as a leader (especially if you are interviewing for supervisory positions) or will get so much sh!t dumped on you that you will soon be posting the "help I am burnt out" threads. If a co-worker is not pulling their weight, let your management know, or if you are a supervisor, then coach your team to get better results. At Big 4, at least the one I worked for, as well as many other big organizations, when you get to supervisory level much emphasis is placed on staff development. Believe me, there have been many times when I felt that I could do an assignment better and/or faster than my staff, but you have to resist that and coach them to improve, offer suggestions, constructive feedback etc.

Thank you for your feedback. That’s something I am learning to do but is still one of my weaknesses (maybe could be a good answer to the what’s your weakness question and how are you working on it?) Currently, I supervise one person on my team who is not pulling their weight and because of my non-confrontational nature, I am giving them a lot of leeway and they are getting away with a lot of stuff. For example, I will ask them to do x and they will always forget to do x even if I remind them 2 or 3 times. The thing is after the 3rd time, I always end up doing it myself because I feel like im wasting energy reminding the person to do it over and over and they just are not focused enough to remember. I’ve had subsequent meetings with her and then told her to actually do a weekly spreadsheet where everything is detailed for each account to keep track of the things she does and I think that has helped a bit in how efficient her work is, but confronting her when she makes mistakes over and over is something I am still struggling with.

Dude. Grow a pair. If some twat isn't cutting it, fuckin tell her or can her ass.

I am not a dude, so kinda hard to grow a pair.....

[Anonymous]

The interviewer doesn't care whether you've been in a seriously conflicted work environment so much as how you deal with conflict, large or small. So think of a conflict, any conflict, you've experienced or a potential conflict, that you navigated and successfully concluded. They just want to hear how you think through things. It doesn't have to be completely work related - did you have a lazy team mate in a group project in grad school? How did you deal with it? Did you have some one flake on you last minute for a major volunteer project? Did a supervisor ever instruct you to do something that the higher up boss did not like? It doesn't have to be a big argument, but anything that could have resulted in conflict that you successfully navigated.

I would not recommend making something up. You'd have to be a pathological liar of sorts to pull that off; you're probably just going to come off as insincere if you do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The interviewer doesn't care whether you've been in a seriously conflicted work environment so much as how you deal with conflict, large or small. So think of a conflict, any conflict, you've experienced or a potential conflict, that you navigated and successfully concluded. They just want to hear how you think through things. It doesn't have to be completely work related - did you have a lazy team mate in a group project in grad school? How did you deal with it? Did you have some one flake on you last minute for a major volunteer project? Did a supervisor ever instruct you to do something that the higher up boss did not like? It doesn't have to be a big argument, but anything that could have resulted in conflict that you successfully navigated.

I would not recommend making something up. You'd have to be a pathological liar of sorts to pull that off; you're probably just going to come off as insincere if you do that.

Thank you! I have prepared something for the conflict question. I have one more question. How do you address the question of applicable/relevant experience at a job interview? When you lack a specified qualification in the job description, how do you tackle that and persuade the interviewer that they should hire you even though other candidates might have that particular skill/qualification? Why should they go with you and not someone with that experience that they are looking for?