10 Interview Questions to be Prepared For

We recently came across another post online which we thought was extremely helpful in getting candidates prepared for their interviews. With so many websites offering advice and sample interview questions, it’s often difficult to pick out the relevant information before an interview. This article puts things together in an informative and concise manner and when combined with our other articles on interviewing (please see our Interviewing Techniques Revisited post) should help candidates greatly in preparing for that all-important interview.

Original link to article here: 10 Answers You Should Know Before Your Job Interview

“Although no one can predict the questions your potential employer will ask, you can think about how you’d answer some of the commonly asked ones. Here are ten questions for you to consider and a few hints about how to answer them:

Tell me about yourself.

Chances are the employer doesn’t want to know how much you weighed when you were born, when you learned to tie your shoes, or how much you had to drink last night. He or she wants to know how you would fit into the company and what your relevant job experience is. You might answer by asking the interviewer what he’d like to know. Or you might talk about your education, the fact that you’re a team player, or whatever you think might be important to this particular company.

Why should we hire you?

Even though five people may be waiting outside, you need to sound confident, calm, and capable. Explain how your experience has prepared you for the job. Emphasize the qualities you think the employer is looking for, such as your outstanding work ethic or the fact that you’re a fast learner.

What is your worst characteristic?

Some human resource specialists suggest that you make a virtue sound like a flaw. “I tend to be a perfectionist,” or, “Everyone says I work too hard.” But others say these answers have become clichés. Mention a minor flaw, such as, “I think I’m too outspoken at times, but I’m working on it.”

Where do you want to be five years from now?

Let the interviewer know you’re looking for job stability and that you aren’t planning to use this job as a temporary stopping point in your quest for a better position. You could say, “I’d like to be employed in a small company like this one, where I can learn, contribute, and advance.”

Why did you leave your last job?

Never put your former employer or your co-workers in a negative light. Don’t blame them for your departure. Give a positive reason, such as you left to take advantage of another opportunity that was better suited to your skills.

Tell me about a problem you had in your life and how you solved it.

Be prepared with a short answer that shows you’re resourceful. “I really wanted to go to a private university, but my parents didn’t have the money. I went to a community college for two years, worked part time and saved my money so I could attend the last two years at the college of my choice.”

Have you had difficulties getting along with supervisors or co-workers?

You’d have to be a saint to have had no problems with the people you worked with. You might answer, “Nothing major. I try to get along with everyone.”

How do you deal with stress on the job?

The employer wants to know if you’re going to run out the door when things get stressful. Ask yourself if you thrive on working with deadlines or if you need creative time to function more effectively. Think about how you handle stress and be honest. “I focus on the work I’m doing,” or, “I make time to work out at the gym.”

What salary do you want for this job?

Rather than stating a definite figure, tell the interviewer you’d expect to get somewhere in the standard range paid for this position.

Do you have questions for me?

Always have a few questions. They show that you researched the company. Ask about a current issue the company is working on or how their recent layoff in another department affected company morale.”

Working Successfully with Recruitment Consultants – Candidate Guide

We recently asked for votes from our readers and followers in our May Poll rating their experiences working with recruiters. The response was generally pretty negative with low satisfaction levels.

We think it is therefore useful to offer a guide to people in how best to choose and work with a recruiter and what to expect.

1. Be selective about which recruiter you work with.

   Do your research before you send them your CV. Ask your colleagues/friends for recommendations, see who is rated highly on places such as LinkedIn – just be thorough! A job search is an important process and must be handled correctly. You wouldn’t buy a house without doing the necessary checks so why would you treat a job search any differently? We suggest you check the following:

   • Does the consultant know your market area? Can they therefore advise you properly on the companies you should be targeting based on your experiences?
   • Do they have the connections in the industry to be able to add any value to your search or are they firing CVs blindly into HR email addresses? If you speak to a recruiter you will soon be able to tell and if it is the latter, you may as well send CVs to HR yourself!
   • Are they honest with you? Most people complain to us that they speak to a recruiter and never hear from them again. We ALWAYS say if we cannot help someone and we are happy to give advice on how people can perhaps secure options directly themselves.

2. Understand what we do.

   Recruiters are employed and paid by clients to find them candidates who they find difficult to find themselves. Depending on the market conditions, clients can be very open or very closed to who they wish to be introduced to them. Right now (June 2012) clients are more prepared to wait for people that tick all the boxes. Therefore if a recruiter is responding to say that they probably cannot assist you then please do not take offence. This is because we know our clients well and what our clients will consider. Take the feedback on board and focus your future search on the basis of the response.

3. Understand recruiters receive MANY applications for positions every day.

   Therefore be very careful and targeted in what you apply for.

   • Don’t send your CV to all open positions multiple times, particularly if the positions are for a range of job titles. For example, if you are an architect, send your details to the architect jobs listed.
   • Please carefully read the job requirements. If a skill is listed that you do not have, please remember the clients have asked recruiters to find people with that skill – they won’t pay a recruiter a fee for someone that doesn’t have it. A common example in Asia is the requirement for someone with language skills, usually Mandarin, and/or locally based experience. It is no good asking a recruiter if the client is prepared to consider someone that doesn’t have this – rest assured, we will say in our job descriptions if a client is willing to do so!
   • Due to the high volume of applications, recruiters simply cannot respond to every application they receive. If you strongly feel you should be considered for an advertised position then by all means follow up. If you are speculatively asking a recruiter if they can find you a job, please see point 2.

4. Work with one good recruiter

   There is no need to work with multiple recruiters. Most of you have specific skills and experiences and your market sectors are therefore generally pretty small. Whilst it is tempting to try to cover all options by using many recruiters, this type of approach often results in duplications and a lot of time is then spent trying to figure out where your details have gone. If you follow the advice in Point 1 above, you will find a recruiter that can add value to your search and may be able to present you with a few options based on your experiences. A good recruiter is also one who is honest in telling you if they cannot help – the very best will actually take the time to point you in the right direction so you can help yourself.

5. Please take (a good recruiters) advice on board.

   For example, if a recruiter advises you to revise your CV, this is because they know what their clients will look for. If a recruiter gives you advice on how to interview successfully with their client, this is because they are helping you maximise your chance of receiving an offer. We work in recruitment, full-time, every day and know how companies go about hiring their staff. The best of us are considered essential partners by our clients so when we are offering advice, we are representing what our client partners are looking for.

The important overall point to remember is that recruiters work for their client companies – they ultimately pay our fees and are the reason the recruitment business exists. Whilst the best of us can sometimes help people to find a job by providing them with ideas and options, it is very dependent on that person’s skills and the needs/sentiment of the market at that time. If you go to a recruiter expecting them to simply find you a job then you are likely to be disappointed. However, if you go into the process having followed the points above and are open to guidance and feedback, then working with a recruiter can be an extremely rewarding and positive experience.

There are of course recruiters out there who unfortunately do give our industry a bad name – common complaints usually centre around a lack of honesty or lack of follow up on actions promised. A lot of candidates also tell us that other recruiters just fire their details out blindly to the market. We are pretty confident that if you follow the guide above you will find yourself working with a consultant more likely to be able to assist you (even if it’s just with some good advice) and avoiding those recruiters who’s sole focus is on quantity rather than quality. We know this guide is relatively direct in it’s tone but at the same time we hope it provides a refreshing, yet honest, guideline on how to make the most out of your experience of working with a recruiter.

We are available for any further advice or tips – just drop us a note in the comments at the bottom of this post!

Putting Together A Portfolio – Architects and Designers

This article is designed to provide a guide for design candidates who need to put together a portfolio for interviews they have. We also last year created a graduate specific version which you can view here: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. This guide should provide information for all levels of design candidates.

If you are an experienced candidate with a number of years experience, your portfolio is likely to be made up of around 90% practical project experience and maybe 10% university work. We think it’s important to keep the practical and academic experience separated with the focus being on the work that YOU have undertaken as a designer in a professional environment. As your career develops, the percentage of the portfolio that is academic based should decrease as the practical/professional experience takes precedence so if you are nearing 2 decades of experience, it’s fairly obvious that most firms will probably not want to see your university sketches.

Your portfolio is in essence what shows a potential employer how you approach a design problem and the design solution you come up with. Therefore it should be fairly detailed including work from earliest design briefs and sketches through to more detailed final drawings and any models (3D or physical) constructed. It should tell the story of a project and be easy to follow and most importantly show the employer your strengths and what you could bring to their company. A lot of design portfolios simply include pretty 3D renderings or photographs of the final or completed design. These are important but only show a small part of the process you have completed. If you have spent a year working on a project, show a year’s worth of work. Compile the portfolio in reverse chronological order starting with your most recent work first and working backwards. Include some written descriptions if necessary but remember this is a visual tool. Also make sure you include any drawings you have done with specialist software to reaffirm the information on your CV (e.g. Rhino, Maya, 3D Max, Environmental Modelling Software).

A lot of people ask us how big their portfolio should be in terms of amount of content. We are of the opinion that you should almost take along too much work and then from your research prior to interview (and feeling at interview) decide which parts of the portfolio you will spend most time on – if you take a large portfolio, remember you don’t need to go through all of it, allow the interviewer to feedback and guide you if you are unsure. We go into more detail on presenting the portfolio in our Interviewing Successfully (Part 1 and Part 2) article.

We are also asked how big physically the portfolio should be. We would say that 90% of the portfolios we see are A3 size. This is usually the easiest size to transport to and from interviews and is usually enough to present a high enough level of detail. The best portfolios are those that are presented in a binder/folder and can be flicked through like a book during interview. Take the time to organise the portfolio in a folder or bind it – there is nothing worse than someone scrabbling through loose sheets of paper trying to find a drawing. And then you have to reorganise it for every interview.

This leads on to whether you should show a hard copy (paper) portfolio or an electronic (PDF/Power Point/etc) portfolio. We think that most companies still prefer to see hard copy printed portfolios. However, in the age of more specialist software tools and 3D renderings it can be useful to have an electronic copy as well. If you do take along an electronic portfolio we’d recommend taking your own laptop – an employer may not have the ability to read a CD or USB memory stick in the interview room. Make sure the laptop is fully charged and if necessary turned on when the interview starts. Organise the portfolio efficiently ideally into one presentation file as a PDF or equivalent. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to locate an image in the midst of hundreds of folders – it’s akin to sifting through a pile of loose papers as outlined above. It’s ok to have some separate files to show, just make sure you can access them easily and quickly. For example you may have created a video fly-through to show alongside your image portfolio.

Finally, once you have completed a portfolio ready to present at an interview, we highly recommend creating a condensed, email-able selection of work samples to send with an initial application. This does not have to be as extensive as the full portfolio but should give a flavour of your design experiences. We think that 10-20 PDF pages/slides is more than sufficient and generally speaking try to keep this file size below 5MB so it can pass through most email systems.

 

Monthly Update: April 2012

Market News

A survey this month found that more than 86% of luxury brands have an outlet in Hong Kong topping the charts for the third year running. The demand for luxury retail space has driven up rents by more than 14% from the same time last year. Most analysts feel that we’re reaching a peak here in Hong Kong as retailers start to baulk at paying such high rental fees – although the demand for luxury goods from mainland China visitors is expected to remain strong.

Also in Hong Kong this month there was a word of caution for buyers of new luxury flats and properties. The lure of grand clubhouses and appliances means that many flats are becoming overpriced and are starting to make a loss on the secondary markets. If the selling price of a new building is 20% more than those of similar 2-3 year old properties in the same location then there is a good chance that the price will depreciate according to market experts.

Sands Macau opened the next phase of their Cotai project in April with the US$4.4 billion Sands Cotai – phase 1 opened in April with 2 further phases expected to be open by early 2013. In addition they announced plans to spend some US$35 billion building casino projects in Spain, a mini Las Vegas. Further integrated projects are also planned in Asia with Sands planning to grab significant market share over the next decade.

In China, home sales rose sharply as more developers offered discounts to attract buyers. However, all signs still point to an uncertain future with the latest “official” response from the Chinese government which says that developers are “dreaming” if they think that restrictions on property will be lifted any time soon – the suggestion had been that they could ease restrictions designed to cool the housing market allowing developers to borrow and build more.

Poll Result

We asked you this month to tell us about your company’s plans for hiring over the next 6 months. The response was great, as always, and thank you to all who voted:

Most respondents, 95% either live or do work in Asia so we can assume the response is a good indication of the market conditions here. 70% of respondents said they would be hiring but one or two key people. That said, 20% of respondents said they had big plans for growth. This leaves us with 90% of respondent’s companies planning to expand in the region, perhaps somewhat surprising given the recent greater caution from companies to employ staff. Speaking to people this month, the focus for new hires still seems to be to hire those difficult to find, critical people – if people do not fit exact requirements then company’s are still prepared to wait. All were positive about the remainder of 2012 and felt that much of the proposed work they have on their books would be given the green light in the near future enabling them to take on more people. Interestingly only a small number of voters said their companies would be downsizing this year. A positive sign for industry we hope!

What’s Hot

April has been one of our busiest months with many new active requirements coming in from existing and new clients. We are receiving a lot of new client referrals from existing clients and building exclusive relationships with many companies (developers and consultancies) in the region on the back of some strong work in the preceding months. It seems that the desire for a consultancy led recruitment approach to their needs is working well and our clients are now starting to be very selective about which recruitment partners they work with – good news for us! We were delighted to hear this month that in 2011, our first year, we had become the biggest supplier of design staff to one of the world’s biggest design firms in China (name to remain confidential!) placing more staff than our nearest competitors combined. A great achievement and one we hope to build on in 2012!

Demand for interior designers with hospitality and retail experience remains high – if we had 10 strong candidates (with language skills and China experience) we would be able to find them all work! It really is that busy. Landscape design continues to be a busy area for us – again, we have needs for people with good language ability for some great firms in China. We do also need strong architects at all levels but really the priority here is for those with excellent language skills. When we do get roles for expats we can fill them within a week as the candidate pool is still quite large in this area.

We STILL have an urgent need in Hong Kong for a Chinese speaking Project Director who can help develop business for a new team. In fact if we could find 2 or 3, we would have options available.

We have new mandates from some of our large developer clients ranging from AGM level through to Assistant PM level – these are top tier developers including 2 with whom we have exclusive relationships – these are truly firms that people come to us and request we make contact with so we know these positions won’t be open for long! Good PM’s with architecture experience who can deliver projects in China – those with engineering backgrounds will be considered too. We again could fill 20+ positions here if we had the candidates – so get in touch if you think you could be interested!

Our new business area in the Sales and Marketing and Leasing sectors has boomed in the last month. Our clients are responding really well to this specialist focus and we have mandates with many new and existing developer and consultancy clients. Demand for strong leasing staff with retail experience in addition to market/sales candidates with property qualifications is very high. We expect this market to grow for us in the coming months and we will be posting many new roles onto our website!

Most Urgent Requirements

We have outlined below the urgent vacancies we have had through from clients over the last month.

• Assistant Sales and Marketing Manager – Top Tier Developer, luxury Resi projects
• Project Manager – Interior Design – Another Top Tier Developer for a position in Shanghai
• Senior Sales and Marketing Manager for luxury resi projects – a bespoke, high end developer
• Project Director – for one of China’s best known developers on a landmark scheme
• Architecture Project Director – an international design practice looking for someone with strong PM and Mandarin language skills
• Assistant Project Manager for a luxury developer to be stationed in Hong Kong (currently at final stage interview)
• E&M Project Manager – China – Another top tier developer in Hong Kong looking for a key person on a key project
• Leasing Manager – Hong Kong – Listed Property Developer looking for Retail Experienced people
• Interior Design Director – Shanghai – great opportunity with a new practice in China
• Senior Interior Designers – Retail and Hotels – Hong Kong and China – we need people here! China experience and language will be important

We also have many, many more roles posted on our website and these are only an overview of our top positions at this time. Please check back regularly. The easiest way to stay up to date with our latest positions is to follow us on Twitter.

Please visit our website for more information on the above roles and our other vacancies:

http://www.ellicottlong.com/current-jobs.

If you wish to inquire about a position please send an email and your CV to apply@ellicottlong.com.

Follow us on Twitter here: www.twitter.com/ellicottlong. Please also subscribe to our blog by filling in the email subscription form on the right to stay up to date with our latest posts, updates and information.

Interviewing Techniques Revisited

As it is the New Year now and more and more of our candidates will be out there interviewing with our clients, we thought this could be a very good time to highlight some of our top articles that cover interviewing techniques. Whether you are speaking to someone by telephone, video interviewing from overseas or meeting people for the 2nd or 3rd time, our articles should have you covered!

Click on the links below to learn more:

Interviewing Basics – as the name suggests, this gives you a overview of how to prepare and be successful at interview

How To Interview Successfully – Part 1 and Part 2 – this goes into a lot more detail and forms the basis of any interview preparation we go through with our candidates

Telephone and Video Interviews – Part 1 and Part 2 – if you cannot meet the interviewer face-to-face then please make sure you read through our advice on how to interview remotely by telephone or via video (Skype etc)

If you are a recent design graduate then we have a 3 part series which not only covers interviews but the whole job application process – Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3

And finally Some More Tips On Interviewing with links to other articles on the matter.

Of course, the interview is just the start of the process – make sure you know how to follow up after you have interviewed by reading our related post here.

We can provide tailored and specific interview advice for almost any scenario – if you have any questions as a result of these articles please don’t hesitate to drop us an email info@ellicottlong.com or leave a comment to this article. Monthly Update to follow next week!