Following The Clues: Designing Interview Questions From Job Postings

It's natural to be nervous about the interview process. In fact, research shows that a mild state of anxiety can help your performance by increasing your motivation, energy and focus. However, extreme anxiety can have the inverse effect and be detrimental to your performance as it may make you feel overwhelmed and even experience difficulty both forming and articulating your thoughts. How then do you manage your feelings and arrive at the 'sweet spot' for the day of the interview? Preparation is the key.

Please note that WorkNFire does not have insight into the specific questions used by any particular interview panel, rather, we offer advice based on years of experience in preparing and reviewing job postings; developing interview questions; interviewing, and; supporting people preparing for interviews.

Whether you are aspiring to be a fire fighter or seeking a promotion, you will likely be faced with an interview as part of the process. Proper preparation is the only way to successfully meet this challenge. This article will describe one preparation technique that can help you feel more confident as you face a range of interview questions.

You can (and should) use research to identify 'topics areas' that will likely be used to then form interview questions to be used by your selection panel.

It is instinctual for many people to start preparing by trying to find a copy of the questions that were used in previous interviews for the same (or similar) position(s). Although having an idea of the questions that may be asked is useful as you begin to visualize yourself in the interview, it's very risky to rely on this as your sole or primary preparation strategy. With potential questions in hand, people are tempted to formulate and memorize answers. This might work if the questions have not changed, but it will leave you flustered and noticeably ill-prepared if the questions have changed – even slightly. Relying on what you think or hope are the questions being used can be ill-advised. People who form interview panels know that their questions are often noted and shared amongst applicants. Most change questions frequently in response. Even a small change can make a big difference in the best answer.

A much better strategy is to prepare answers that can be used and adapted to respond to particular topic areas that may be scrutinized by the interview panel. How do you know the topic areas that may be of interest to a selection committee? In many (if not most) cases, they come right out and tell you! Your 'cheat sheet' to the interview questions is the job posting.

Many items listed on a job posting are specific to education, experience and certification requirements for the job. We can call these the 'hard' skills – easy to evidence and evaluate with paperwork. Most often, by the time you reach the interview stage of a selection process, these requirements have already been assessed and evaluated. That's how you got invited to an interview. These 'hard' skills are, therefore, seldom part of the interview process. Interviews tend to focus on the 'softer' skills (often associated with interpersonal skills) that can't be evaluated by producing papers.

So, how does the job posting give you the topic areas that might be used to design the interview questions? Let's take, for example, a recent posting from the Town of Markham, Ontario, which states as one of its preferred qualifications, "Demonstrated track record of working as a part of a high performing team." Similarly, the Greater Toronto Airport Authority included, "Ability to demonstrate leadership; work collectively as a member of dynamic team" as one of their preferred qualifications. If this skill – working collectively in a high-performance, dynamic team – was important enough to these departments to include in their job posting, there is a real possibility that they will be looking for and assessing whether you can demonstrate having that skill by your response to an interview question that focuses on teamwork as part of their selection processes. Consequently, the interview panel may ask you to provide a hypothetical answer to a question such as;

You observe that one of the crew members you work with always leaves the area when it is time to clean the equipment. What would you do?

Another option may be a question that asks you to reflect on your past practice, such as these;

Describe a situation where you had a conflict with a team member and how you resolved it,

or,

Tell me about a time when you worked with a team to meet a common goal.

Sometimes, the clues to topics of interest to the selection committee are found in the description of 'Duties and Responsibilities' in the job posting instead of the preferred qualifications. For example, the City of Fredericton included, "Perform various duties rapidly and efficiently under emergency conditions that may involve considerable hazard," under Duties and Responsibilities in one of its job postings. This is an interesting inclusion as it emphasizes the ability to remain calm in a highly stressful situation. Interview questions related to this topic may include:

Tell us about a time when you experienced considerable stress. Describe how you reacted, and what you specifically did in reponse,

or,

This job will put you in situations where you will be required to perform while in emergency and hazardous conditions. How will you stay calm while working under these conditions?

As you can see from the examples above, the job posting can be critical in helping you identify the topic areas you may experience in the interview questions. As illustrated though, the questions themselves can come in different forms. Recognizing the underlying topic area of a question, however, is one key to a successful interview. With a focus on topic areas, you can then prepare robust answers and scenarios that are adaptable enough to be utilized for whatever the specific question may be. That's one reason why focusing on topic areas is better than hoping you managed to find the right questions. Another reason is that, in the long-run, focusing on topic areas helps you acquire useful and transferable interview skills that you can use later in life, in two ways – to help you succeed at the next interview, and for when you succeed enough that you are the one either designing the interview questions, or sitting on a selection committee.

How do you prepare robust answers? We will discuss this in an upcoming issue of WorkNFire. However, when I first started writing on selection and promotion a couple issues ago, I underscored the value of self-reflection. You'll note that I referred to reflection above as being useful during the actual interview. I believe self-reflection makes you a better person, which means that I think it makes you a better firefighter and a better officer. Self-reflection is another 'soft' skill you will build as we discuss these processes in more depth.