Following is a brief summary of the interview process for a job in Kenya. This information should help you approach the interview with understanding and confidence.
Definition:
An interview is a face to face discussion in which information is obtained from one person or more others. It is a form of interaction based primarily on asking and answering questions: Interviews may be conducted by individuals or by panels.
Interviews are used for selection, information gathering, counseling, discipline, settling, interrogation by reporters, on radio, TV, doctors and employers.
Having a good understanding of the job interview process is essential because people are rarely hired without an interview . The purpose of the interview is to exchange information to determine if there is a match between you and the job opening.
The key to successful interviewing is thorough preparation. You need to be able to tell the interviewer about your specific job objective, in other words, what you want to do and why you think you can do it. Next you need to research on the employer and know as much as possible about the organization before your interview– this is very important.
THE INTERVIEWER
It might be interesting to begin from the awareness of what the interviewers do when they usually carry out the work of an interview . This will help the interviewee know what to expect.
To interview effectively, the interviewers must get each of the following aspects right.
- Preparation
- The introduction
- Questioning
- Dealing with replies
- The conclusion
- Evaluation and action
Preparation
Why? Clarify aims and objectives
Who? Decide whom to interview
How? Ensure good administration
So what? Prepare the panel members.
Prepared panel
Usually the panel learn about so much about the interviewee from the papers presented through
- Letters of applications
- CV/resume
- Letters of recommendation
- Certificates
- Samples of work either through slides or written reports.
From these the panel makes notes about
- Fruitful lines of questioning
- Principal lines of inquiry
- Gaps in the knowledge and doubts to be confirmed.
- Clarifications to be done on certain information.
- etc.
Usually after this, a candidate is short-listed to an interview
NOTE: The interviewee has this information i.e. similar papers and copies of the originals. He must study them thoroughly to explain the details from personnel specifications or from job (description) specification. He must have information at his finger tips by going through the CV and letter of application, certificates and any other materials presented for the job application. The interviewer is usually called to find out the details, verification and confirmation of the known from these documents.
Introduction
1. To set a good rapport between an interviewee and the panel.
2. To make the interviewee to relax.
Note: You who is going to be interviewed must breath in deep and breathe out slowly and psyche your mind that you are going to make it. Smile and firm handshake may help if this is allowed. Make sure you respond to any move to make you feel at home quickly and with zest. The panel will try to help you do this. Be easy to entreat. Study the body and mood of the panel and adjust accordingly.
Setting the scene
The questions now will be for checking what the interviewee knows; the clearing up any misunderstandings and providing the information that will help the interviewee marshal later answers to his/her advantage.
At this stage the interviewer will do more talking. He might use visual aids, organization charts, job descriptions, appraisal paperwork, product brochures etc. to make the scene carefully clear to the interviewee.
QUESTIONING
Most times the information from the interviewee is gathered through sound structure arrangements.
The structure
(a) Paper (Document) based: Questions based on paperwork completed by interviewee before the interview. Sometimes, based on a CV or completed application form.
(b) Sequence based This allows the interviewer to follow the date-structure as outlined in the CV year by year. [You who is going to be interviewed must be able to fill in information about Grades of qualification, and awards (follow the 6W1H technique of answering!). So in every year date accomplishment on CV, they will ask you to demonstrate how you can apply in the situation of the organization using the historical exposure.
(c) Objective -based There are two categories of objectives: The personnel specification oriented questions and the job -description oriented questions. The panel is composed of the personnel and job -specifications experts. Most of these have objective questions which they have to ask and need satisfactory answers.
(d) Open ended: Sometimes, the interviewee may be the only expert and none of the interviewers may know anything or very little about the subject. So the questions asked will be open-ended like: “Let me be frank with you from the start. Chemical engineering is something I have heard of, but know absolutely nothing about. It would help me if you could start by explaining what it is and how it works, and then how your own job fits in with others in the division?”
Open questions are broad-based questions that ask the interviewee to provide whatever information he/she wishes to give as answers to the questions.
You who is going to be interviewed must follow 6W1H technique to satisfy the panel of your expertise. These questions in this category (open-ended) offer the interviewee a wide scope in framing his answers. They begin with questions as “Tell me about ……..e.g.. ‘what can you tell me about yourself?.’ “Why” and “How” for example: “Tell me about your time in Egerton University “.
“Why have you decided to change your job?” “How do you prepare a balance sheet?”
And those that give some direction, such as…’what do you believe has prepared you for this job? ‘
Such questions are given to make initial exploration of the whole of interviewee.
Why do interviewers ask open-ended questions? Mostly to encourage the person to talk, allowing the interviewer an opportunity to listen and to observe.
Through the open questions the interviewer finds out about:
- the person’s perspectives
- Values
- goals
- articulation of the expression
- the orderly and logical way of reasoning
Note: The open questions take time to answer. Be careful to keep on the purpose of the question. Peg your questions on specifics.
(e) Closed questions:- These questions call for precise, and definite information. These are questions of 6W1H. E.g. ‘Who is the Minister and Permanent Secretary of Education?’ What and why are the national colours of Kenya ?
They are made to help the panel to establish facts about the knowledge of the interviewee. (You who is going to be interviewed must be vast in general knowledge of political, commercial , International news and even spiritual knowledge). Sometimes it might be useful for the interviewee to expand a little bit on short-answers.
E.g. “No! … , but the reason why, what, when, etc.’
(f) Hypothetical questions: Questions asked in this category are to let the interviewee predict the experiences, conditions and events using the theories and principles of a certain knowledge.
E.g. If you were in the similar situation, with your experience, how would you react?
They are made to explore aspects of the personality for which the CV offers no evidence. They test creativity and problem-solving skills.
(g) Multile questions These have two or more parts to the question. E.g. ‘Why did you decide to sell at that time, and who decided for you, and do you feel you would do the same another time?’
(Be careful to answer all questions inclusively one by one. Name them one, two, three etc. It is good to paraphrase the question before you answer the question in details.)
Dealing with replies
It is never enough for the panel to only ask good questions. The panel must also: Listen, evaluate, modify their approach, and take notes. You also as an interviewee, must learn to listen actively. Use smiles, gestures and nods. Use words like ‘yes’, ‘all right’, or ‘really’ etc. These are also some of the skills used by the interviewers. Maintain eye contact all the time to the one asking the question.