My Interviewing Experience.
Interviewing is something I believe I’ve gotten really good at over the past year. I have done no less than a dozen interviews since December of 2024. All of these interviews (with the exception of one) have been panel interviews. This means that there are anywhere from three to five interviewers asking me questions at the same time. I believe that this approach to interviewing has been the most beneficial to me (even though I wasn’t hired by any of the companies that had panel interviews).
What Made My Interviews Effective?
What has helped me the most is understanding the job, the qualifications and the skills required for the job. It allows me to structure my answers in a way that applies my skills and qualifications from the past and present, even when some of them don’t directly apply. For example, I interviewed with a fire department in Northern Idaho in early December of 2024. At the time, I had no firefighting experience and had only had my EMT certification for about nine months. I remember that I had to answer a question about my skills and qualifications. While I didn’t have any at the time, I was able to talk about my customer service skills from previous jobs, and my ability to use a wide range of power tools that I learned while I was a construction worker. Both of those things are vitally important to firefighting.
What Made My Interviews Ineffective?
However, there was a steep learning curve, especially for panel interviews and the fire service in general. One thing I immediately picked up on when I left that first interview back in December of 2024 was that I stumbled on my words and used too many fillers. Things such as “like,” “um” and “uh” plagued my otherwise confident answers. It was something that I caught myself doing IN the interview, and knew that the interviewers had picked up on it too.
How Can Employers Improve The Effectiveness Of Their Interviews?
This is a critique I don’t feel qualified to give as I’ve never been an interviewer, only an interviewee. There is a very specific process for firefighting interviews, and departments are looking for very specific candidates. Ones who are knowledgeable, well spoken and can articulate their past and present experience, qualifications and skills that align with their agency. If I had one suggestion, it would be to have more attentive interviewers. There were a few times I felt like the interviewers weren’t interested in what I had to say, which was a distraction to me. The Hartford Business Owner’s Playbook suggests that interviews should “listen more, talk less, the interview is mostly about the applicant, so listen attentively.” I believe that is a very important detail in an interview that might be overlooked.
Citation
“How to Conduct an Effective Interview.” How to Conduct an Effective Interview, The Hartford , www.thehartford.com/business-insurance/strategy/hiring-first-employee/conduct-interviews. Accessed 6 Feb. 2025.