Hiring processes are not only increasingly complex. They can also be very confusing. Here's how to deal with them in all circumstances: marathon interviews, situational tests, trick questions, personality questionnaires or group interviews.
With recruiting times getting longer and longer, finding a job is becoming more and more like an obstacle course. To help you find a job, this month Management publishes a complete dossier on the professions that are recruiting, 8 countries to move to and a lot of advice to optimise your job search. One of the keys to success is to stand out in a recruitment interview. While 60% of recruitments take less than five weeks, more than one recruiter in seven (15%) actually extends the pleasure beyond ten weeks (according to the Robert Half firm). Logically, casting errors are expensive. Companies need to be reassured and tend to multiply tests. Here's how to react if you find yourself in one of the 5 situations described below.
1. Marathon interview: adapt your speech to your interlocutors
With the development of project-based management, a candidate's ability to integrate into constantly changing teams has become as important as his/her technical skills. And to assess this with certainty, major groups (Sanofi-Aventis, Carrefour, Bouygues, etc.) tend to multiply the number of interviews. It would be a mistake to serve the same speech to each interviewer.
You are applying for a job as a financial controller and a recruiter calls you to make an appointment? Even at this early stage, don't take this call lightly. Show that you understand the job title. You will then be summoned by the HR department. Highlight your experiences in similar positions or companies. If you pass these two steps, you are already on the short list. The next one will be the Director of Accounting.
This is your future n+1, the most important thing to convince. Give him a technical speech, which proves your know-how, and sprinkle the conversation with personal elements that will make him want to work with you. This marathon should be closed by the administrative and financial director (CFO), the "big boss". With him or her, you'll be able to rise to the challenge. Show him or her that you understand the company's strategy.
2. Situational testing: managing priorities well
In 54% of cases, an "assessment" (situational test) is used to check that an individual is well suited to a position (according to "Une enquête sur le recrutement en France", by Marilou Bruchon-Schweitzer and Dominique Ferrieux). Nissan, BASF, Philips... A lot of companies use it. But as they cost several thousand euros a day, they are reserved for high-level positions. Designed as a real office day, they generally last from 9 am to 6.30 pm. They can, however, be limited to a half-day case study for certain lower-level positions (marketing product manager, for example).
In all cases, the aim is to put the candidate under pressure. In the morning, you will be given a thick summary file that you will not have time to consult in its entirety (focus on outlines and key figures), as well as a topic to present that evening (usually a business plan). Then, e-mails and phone calls start to rain. You are constantly having to answer questions and make decisions. "It's up to you to sort out what is important from what is not," recommends Laurence Pintenat, consultant at DDI (assessment specialist). We will judge what you do as much as how you do it."
3. Trick questions: expect the worst ... with a smile
"If you were a superhero, who would you be?", was the question asked to a candidate at the very serious American telecom company AT&T. He is still waiting for the job. "With the crisis, there's a lot of crazy questions and traps of all kinds," confirms William Poundstone in "Are you smart enough to work at Google?". (Lattès). The Mountain View firm is the specialist in crazy questions: "How many tennis balls can you put in this room", "Evaluate the number of taxis in New York"... But she is not the only one. Apple, Johnson&Johnson, Bank of America also do "Fermi" questions, named after an Italian physicist who boasted that he could evaluate anything. The objective? To measure your ability to hold a coherent line of reasoning. It doesn't matter if, in the end, no one knows the exact answer.
4. Personality questionnaires: orient the results according to the position
The principle? Among a hundred or so proposals, you will have to tick those that correspond to you the most and the least. "Depending on whether 'you work easily in a group' or whether 'you sometimes have difficulty with authority', the questionnaire will determine whether you like contact, whether you are organised or capable of innovation, but also what your profile is: more of a leader, facilitator or organiser," explains Stéphane Amiot, CEO of SHL (a firm specialising in talent assessment). A lot of candidates are preparing for this. If you don't, you risk falling behind. Don't even hesitate to orient the results in the direction of the position: by voluntarily choosing the most dynamic answers if you are aiming for a sales position or, on the contrary, by sending back the image of someone analytical for a management job in finance. To train yourself, you can use our "Job, IQ and Personality Test" service.
5. Group Interviews: take the lead in a subtle way
They are very widespread in mass recruitment (call centres, insurance companies, etc.), for sales positions (at Danone) or branch managers in banks (at Crédit Agricole). Between ten and twenty candidates work together on a subject for half an hour (from "Prepare the sales pitch for a new product" to "For or against gay marriage?", anything is possible), then the group delivers a summary to a "jury". These two phases take place under the eye of recruiters who analyse the way power relations operate. "You have to speak up quickly, because there's a bonus for the first one, but at the same time don't monopolise it," observes a former Xerox sales manager. The trick he found to get himself noticed? "I suggested we listen to the 'silent' part of the tape. I had spoken with him and knew he had things to say. By putting him forward, I proved that I could observe and coach. As a result, I was the only one held back." Proof that sometimes it's enough to be smarter than the others...