Russell Tuckerton
Let these guide your answers and demeanor when interviewing: (Location 56)
You want the job for the challenges and ability to make contributions based on your skills and experience. (Location 82)
How you respond What you respond with Your body language (Location 86)
Always pause after a question and look thoughtful [2-4 seconds is good, depending on the complexity of the question]. (Location 88)
In general, most of my questions are intended to elicit a 3-4 sentence response or less – but one that is highly focused on what I asked. (Location 94)
A near perfect response to that particular story question typically starts with early education, training, etc. and then walks me through each subsequent job – but only spending 3-4 sentences on each job, (Location 97)
Do you learn from past mistakes? I’ve never hired someone who couldn’t provide a past mistake and what they learned from it. (Location 107)
Remember – concise, relevant answers that don’t have any personal, judgmental, or negative connotations in them. (Location 120)
What are the key challenges you see for this position? What are the priorities for the next 3 months for this role? What will success look like at that time? Is this a new role in the organization? If so, can you tell me more about the growth that resulted in the need for the role? What are the 3 top attributes or skills you think are needed to be successful in this role? What brought you to this company – e.g. what excites you about the company and the direction it is headed? How would you describe the culture of the company/group/etc.? What is your management style? (Location 123)
If they are always looking into your eyes, then you should do the same. (Location 138)
Always greet an interviewer with a handshake and eye contact, and always exit the interview with a handshake and eye contact (and thanking them for their time and the opportunity to be part of the company). (Location 140)
Please do not ask these in an interview. (Location 147)
At the point of the job offer the company wants you; (Location 153)
What hiring managers are looking for is how well past jobs have prepared you to do what this new role requires – what have you learned and how you generalize that experience to different positions. (Location 156)
Ability to think strategically, and to align company objectives with the work your team needs to perform. (Location 188)
Ability to drive change. More important than ever, companies need to be nimble and be able to change direction quickly. (Location 190)
7 Key Interview Questions (Location 208)
This role is perfectly aligned with where I want to grow my career and what I’ve been working towards, and given my skills and experiences, I feel I can make a significant contribution to both this team and company, and, as part of the overall team, help drive the company to the next level. (Location 221)
My previous role was very rewarding and enabled me to make a contribution to the company and its customers; however, I feel I am ready to take on a larger role and set of responsibilities, and my current company is not at a stage where they can offer me this opportunity. (Location 235)
I like to be surrounded by colleagues who are intelligent, and very passionate and energized about what they do. This fuels my energy levels and helps me perform at my peak. (Location 265)
I like an atmosphere of teamwork. Success comes not from celebrating my individual successes, but from feeling that I made a contribution to the team. (Location 266)
While many candidates will bring similar skills to this role, my passion for this type of position and personal drive for success will allow me to apply these skills to meet and exceed the responsibilities of this role. The combination of my skills, experience, and exceptional team-oriented approach, as demonstrated in my previous roles, is a combination that is hard to duplicate, and will produce results in this role for your company. My experience at <XYZ> is directly applicable to the business results needed in this role and demonstrates the level of contribution I can make as part of a strong team. (Location 281)
Note: the response to this question should be longer – you should spend 4-5 minutes responding to this question, and be sure to think for 30-60 seconds before answering. (Location 299)
A good answer need not always be found in work experience. (Location 334)
Your response to this question should reflect that you’re aware that conflict naturally occurs (Location 365)
A good response shows that you work to defuse the situation (Location 367)
Staying calm is always the first response, (Location 368)
Passion and energy – I cannot emphasize this enough. We will look at your resume for the basic qualifications, but the human interaction is key. We want to see energy and passion around our company and the business we’re in. (Location 424)
I emphasize the word “scan” here. They don’t have time to read cover letters, and these seldom if ever influence a decision to move a resume to the next step. I personally always advise against writing and submitting a cover letter. I think it is a waste of effort. (Location 456)
they are looking for keywords that match criteria the hiring manager gave them. These keywords vary widely depending on what the open role is. (Location 459)
If a resume hits most of the required items from the hiring manager, it gets moved to a “screening” stack. (Location 462)
Often the specialist will send 4-8 resumes at a time to the hiring manager from the screening stack, (Location 463)
Phone interviews typically last less than 30 minutes, and are used to ask a fairly specific list of questions developed in conjunction with the hiring manager. These will focus on specific skills, experience, and knowledge. However, the specialist is also assessing your energy levels, passion, and communication style on the phone. This is key, as often they will pass over candidates who have the hard skills needed but communicate poorly or come across as not interested. (Location 468)