Complete strategies for dealing with key issues such as reasons for leaving the job, personal shortcomings, and cross-industry job hunting during the interview. Master the interviewer’s subtext, skillfully resolve interview problems, and improve the interview success rate.
There are hundreds of interview questions! Among them, ‘reason for leaving’, ‘what are your shortcomings’, and ‘why did you choose a cross-industry and non-original position’ are almost the three major challenges that interviewers must ask. How to answer them will not turn into a disaster of accidentally stepping on taboos. Woolen cloth? Let’s take a look at how to resolve the three major problems!
1. Interview question: ‘Why did you leave your last job?’
Subtext: I want to confirm whether you are ’the person I want’ based on the reason for leaving your job.
Subtext you must know: Judging from this interview question about the reason for leaving the job, the interviewer wants to confirm that the candidate in front of him is ’not a trouble maker who has been released’, so as to avoid many communication problems with the team soon after joining the job. Or even offer to resign in the short term, so that more time must be spent on future recruitment efforts. As research from the PsycTest official website shows, good teamwork skills are one of the qualities that companies value most. Whether you are a direct supervisor or a human resources manager, you are all burdened with these recruitment risks.
However, to use a classic saying about the reason for resignation: ‘The money was not paid in place; the heart was wronged.’ Another saying is that ’the resignation of an employee is probably related to the direct supervisor.’ Therefore, the reasons for resignation are roughly the same. For that matter, how should you answer interview questions in a tactful and low-risk way?
In view of the fact that ’the work is too busy’ and ’the salary is too low’ may be interpreted by the interviewer as ’the work is inefficient, so I am often busy and have to work overtime’, ’the professional ability is not high, so the salary is not high’, it is recommended to start from the larger ones. Pattern to answer the reasons for your resignation, such as industrial environment, changes in social consumption habits, market changes in human resources, etc.
Tips for cracking:
- Describe the dilemma of industry prospects or the general environment to prove that you want to find a company with more stable operations in all aspects of the company.
- Avoid speaking ill of your previous company, otherwise the interviewer will think that you will do the same to the company in the future.
- Additional suggestions - Large companies may have personnel to conduct a reference check on the applicant’s former company supervisor. This is usually a simple telephone interview with the applicant’s former supervisor to confirm whether the applicant has any poor performance. situation, so you need to avoid getting into trouble with your former immediate supervisor before resigning.
2. Interview question: ‘What do you think your shortcomings are?’
Subtext: I want to know if you have the ability to recognize shortcomings, and also want to know how you will improve
The subtext you must know: It is really difficult for people to recognize their own shortcomings, or even if they know it, it is difficult to correct them. Therefore, the answers to interview questions need to grasp the ’true definition of shortcomings’, and the interviewer will never ask questions without reason (note: excluding inexperienced interviewers, it is true that they may be too nervous and unprepared to act casually. Ask a question), you have to be careful not to be too direct or too thin in your response.
Tips for cracking:
- Avoid talking about your personality flaws because they are difficult to correct. For example, I have an impatient personality, I have a bad temper, etc.
- When responding to interview questions, avoid giving short answers as this will make it appear that you are not prepared for the interview.
- Use the concept of ‘unpacking gifts’ and think in advance how to ‘package’ your shortcomings. (Related reading: When asked in an interview about expected salary, how much is a reasonable offer? 3 steps to teach you how to negotiate a good salary )
- Please give a timeline of the shortcomings that are being prepared for ‘packaging’ and tell a very short story, which should include [past], [present], and [future], and there should be an [Easter egg] hidden in the process.
For example: ‘In my last job, I found that when I was faced with a large number of urgent items from the company, I often felt that I didn’t have enough time and needed to work overtime. Because my supervisor mentioned that my work efficiency was pretty good, I would work as soon as there were urgent items. Will ask me first if I’m available.’
‘At that time, I thought that I should try my best to complete the tasks assigned by my supervisor. I was embarrassed to say ’no’ to my supervisor, so I took up every urgent matter. But later I found out that I might have been delayed until the cross-border period because of handling the urgent matters from my supervisor. General work matters of the department.’
‘Although my colleagues in other departments said that their cases were not urgent at the time, I immediately realized that in the future I should first report my current work progress and priorities to my supervisor, and ask my supervisor to determine the schedule and do a good job of ‘upward communication’. Then I asked if I could ‘communicate across departments’. After that re-planning, I not only quickly completed the supervisor’s urgent tasks, but also assisted the supervisor in re-planning the team’s work schedule, which will help distribute urgent tasks evenly to less busy colleagues in the future. . This incident made me understand the necessity of prior communication, so in the future, our entire team will make such adjustments when receiving urgent cases, instead of just handling a single urgent case. '
- [Past] 1. Dare not say ’no’ to supervisor. 2. There is always not enough time to handle urgent items, which delays the progress of other projects.
- [Easter Egg] My work efficiency is high.
- [Now] Communicate vertically and horizontally with supervisors and different units in advance.
- [Future] Assist supervisors to establish SOPs. In the future, the entire team will benefit and the company will operate more smoothly.
[Advanced bonus questions]
The interview process is not just about answering questions. During the process, you can also proactively ask the interviewer: ‘How did the team handle similar situations in the past? Was there a coordinator responsible for adjusting the entire work process?’ And express that you have experience in handling similar problems and that you have sufficient ability. By doing vertical and horizontal communication, you can apply this experience to future company operations.
3. Interview question: ‘Why do you want to change industries/positions?’
Subtext: I want to know what kind of resources and new thinking you bring into the company, and I also want to confirm whether you are ready?
The subtext you must know: As long as it is a non-original industry or non-original job system, this question will definitely be asked at the end of the interview. It can almost be said to be a must! Therefore, job seekers who want to change careers must rehearse in their minds many times.
Whether it is direct supervisors or human resources, when recruiting talents, most people will start with people who are engaged in related industries and have relevant job experience. Once you, as an ‘outsider’, successfully attract the company with your resume, it proves how well the company treats you. It is quite interesting to combine past work experience and apply it to future positions.
Interest means high expectations, so once the question is not answered well, or the answer is too thin, superficial and without vision, they may tend to choose ‘insiders’ interviewed at the same time. At least people in the industry may have richer knowledge about the industrial ecology, and their workplace stability may be relatively high.
In order to compete with the ‘insiders’, you must answer more beautifully!
Tips for cracking:
Situation 1: Different industries, similar positions, such as daily life reporter at a newspaper –> lifestyle magazine interview editor or izakaya waiter –> high-end Japanese restaurant waiter emphasizes the continuation of experience: emphasizing the same level of job abilities , past experience, industry knowledge or network resources can be carried over to the new company.
Situation 2: Same industry, different job openings, for example, from a housing agency company –> The online marketing specialist of a housing agency company emphasizes learning ability: he emphasizes that he understands the industry ecology, can get started quickly, shortens the work adjustment period, and explains What kind of opportunity did you have to learn professional skills beyond your original job?
Situation 3: Different industries, different vacancies, such as English teachers from supplementary education –> website front-end engineers or department store sales staff –> graphic visual designers emphasize strong enthusiasm + self-learning ability: emphasize their own knowledge of This position requires a high degree of enthusiasm and the ability to acquire professional skills other than the original position through self-study or further study.
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