[MUSIC] Welcome to week six in the job interviewing and resume writing Capstone project. This week, you're going to practice a set of questions you should be prepared to answer at any interview. I'll review the questions here, go over the purpose a hiring manager has in posing each question, then present the rubric that will be used to evaluate your responses. For this milestone, you'll prepare at least one response to each of the interview questions that I'll go over with you shortly. In the previous weeks, I've ask you to identify three positions, to prepare three pitches, and to write three resumes. I've ask you to do that so you'll learn to focus your efforts on the specific needs of a hiring organization. The more specific your approached, the better chance you have to succeed. That said, recording responses for all your target positions may get unwieldy for the peer review process. I recommend you practice responding for each different position you target, not just the three you've identified, but for every position you go after now and in the future. But for the peer review assignment, I'm only asking for one response to each question. So that your peers can provide you with meaningful feedback, you're also going to provide competency requirements that can be used in evaluating your responses. These requirements should capture at least three core competencies and three critical competencies for the position you're targeting. Your peers will then evaluate how well you give evidence of possessing those competencies and at what proficiency level. You should already have begun this process of identifying competencies back in week three, then continued it in weeks four and five. I expect that you've been refining the competency requirements as you worked with your peer feedback and dug deeper into each position. You can, of course, refer to the competency descriptions in the resources attached to last week's milestone. But you should also have analyzed the job description and the hiring organization to pull out both core and critical competencies for the positions you target. And just to remind you, core competencies are those needed in any position of an organization. You can infer these from the organization's mission statement. You can refer to the competency resources provided last week. And you can review the top ten skills list from course one. I've re-posted that video in this week's materials. Critical competencies, these identify what top performers do to achieve success in the specific position you're targeting. You should be able to identify those from the job description, and from your analysis of the industry, and of competitive offerings. This represents the results of the research you learned to do back in course two. In week four, you worked up two minute pitches for the positions you're targeting. As you learned in course two, these served as your response to the tell me about yourself question, which is probably the first standard interview question you'll hear. But this next question will almost certainly come up during an interview. It's a question you should have a good answer for, both for yourself and for the hiring manager. A hiring manager asks this question to determine whether you are interviewing for the right reasons. You should ask yourself this question for the same purpose. What's your interest in the organization? What's your interest in the products and services provided? Why do you think you'd be a good fit? How does this position fit into your career plan? Of course, you're going to avoid self-centered responses like hey, I've heard it's a lot of fun to work here and I really enjoy the free food. Keep your responses oriented to the needs of the hiring manager and aligned with your deeper purpose for work. For the second question, if you're currently employed you can respond to this question. A hiring manager asks this to find out why you possibly aren't happy or satisfied with your current position and to gauge your attitude. Might your reasons for leaving mean you won't be happy or productive in the new position? Does your response raise any red flags? In other words, do you demonstrate a professional, forward thinking attitude or do you complain about your current job? I trust you don't whine about managers who don't understand you or coworkers you don't like. I shouldn't have to remind you of that. If you're not currently employed, then you can respond to this question. Even if you are, this is an important question to reflect on when you are screening organizations. A hiring manager asks this question to understand what you focus on. To find out if you're focused on the right behaviors and the important aspects of an organizational culture. I've re-posted the videos from the second course in this specialization so you can listen to John's responses again. They can serve as exemplars of professional level, well structured responses. The last question you'll answer is this one. You better have a good, solid, confident answer for this question because a hiring manager asks it to assess your confidence. If you're not convinced, truly convinced that you're able to meet and exceed the responsibilities for the position, then why are you applying and what do you expect a hiring manager to think? Remember, don't talk in generalities. Forget the cliches of what a hard worker you are, what a great team player you are, don't just throw around adjectives, be specific. Provide relevant evidence and concrete reasons. Now if you prefer, you can answer this question instead. It's basically the same question but asked in a different way. Tie your experience and skills to the competencies you've identified so you can prove your value with solid evidence. Keep in mind that, broadly speaking, a hiring manager wants to know three things. First, he or she wants to know you can do the job. How well do you meet the critical competency requirements of the position? Do you have the skills or training that's relevant? If not, can you provide examples to demonstrate you can learn quickly and be effective? Second, the hiring manager wants to know you will do the job. How well do you meet the core competency requirements? Are you reliable? Do you learn from past mistakes? Are you mature and able to manage conflict? Can you get things done? Third, the hiring manager want to know you'll be a good fit for the organization. How well does your purpose align with that of the organization? Will you work well with others? Are you a good fit for the organizational culture? Do you demonstrate real interest in the organization? Will you put the interests of the organization first? As you've learned throughout this specialization, the better you can occupy the position of need in the mind of the hiring manager, the greater your chances of landing the job. Now, let's look at how responses will be evaluated. This is both how your peers will evaluate your responses and how you will evaluate the responses of your peers. Evaluations will use both the competency requirements provided and an evaluation guide that I've adopted from Toastmasters International. Each response will be scored from zero to 100. 50% of the score is based on content, what you respond with, is your response well structured? Is it effectively aligned with the hiring manager's purpose? Is your response meaningful and relevant? 30% of the score is based on delivery, how you respond. Does your body language support your points? Is your voice flexible, with a good variety of tone, rate, and volume? Do you speak with enthusiasm and confidence? Finally, 20% of the score is based on language. Is your language professional? Is it reasonably correct? Is a listener directed to what you're saying and not how it's said? I've posted the evaluation sheets with this video so you can read the rubric descriptors in detail. These rankings correspond fairly well with how you'll be rated by a hiring manager. What you respond with and how you respond carry by far and away the most weight. Even though, if you're a non-native speaker, you might be worried most about your language. Now I wish you well with this week's milestones. And I hope you're eager to get to it. [MUSIC]
