After three long years at current secret workplace, yours truly has been promoted to a new department to do a different top-secret job! Yay!
Top secret job may or may not be working for the government (employer disclosure policy remember?).
On route to finding this job, I've been in 6 other interviews. Some painful & some you'd-have-to-be-crazy-not-to-hire-me's.
All that interview prep & time spent should go to better use. From what I've heard, lots of people are interested in working for the government & you should benefit from my blunders. Here are six tips I would suggest for you.
1. Don't have a stupid email.
Every job I've applied for has been online with an email address or with an email on my resume. That is standard practice especially with the government.
surfdude69, sportz_chick & ilovejake should never be part of an email you apply to the government with.
When I initially applied to work with 'secret workplace' over three years ago, I was going through a depression spell & had a very poor outlook on my potential to get this job. That being said I'm sure my resume was terrible & I won't disclose the email address I provided but I will tell you it ended in 'iza_qt1'.
Now that I am a little more serious about my career, I realize this is dumb but I just can't seem to shake this awful decision. For some reason it is permanently on my file even though that's where I delegate my junk mail & I've been using my initial & last name 'secret employer' email address for 3 years now. I cringe whenever I'm scheduling an interview & the HR person will say
"So would you like me to send a confirmation to your iza_qt..."
"NO, NO, GOD NO PLEASE SEND IT TO MY WORK ADDRESS!"
2. Be prepared with scenarios for behavioral based questions
Give me an example of when you've used logic to solve a problem?
Describe when you've gone above & beyond in the workplace?
Tell me about a difficult situation you've had with a co-worker & how you handled it?
Don't ever expect to come in to an interview & just be asked why you want the job & what would make you a good candidate.
They want you to tell them about how you handle things in the workplace & this style of question can weed out the idealists that will attempt to wow them with what they 'would do' if a situation presented itself.
They want to know the background of the situation, what your thought process was, how you decided to handle the situation & what the outcome was.
Be prepared with situations that presented you in a good light & where you felt proud of what you did. Basically, every time I'm at work & overhear myself saying "God damn Crouching Ginger you're a genius!" I commit to memory what I did to make me say so.
3. Be Enthusiastic
I did not come close to finishing my degree, nor have I been able to gain 25 years of experience in anything. But someone very wise once told me that if you have an interview, you're already qualified for the job, the employers are just looking to find the least annoying person possible. I feel that I can attribute some of my success in interviews to being enthusiastic, talkative, excited & smiling.
This makes employers see that you are energetic & possibly more able to keep up with a demanding workload. People who appear enthusiastic & engaged also come across as more attentive. You may be absorbing just as much information if you are quiet & introverted, but will your interviewers see that?
4. Be prepared with lots of questions.
In some of the interviews I've attended, the interviewers would end up taking more notes after they were technically 'done' their assessment & allowed me to ask my questions.
Even if you already know the answer or don't care what the response is, choose questions that convey a message about yourself. Make sure that they are relevant rather than scripted sounding questions & encourage a discussion.
How does a typical day play out in this job?
How long would you anticipate training to be?
Aside from what is listed in the posting, what are your personal expectations for this employee?
5. Show or hide your body modifications, but whatever you choose, stick to it!
Ol' Ginger can't be brilliant ALL the time...
I have personally made the decision to cover my tattoo & take out my tongue, lip & septum piercing for interviews.
The positions that I apply for are nothing to scoff at & I do not want to take any risks when applying for them. Even if the organization has a no discrimination policy, people have opinions & perceptions, sometimes subconsciously & I will deal with those after you have given me the job.
Before one particularly nerve-wrecking interview, I had lost track of time & was running behind schedule. I called a cab in an effort to make up time, but it was only after I had shook hands with 3 interviews & sat down to get ready for the interrogation when I ran my hand over my face & realized that all the metal was still in it. Shit. At that point I strongly considered yelling "HEY, LOOK OVER THERE" & shoving my septum ring up my nose while they weren't looking, but the damage was already done. I did not get that job.
6. Do not insinuate to your interviewer that you are crazy.
Sometimes you can get carried away being excited, engaging & charismatic.
Once an interviewer asked me about my attention to detail. I am a type A personality & this, my friends, is right up my alley, so I got a little excited.
Before I went off to give my behavioral based, work-relevant answer, I had to try to show off some of my personality & let him know that Mr. Ford thinks my attention to detail (and especially the details that don't seem to bother anyone else) is beyond what people would consider normal & nothing would ever get by me.
What I ended up saying is that my husband thought I needed psychiatric help for my obsessive compulsive disorder. Not good.
There was this kind of half silence, half awkward laughter followed by the interviewer telling me that the job had an amazing prescription drug plan. I did not get that job either.
Please don't insinuate to your government interviewer that you are crazy as that is counter-productive to proving to them that you are the least annoying candidate.
Please feel free to leave a comment if you have any other suggestions to add!
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