{"id":8535,"date":"2008-12-10T14:15:46","date_gmt":"2008-12-10T20:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/2008\/12\/10\/structuring-great-interview-answers-the-seven-steps\/"},"modified":"2008-12-10T14:15:46","modified_gmt":"2008-12-10T20:15:46","slug":"structuring-great-interview-answers-the-seven-steps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/?p=8535","title":{"rendered":"Structuring Great Interview Answers – The Seven Steps"},"content":{"rendered":"
by Nalin Wickramasuriya<\/div>\n

Not too short, not too long – Your answers should be 1.5 to 2 minutes long (3 minutes if the subject is broad). Any longer and you will put the interviewer to sleep. Any shorter and you will simply not have the time to provide any valuable information about yourself.<\/p>\n

Having a strong structure concentrates on 3 or 4 well defined areas. Ideally, you will announce your structure upfront. This signposts the interviewer, so that they know what to expect. So if asked about your 3 main strengths – begin by saying “I would say that I have 3 main strengths.” If questioned about your choice of speciality – talk<\/a> about the 2 main reasons that attract you about this speciality. When discussing your research skills – talk about the research based and generic skills that you learnt from your research project. <\/p>\n

Once you have announced your message in the introduction, expand on it within the body of your interview answer. Know the principal message that you want the interview panel to receive and then ensure that the panel hear that message early on within your answer. Keep control over the information flow and ensure that you deliver your point well. Stay direct and focussed on delivering your message. Then back up your message with specific examples.<\/p>\n

Make sure that you fill your answers with back up statements. Provide genuine facts about your skills and abilities. Don’t use generalised statements such as “I really enjoy working in teams” or “This field really interests me”. Talk about why you enjoy working in teams or why you find this field interesting.<\/p>\n

Get Personal. Use singular, first person pronouns – me and I – not plural pronouns, such us we and us. Claim the skill that you are describing in your answer as your own. If you say that you did something – it will be perceived as true. If you say we did something – that too will be perceived as believable, but it will be less powerful in terms of suggesting that you have the skill (team working, time management, organisation skills, etc) in question. <\/p>\n

Provide objective measures of success. Discuss letters of thanks, senior management review outcomes or course qualifications, that validate the idea that you possess a skill. Don’t merely talk about the fact that you have good man management skills. Try to bring into the conversation the fact that your boss commented on your excellent handling of the computer teams implementation of the new upgrade. It’s always more powerful to use an external validation. <\/p>\n

Try to broad the question out and initiate a discussion at the end. If you can increase the proportion of time spent listening to the interviewer, you will enhance your chances of interview success. The interviewer will perceive you as a good listener and may also consider you to be more of a peer than a subordinate. <\/p>\n

Think laterally and diversify the argument. Ascertain whether you are able to describe additional accomplishments that you are able to talk about because part of your response. E.g. talking about conflict could direct you to talking over how expert communication terminate conflict. Ensure that everything you talk about refers the answer back to you and the task. Whenever the question is hypothetical for example. “What constitutes a good doctor?”, “What skills should an effective leader have?” then answer the question and close by explaining how you match the criteria i.e. why YOU are a good doctor or why YOU are a good leader. By broadening the debate, you will create a discussion; this should help you develop a better rapport with your panel and may give you an edge over the challenger.<\/p>\n

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About the Author:<\/div>\n
If you want to learn more about how to apply for your speciality training medical rotation and secure a medical interview, then you must go now to this ST interview<\/a> website.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not too short, not too long – Your answers should be 1.5 to 2 minutes long (3 minutes if the subject is broad). Any longer and you will put the interviewer to sleep. Any shorter and you will simply not have the time to provide any valuable information about yourself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3343,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[81],"class_list":["post-8535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-careers","tag-careers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3343"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8535\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}