Understanding The Standard Interview Structure
It's that time of year again, recruiting season! It is both a wonderful and stressful time for employers and potential employees alike with many opportunities out there and many decisions to make. It is incredibly important that students and employers put their best foot forward in their interview. First step in doing that is to get familiar with common interview questions and structures. Today, I'm going to share a standard interview structure that is used by many public accounting firms and companies so you can be more prepared for your next interview. Even if your interview doesn’t follow this structure exactly, it will likely be similar!
General Logistics
In 2021, it is common for interviews to be conducted remotely and with multiple team members separately. This means that your interview could be over Zoom or Teams and have three separate 30-minute sessions with three separate interviewers. Firms take this approach so they can get multiple perspectives on you from their team members that have varying levels of experience. It's also a great way to provide the interviewee different perspectives on the company when they have questions. Most of the time, the people interviewing you will have read or at least skimmed your resume ahead of time, so be sure to have it nearby so you know what they know. Depending on the size of the company that you are interviewing for, a human resources person (generally a recruiter or hiring manager) will come in at the beginning or the end to help coordinate or debrief.
Interview Questions
After some brief introductions from you and the interviewer, the questions will start. Interview questions will typically follow this format:
Tell me about yourself (and why you are here)
Behavioral and technical questions
Do you have any questions for me?
Let's examine each of these areas:
Tell Me About Yourself
This is the first question in almost every interview I've been a part of and allows the interviewer to get a quick summary of your background and interests. It's important to remember that they should already have your resume, so you should not just read what's on your resume. Instead, you should take the time to practice a 2-minute response that includes your qualifications (briefly), career motivations, and how the position that you are interviewing for aligns with these qualifications and motivations.
Behavioral / Technical Questions
The next step of the interview is meant to assess your experience and working styles. At this point, the interviewer will either have prescribed questions from HR, or a general idea of something they need to figure out before the interview is over like whether or not you can work with the existing team or on a certain technical area. Good interview questions during this phase of the interview will begin with "Tell me about a time when…" because it has been proven that past performance (things that have actually happened, not hypotheticals) are the best indicators of future performance. The best way that you can prepare for this phase of the interview will be to prepare SAR stories. In short, these stories highlight key skills that you have developed for previous experience and follow the format of Situation->Action->Result. By having a few SAR stories prepared, you should be able to highlight whatever skill sets the potential employer is looking for. Depending on the company doing the interviewing, there could be one or multiple questions of this nature in the interview. It's important to remember that some companies will require these questions, so be mindful of your responses and don't just ramble on. Practice to have these responses down to about three minutes to start. This will give time for the interviewer to ask follow-up questions or move on to the next question as necessary.
Do You Have Any Questions For Me?
Most interviews will have time at the end for the interviewee to turn the tables and ask questions of the interviewer. It is imperative that the interviewee has questions prepared for this segment. In 2021, this section of the interview is perfect for gaining information about the working environment that might not be apparent on the company's website. Asking questions like "How has your team handled the effects of COVID?" Can be really telling about the company's values and ability to handle new working arrangements. Use this section of the interview to ask the questions that matter to you and show your interest in the company or the interviewer as a person. I typically leave 8 or more minutes to address this component of the interview, but it really starts whenever I get good responses for the other required questions. Be sure to keep an eye on the clock during the rest of the interview so you don't eat into the valuable time for this section.
If you are interviewing with multiple people, you will need to go through this process multiple times. Just remember that while you may need to repeat yourself when telling the new interviewers about yourself, they should be asking different technical and behavioral questions to cover a wide range of skills. Additionally, be sure to select your questions carefully if you get the opportunity to ask them at the end of each interview. Depending on the position of the person interviewing you, it might be better to ask certain questions to certain people (like asking the manager about the day-to-day and the CEO about the culture).
If you have an interview coming up, be sure to study up on this structure and be prepared to respond in a way that puts your best foot forward. Good luck!