Interviewing at Trade Ledger; How to rock your next interview!
by Matthew Rigley, Talent Acquisition Partner.
We work hard to attract the very best talent for Trade Ledger. The Talent Team is continuously collaborating with our hiring managers to review and refine our recruitment process to allow us to attract and hire resourceful talent. We invite you to learn about Trade Ledger and consider whether a role is right for you. Discover our interview process and methodology.
Candidate experience is really important for us. Although not every candidate is successful in their job application, we aim to ensure that your overall journey is positive one. Our commitment to a good experience for you starts from when you apply, through the interview stage, to feedback and (we hope) onboarding.
Should your application be unsuccessful at any stage we will notify you as soon as possible via email or phone. We will always seek to provide constructive and honest feedback. If you have any questions along the way you can get in touch with your Talent Acquisition Partner.
Step 1 – Phone Screen with Talent Acquisition
This is an opportunity for us to get to know you, understand your experience and skills, motivations for applying and availability. It is also your opportunity to ask questions about Trade Ledger, our journey and the upcoming recruitment process.
Step 2 – Technical Phone Interview (Optional depending on the role)
In some cases the next step will be a 30-minute technical phone interview. The team will be asking questions to gauge your technical fit and skill levels.
Step 3 - Face to Face Technical / Skills based interview
Facilitated in person or virtually (via google meet), this stage is designed to assess your theoretical and practical skills, understand your approach to your work, assess how you technically deliver in your role, and rate your skill level. Often this will involve a practical element (eg: a design challenge, coding exercise, case study presentation or sales pitch). These are usually conducted by the hiring manager. These are 2 way interviews and it's a great opportunity to ask questions to gain insights about the team, role, challenges, ways of working and our culture.
Step 4 – Behavioural Interview (See additional section below for further info on this)
The behavioural interview is usually the final stage in your interview journey. We ask situational questions that have been created to assess your working style and values. It's also another opportunity for you to ask any questions.
The Interview - Preparation is key
Know Yourself – Re-read your resume
Before your interview, think about your key skills and attributes. How do they align with the role you hope to get? Familiarise yourself with your key achievements and examples that you have highlighted in your resume. This will help you to really articulate your suitability in a concise and confident manner.
Know the Role – Read the Job Advert / Job Description
Refresh yourself on how your skills and experiences correlate to the competencies being assessed. Take time to read through the original job advert or job description and identify key themes. This will then allow you to prepare some specific examples to some of the questions which are likely to be asked.
Research the Role and Team - Be curious
Do some research into our current projects and exciting developments (Life @ Trade Ledger, blogs or articles). Check out the company and individual LinkedIn profiles. Use this information to ask questions and establish a connection with the people that you are interviewing with.
Plan your questions
An interview is as much about you finding out more about an opportunity and what it is like to work at Trade Ledger, as it is about us finding out more about you. Therefore make sure you have some really well informed questions that give you the ability to demonstrate your interest in the role.
Practise your interview technique
This can be done by writing down the key points you want to get across and building these out. Ask someone you feel comfortable with to give you feedback.
Behavioural Based Interviewing at Trade Ledger
This is usually the final step in the process and is designed to assess your working style and values. It involves a series of questions that start with:
Tell me about a time when …
Give an example of when …
Describe a time when …
Behavioural-based questions are designed to let you talk; they are open, and they invite a response that tells us about a real-life challenge that you’ve faced. Essentially, behavioural questions help us to understand how you’ve previously dealt with particular situations, tasks or people.
The best way to answer these questions is always using the STAR technique. Using this technique is important because we want to see that you can give evidence as to why you have certain strengths. It stands for SITUATION, TASK, ACTION and RESULT. It allows you to split your answers into four sections:
Situation: This is all about setting the scene and describing the context of the story. Use one or two sentences to describe who you worked for at the time, what your role was, and any other relevant background information.
Task: In a short sentence, describe the problem or challenge you or your employer faced, and the goal you were working towards. Really spell out why this task is relevant to the role you’re applying for.
Action. Focus on what you did to either resolve the situation or contribute to the success. Describe who else you collaborated with during the process. It’s really important that you talk about the action you specifically took rather than what the team did. Talk at length about the steps you took, any challenges you faced, and what specific skills you used. Again, spell out those skills that relate to the job.
Result. Finally, describe the outcome. When possible, this should usually be positive. You should emphasise how your actions affected the outcome. Again, relate your skills or ability you’re illustrating back to the role you are applying for.
When practising your STAR interview answer, don’t spend too long describing the situation or task – trim any details that are unnecessary. The action part is key – what did you do? End with a positive result that you gained. Don’t gloss over the result. Really, show how effective you were!
The great thing about the STAR method is that it is a really straight forward, easy-to-use, and will guarantee a well-structured answer.
Things to avoid in Behavioural interview responses:
Vague Statements:
Ensure you are providing specific examples of situations you have encountered on the job to highlight your competencies and skills. Specific examples will be remembered. Generalisations or clichéd responses will not. Avoid using terms like “they are generally” “most of the time” “usually” “we” “sometimes”.
Opinion Statements:
The interviewer is not asking for your opinion. They want a real-life, factual example of what you did in a certain situation. Avoid "I believe..." "I think...“ "In my opinion..."
Theoretical or Future-oriented Statements:
These answers indicate what you would do rather than what you actually did. “If I had ....“ “I would have...“ "I might.."'
There is no doubt, interviewing can be a pretty nerve wracking thing! The best way to alleviate those nerves, and to increase your chances of success is to take the time to prepare before the interview. Really think about the topics you’re likely to discuss, ways to position yourself as a strong candidate and opportunities to make a positive impression on the interviewers. Remember to Research, Plan and Practise. You know you can do the role you are applying for; you just need make sure the interviewers believe you can, too. One way to do this is by preparing well-thought-out answers to questions they're most likely to ask and practise them! Interview skills are learned and there are no second chances to make a great first impression.