💸 🙋‍♀️👔 Interview prep like a pro

This article is the third part of a three part blog series on how to find your next role after your contract ends. Here are the previous two:

1/3 - 💔😢 How to break up with your job

2/3 - 🤯 Deciding what industry/job to pursue

3/3 - 💸 🙋‍♀️👔 Interview prep like a pro

I’ve interviewed 18 newly qualified candidates to fill two jobs. This article is split into three sections based on that:

1. My experience hiring a Financial Accountant

2. Performing in an interview

3. 2 typical questions and how to answer them 

When I was in your position, I’d no experience in interviewing. My assumption is you don’t either. The whole point of this advice is to give you both sides of the equation and plot out preparation based on that.

Let’s get started.

1. My experience hiring a Financial Accountant

Here’s the scenario:

I’m desperate to hire someone because:

• We’re busy in work

• My team will leave unless I hire someone to help

• It’s affecting our output and bonus payments

I’m already in deep. I’ve gotten senior management to agree to pay a recruiter €10k (so much) and offer a €55k salary + perks (good at the time). This context matters because it shows where the interviewer is coming from. I wait 2/3 weeks and get 10 CVs from the recruiters. 5 are an automatic no. The reasons range from poor grammar in the CV to not having ACA qualifications. That leaves 5 candidates. All of their CVs say this:

• Really educated

• ACA

• Big 4 firm

• Passionate about (insert any one of gym, travel, sport, music etc)

• They raised €X money on Y volunteering project

• They won some award (Gaisce) for climbing a hill in 3^rd year school

Summary: On paper, everyone is indistinguishable before the interview. That’s not good for anyone. As an interviewer, I’d like to have some way to distinguish people. In any interview I did for a job (3 total in my lifetime), I always hoped my CV stood out a small bit. With experience, I now know it did not.

What that means: Everything often comes down to the interview performance because everyone is so hard to tell apart on paper. 

The way I like to think of it is this, your CV gets you an interview, your interview gets you the job.

2. Performing in an interview

When I’m interviewing someone, I want to know the following:

1. Are they easy to be around/will they annoy me less than 75% of the time if I sit beside them 9-6pm Monday to Friday indefinitely?

2. Does this person reflect on themselves and have the openness to learn - Is this the type of person I can teach to do their job without any hassle?

3. Will I need to babysit this person - Is this person capable and someone who will be accountable for their job?

And that’s it. Recruiters tell you so much nonsense. A lot of my friends hire people. Someone who seem to answer these three questions in a positive way are basically unicorns. I would go as far to say if you answer the first one well, most people would take a chance on you.

Based on the 3 things I’m looking for above, here’s a breakdown of how to deal with these three areas.