Job Interview Answers ‘About Co-Workers/ Supervisors’

By Angela Wahome,

Tell me about a time you had a problem with a supervisor.
This is one of the classic traps so be very careful when answering this interview question. By asking this question, the interviewer is testing to see how easily you would bad mouth your boss (or even your new boss). Do not give any examples of problems you had with supervisors in the past. Instead, just simply say you can’t remember any major problems you had with you supervisor. If you do however choose to talk about a problem you may share about one that had little to do you or your relationship with your boss, but rather something that you had no control over. For instance, “I noticed there was tension due to a lack of cash flow. I then set out to find a free marketing advertising solution that could increase the number of clients. After ideas were implemented there was an increase the profit margin by 30 % per month.”
Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a co-worker who wasn’t doing his/her fair share of the work. What did you do and what was the outcome?
I worked closely with Ann who, for the most part, always carried her fair share of the work load. During a stressful time, working on a project with a deadline, I realized Ann’s contributions to the project were almost minimal. I made the decision to wait until after the project was completed to speak with her about what was happening. I’m glad I did, because I learned she’d been going through a very tough time in her personal life due to significant loss in money as her husband lost his job. She shared that appreciated my willingness to go the extra mile so the project was completed on time. As a result, our ability to work well together significantly increased.
Give me an example of a time when you took the time to share a co-worker’s or supervisor’s achievements with others?
At my most recent position, one of my co-workers, Njenga, did an outstanding job of calming down an irate customer, solving the customer’s problem and completing the sale. When our boss asked me how things were going, I told him everything was going fine and that Njenga had just completed calming an irate customer and closing a sale. It was a win-win-win situation for our boss, Njenga and the customer.
Have you worked with someone you didn’t like? If so, how did you handle it?
Yes, I’ve worked with someone whom I found difficult to like as a person. However, when I focused on the skills they brought to the job, their ability to solve problems and the two things I did appreciate, slowly my attitude towards them changed. We were never friends, but we did work well together.
Remember, not to focus on the negatives but show; a solution and where there was no solution talk about how it created a new opportunity as well as what you learnt from the situation.

6 Important Presentation Skills In Getting A Job

By Dorcas Karuana,
All of us are marketers whether you are in IT, Sales, Human resource, hospitality… to mention but a few. At one point in life all of us have had or will have to pass through a job search process where you have to go through an interview. The truth is in the competitive market people are going back to school to add their knowledge or taking a short course to add their skills. This is then followed by a good professional CV and cover letter.
However, beyond your papers and experience, there is much more you need to put for you to get that job. Yes, your education is important; certainly, your experience is important; and, most definitely, your attitude is important in landing a job in today’s questionable job market. Have you ever taken into consideration, what your presentation skills are saying about you?
How you present yourself goes a lot further than how you look. I am talking about your voice, your facial expression, and your body language. These aspects of your ‘presentation’ speak volumes about you. The problem may be, however, that the volumes are saying the wrong thing. For example; if you voice quivers when you talk, then you are telling the interviewer that you are nervous, if you mumble when you speak, you sound lazy, if you talk with a heavy accent, then you may not be understood. Also, if your voice is wimpy or weak, then you project an image of wimpy or weak or if you cannot answer many of the questions asked, then you are not prepared. If you speak in a monotone, then you sound boring.
The quality and delivery of your job interview presentation could literally make or break your chances of landing a job. With the very many applicants applying for nearly every job these days, you can’t afford to have your presentation fall below the mark. Your presentation should grab the interviewers’ attention and should be memorable for some time to come post-interview.
1.Prepare- The only huge secret to delivering a compelling presentation during an interview is to prepare yourself ahead of time. Those who are prepared for such competitive moments in life will perform better because they will be more confident and self-assured. Preparation and knowledge are the pre-requisites for a successful presentation, but confidence and control are just as important.
Good preparation is the key to confidence, which is the key to you being relaxed, and this settles the butterflies. Preparing means you plan it, and practise it. Then you’ll be in control, and confident. Your interviewer will see this and respond accordingly buy striking a conversation. This in turn will help build your confidence, and dare we imagine, you might even start to enjoy yourself too.
2. Get a friend to check your handshake to ensure that it is neither the ‘wet fish’ nor the ‘knuckle-crusher’. A good handshake should be vertically palm to palm, with a firm grip, while maintaining eye contact.
3. Use non- verbal or Body Language- Your body language conveys a lot about you. Keep your body language open and relaxed. Closed hand movements and crossed arms give the impression of being defensive. By sitting comfortably with your back against the chair you will appear confident.  For posture: sit erect without learning on the desk or slouching in the chair, but don’t be stiff and tense.
4. Good eye contact- Always make eye contact when you speak, but avoid continuous staring.  Don’t use too many hand movements and frequent change of facial expressions not in relation to words you have expressed
Although you may be nervous, If you find that difficult, use pauses to help you pace what you are saying. Deep breathing while waiting will also help you relax.
5. Good presenting is about entertaining as well as conveying information. If you are hoping to make the best impression possible, do not leave your presentation skills to chance. Today’s job market is tough; and, securing that position over all the other candidates is tougher still. If your education and experience are up to the task at hand, you can win the competition with presentation skills that speak for you and not against you.
Dorcas is a Human Resource Consultant at Corporate Staffing Services Limited. Email: dorcas@coproratestaffing.co.ke. Website: www.corporatestaffing.co.ke

How To Get Out Of A Dead End Job

By Angela Wahome,
I had two ladies, Grace and Kelly, came into my reception seeking work in the tourism sector. It is not news that Kenya was put on the watch list and many organizations suffered and are still suffering from the reduced travel. Two were waitresses (from a lodge in the Mara) as they did not consider that the industry will take a while to recover, while discussing what they enjoyed one chose to go into sales and the other said she enjoyed accounting and thought that she can pursue that.
Kelly: What type of experience and schooling would I need to get a job in accounting?
Angela: The good thing is that you have already studied a bit of business in your hospitality course. I’m sure you can register with KASNEB and take day classes while you work as a waitress as you begin the chartered accountant professional certification CPA. There are several institutions that have “crash courses” that begin about 3 weeks before the final exams begin but it is important that you have read well by yourself. After you complete CPA Section III part 6, then you can work for sometime and register as a CPA (K.)
Kelly: With no work experience in the accounting industry, how did you market yourself to employers?  Will my hospitality skills help?
Angela: I would advise you to stay in the waitressing job until you finish your first exams. You may begin to look for work in that are once you have a basic understanding of how accounting works. You may let your employers know you are studying CPA and ask if they have any duties that you could perform in your current workplace. Once you have more experience you may choose to be an intern. But there really is no way to compensate for my lack of experience but you can gain these skills by volunteering in various organizations to provide these services. This will also help you build a network of people that will support you as your career grows. You already know how to deal with different people which will help once you start working in an office. This skill is also important when seeking employment.
Kelly: Seriously, knowing how to serve food and drinks to people is going to help me?
Angela: Understanding people’s needs and having good interpersonal skills can determine how successful you are at performing your job. Anybody can learn the text book/technical requirements of a job those are basic. But there are some skills that you develop like communicating with people of all ages, critical thinking allowing you to make decisions as well as the ability to connect with different individuals which will set you apart and help you get ahead.
Kelly: What do I do with my CV now, considering your lack of experience?
Angela: Highlight what you did in your previous jobs with regard to duties that are also found in the business and office fields. The good thing about a CV is that it enables you to list experience as soon as you begin working in that area.

4 Personal Branding Errors To Avoid In Job Search

By Carol Musyoka,
Most of our universities are NOT preparing their fourth year classes for the recruitment. They are throwing the graduates out to the job recruitment sharks and hoping that they will sink or swim. Most fresh university graduates undergo less than pleasant interviews, and sometimes fill like giving up when they do not get job offers. Some feel they have fought the good fight, finished the race but are still struggling to keep the faith.
The solution is simple as pie: universities should link up with organisations in the public and private sector and get their human resource teams to come and run a mandatory minimum of five hours course for the final year students on how to prepare yourself for the job market. It will be a win-win scenario for both parties: for the universities they will get actual practitioners who will provide valuable education on exactly what it is they are looking for while for the organisations they will get a chance to begin to influence the kind of output that is being generated by the institutions as it will be made fit for interviewing purpose.
Based on the feedback I received, I realised that some of the recruitment train smashes occur even before the actual interview takes place.
1. A good place to begin would be your email address. For purposes of your CV please get a simple professional private email address that reflects your name and not your flavour. For instance Mary.Kerubo@yahoo.com or MKerubo@gmail.com is pretty straightforward. Missbabes@yahoo.com or peremende@gmail.com is…well nothing short of very unserious. Most email addresses are free and cost just a few minutes of your precious time.
2. Always assume that the recruiters will do a background check on you if they like what they see on your CV. The first point of entry will be to “Google” your name. It would be advisable to “Google” your own name and see what turns up in the search. It is noteworthy that the electronic age we live in ensures that even criminal or civil cases that we may have been involved in and that may have been published either in the media or in law reports will appear in a Google search.

How good is your online brand

Your Facebook profile or Twitter posts will also appear in a Google search and be under no illusion that a recruiter will not proceed to view your Facebook page or Twitter profile both of which are open to the public (unless you have put in privacy settings). So all those posts of the last all night drinking binge that you took part in will show up to a nosy recruiter doing due diligence.
This would be a good time to “untag” yourself from any photos which you have been tagged in including those where you were member number five at a strip poker game.
On that note, any abusive, foul mouthed tweets that you may have posted regarding any topical issue should be deleted particularly where you may have ranted and raved about the very organisation that you are applying to work in or its affiliate.
3. Telephone Contacts- If you have put your telephone number on your CV and are expecting recruiters to call you, for the love of God and country do not have some popular rap, genge, gospel, mugithi mix, ramogi special ringtone running off your mobile phone. Why? Well, I understand that you feel it shows your unique music tastes to which you are entitled, but it does not reflect the professional side that is required to be seen during a recruitment process.
Always assume that you are trying to woo a partner (employer) and just like in any romantic liaison, you only show your best side during the first couple of dates.
Now in the event that you do get past the due diligence as described above and get called to an interview, other than what I indicated in last week’s column,
4. Confidentiality- One should also be very careful not to reveal insider information about their current employer. So if an interviewer asks something along the lines of “What is your current employer’s strategy regarding customer acquisition in Nyeri County?” you should not have a problem telling the interviewer that it’s not in your best interests to reveal internal company information due to the confidentiality clause in your employment contract.
Yes, you are entitled to push back in an interview if you feel that the questions are infringing on confidentiality or becoming too personalised beyond the professional realm (questions along tribal or racial lines fall into this category).
Talking about the competition during an interview whether it is an organisation or an individual is highly unprofessional. But as I concluded last week, common sense good people, is not common to everyone.

4 Ways To Concentrate At The Workplace

By Angela Wahome,
Many office spaces are open plan. The distractions both visual and especially noise can wreak havoc on your ability to work well. Here are five ways concentrate and be more productive.
1. Let people know your availability
You should start by reducing distractions. There are times when you are working on a difficult project/task that has a tight deadline. When you give people a time that you can get back to them (and do that) you will find that you are better able to manage your time. Also, if you can turn your back and keep your head down that provides a visual cue that you are unavailable.
2. Turn on your headphones
If you aren’t on the phone and your boss is agreeable few things block sound better than good headphones. To focus well choose instrumental music or soft music so your brain can concentrate on your work and not the catchy words to the songs you are listening to.
3. Tackle tough tasks when it’s quiet
Working on your most challenging assignments should be done when your office is conducive to it which may very well be when your co-workers have not yet reported to work, are out for lunch or have left for the night. Even when you have your own office, these tips do come in handy. Not an early bird and have lunch out? Once or twice a week, plan to stay a bit late after your colleagues leave for the day.
4. Learn to be more productive in a loud workplace
a. Commit to getting your work done when you can focus best
By doing this you gives you a deadline and forces you to eliminate the little time wasters such as silly interruptions, procrastination, and perfectionism that all end up eating into your productive work hours of the day.
b. Avoid multitasking when you are working on difficult tasks
Multitasking makes us less efficient instead of more so. By learning to focus on only one thing at a time you will find that you will be left with much more time at the end of the day. Think about period of time when you multitasked. When you have a thought in your mind and someone interrupts you  it can take some time to get back on track in terms of your train of thought. Now when this repeated, you will be left wondering what the project you were working on is really about as you have stopped and started so many times. You may even feel completely frustrated as you may find that your work is riddled with errors or you feel that you have done substandard work.
c. Keep your to-do list organised
Often people haphazardly write lists on stray notepads, torn off pieces of paper, and backs of envelopes waste time wondering what to do next and worrying that they’re forgetting something. Choose only one tool, planner, notebook, or a Smartphone, to keep track everything you need to do. It is important to prioritize from the top down. That way, you’ll spend 100 percent of your time completing your to-do list, not finding it.
There are times you can reduce the noise, but if you are not able, the tips above can help learn to work with it to become more productive.