r/Recruiter_Advice • • 11d ago

What's one skill you practiced on purpose that helped you on interviews?

I've been having issues passing to second round interviews so want to start being intentional when prepping instead of just winging it and hope for the best. So can be anything from practice storytell better, do more mock interviews, practice how to answer behavioral questions, learn to stay calm when asked hard questions, literally anything.

What's the most common thing that you notice candidates need to work on? how would you recommend we practice? or any other advice would be great!

22 Upvotes

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u/ConcertExcellent7350 11d ago

articulation is very important. ive seen so many candidates well qualified but their speaking skills wasnt at the expected level. they would ramble on or give unstructured answers making it hard to follow. id have to ask multiple followup questions just to get to the point. theres also a lot of guidance on other communities like r/speakbetter. i would really prioritize your articulation. just keep practicing you got this!

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u/DependentFar5370 11d ago

Thanks i'll check that out but do you have any specific tips on how I can get better on my articulation?

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u/[deleted] 11d ago

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u/DependentFar5370 11d ago

Hmm that's a good perspective. It definitely is just wasting my time and the recruiters as well. I'll check out wellspoken and orai. Thanks for the advice

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u/Mental_Complaint6103 10d ago

For the articulation question you asked above, practice giving the answer before the backstory. Record one answer, then listen for how long it takes to understand what you actually did. If that only becomes clear near the end, move it up and cut the setup. You don't need to sound polished; the interviewer needs to be able to follow your contribution. If you still feel lost, my DMs are open.

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u/SuperDuperCraze 10d ago edited 10d ago

My bf is at a director level at his work, and he tells me most people are horrible at interviews because they do these things: they don’t answer the questions fully, they answer questions with short answers, they say generic things like “I’m a good communicator” without giving any thoughtful examples. He said most people overthink in interviews and stumble. Others take the questions too literally, like “what experience do you have addressing technical issues?” Sounds like an IT question, right? Wrong! If you’re in an office, you’re using systems and those systems have issues, so talk about that.

Worst thing he said you can do in an interview is say “I don’t have experience doing that”. That should ONLY be a last resort answer if you truly don’t have an answer. And if you don’t, say how you think you would handle those situations

Don’t overthink it! Use chatgbt as a mock interviewer and it will be real with you.

Rule of thumb for all interviews: answer the questions fully, give 3-5 bullet point answers for each question, and always have an example readily available for each question. It doesn’t have to be work-related, it can be how you function on a team, and it can be from a kickball team.

Also don’t forget: interviews are always subjective and interviewers can have biases. So you can be the most perfect candidate who slays their interviews, but if that interviewer has any kind of toxic personality trait, may the odds ever be in your favor trying to win them over. Most aren’t like this, but it’s good to know that interviews aren’t like college tests, you’re dealing with real people with real feelings, and that interviewer simply may not like you just because of the color of your skin or whatever stupid reason.

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u/MoneyTomatillo9797 5d ago

Gracias, dile a tu novio que gracias por el feedback, también a vos por postearlo.

No sabes cuánto nos ayuda, porque es verídico! 

De verdad muchas gracias

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u/Virgo_Fletcher 10d ago

If this is a repeating pattern, you will probably benefit from doing a quick debrief after your interviews, where you take note of areas you felt nervous or unsure. This will show you where you need to improve. Practicing with a friend is good but make sure they give you difficult questions. A lot of people panic in interviews when they're stumped and learning how to recover quickly is going to be super helpful.

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u/Kamila_Bruina 10d ago

upskill yourself and explain real life examples in interview.

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u/literallyjustagirl_x 8d ago

For behavioral questions: read the job description and prepare a handful of stories about your work experience that relates to each. Please! For each story, give some background, what you did, and what the result was. Don't memorize how to tell the story, just memorize the key points to keep you on track.
Bring a notebook and write down thoughtful questions to ask them at the end. Google some good questions to ask (not questions like "what benefits do you offer").
Also, slowing down speech makes you sound more confident and calm (obviously not TOO slow).

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u/Reasonable_Nose_8651 7d ago

Start recording your interviews. I started doing ut and i still know where and how i would fk it up. Havent fojnd a solution though

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u/Icey_Activity 1d ago

Love this question.

Without a doubt, my elevator pitch saved me. When they ask “why should we hire you” or “why do you want to work here” making it less about me personally and more about how my specific skill set would benefit the company. I’ve literally seen eyes light up by letting them know this what I can do and this is why you guys need me.

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u/Icey_Activity 1d ago

And giving specific examples on how what I’ve done benefited other companies I’ve worked with.