I was wondering if by any change there's an opportunity, to build a list of common and uncommon questions in a job interview process in the field.
The intention here is trying to find if there's a kind of pattern behave related to the Jobs interviews in Architecture, to organize it 3 main topics
1 - Typical Questions 2 - Tricky one Questions 3 - Hard One Questions. 4- Ambiguous Questions.
or Any other possible category to build.
Thank!!
OM..
Aug 19, 16 12:38 pm
Good question. In my experience (I've only worked at small-mid size places), I have never had an interviewer ask me prepared questions- NEVER!
After sitting down at a table, it's been up to me to start telling them about myself, my work, and experience. Be specific, show that you've learned. I've always tried to evolve it into a conversation, asking questions of them along the way.
mightyaa
Aug 19, 16 1:05 pm
Normal is talk about your experience and past job duties and whatever is in your CV / Portfolio.
Tricky ones are more about professional goals (tricky for me anyway due to decades of experience) about where you want to be in the future.
Hard is salary expectations; this is where you can disqualify yourself extremely rapidly. Best to avoid and ask that they make a reasonable offer so you can see how that might work within your own personal finances and obligations. This is honestly where 80% blow it.
Ambiguous; My last three required essays more along the lines of my business & professional philosophy. Also hardships I've faced and lessons learned, etc. You are also really being judged btw on demeanor, dress, and the perception of how you'll fit into the office culture. It's ambiguous because it isn't so much a hard sell, but a vibe you put out, so you need to be in the right state of mind before sitting down with them.
kjdt
Aug 19, 16 1:53 pm
As far as the common questions: I used to have a book called "101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions" - I'm sure you could find that on Amazon, and many similar offerings. Sites like Monster also have lists of the most common interview questions, with suggested answers. There's no sense rehashing the common "where do you see yourself in 5 years?", "what's your greatest weakness?", "tell me about a time you made a mistake and what you did to correct it", etc.
You should practice telling yourself about your portfolio and past experience. But you should also practice being quiet about it. In some interviews the interviewer will want to look at your work without you saying much, or will want to save his questions until he's done flipping pages.
Uncommon questions: well you can't really prepare for truly uncommon questions. But most of the ones that interviewers think are uncommon, clever, original tests of how the candidate thinks on his feet are really just variations of the old "if you were an animal what would it be" type - in which case it doesn't make much difference what your answer is, as long as you think about it for an internal count of 5, then give a confident answer with a few reasons to back it up. For example I was once asked "if you had to pick a lunch box with a currently well-known personality on it, who would it be and why?" You just want to be seen thinking carefully but not too long, and having a confident answer that fits the question. In most cases this is not the time to launch into your dislike of lunch boxes or why you think we shouldn't pay attention to celebrities. There's a twist cousin to this question that goes "if you didn't have to work, what would you be doing right now?" or "if you weren't an architect what would you be?" - the safest answer with those is to start by saying you can't imagine yourself doing anything else, because you've envisioned doing this for as long as you can remember - but that you do have hobbies you'd pursue if you had the opportunity (then name some travel destination, or dream adventure.) You just don't want to jump immediately to the hobbies and vacations, or even to your plans to save the world, because then you're judged to be less passionate about your current career and this potential job.
gruen
Aug 20, 16 10:04 am
Better-compile a list of questions that you ask the interviewer. Interview them. You'll get tons of offers.
Hi all,
I was wondering if by any change there's an opportunity, to build a list of common and uncommon questions in a job interview process in the field.
The intention here is trying to find if there's a kind of pattern behave related to the Jobs interviews in Architecture, to organize it 3 main topics
1 - Typical Questions
2 - Tricky one Questions
3 - Hard One Questions.
4- Ambiguous Questions.
or Any other possible category to build.
Thank!!
Good question. In my experience (I've only worked at small-mid size places), I have never had an interviewer ask me prepared questions- NEVER!
After sitting down at a table, it's been up to me to start telling them about myself, my work, and experience. Be specific, show that you've learned. I've always tried to evolve it into a conversation, asking questions of them along the way.
Normal is talk about your experience and past job duties and whatever is in your CV / Portfolio.
Tricky ones are more about professional goals (tricky for me anyway due to decades of experience) about where you want to be in the future.
Hard is salary expectations; this is where you can disqualify yourself extremely rapidly. Best to avoid and ask that they make a reasonable offer so you can see how that might work within your own personal finances and obligations. This is honestly where 80% blow it.
Ambiguous; My last three required essays more along the lines of my business & professional philosophy. Also hardships I've faced and lessons learned, etc. You are also really being judged btw on demeanor, dress, and the perception of how you'll fit into the office culture. It's ambiguous because it isn't so much a hard sell, but a vibe you put out, so you need to be in the right state of mind before sitting down with them.
As far as the common questions: I used to have a book called "101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions" - I'm sure you could find that on Amazon, and many similar offerings. Sites like Monster also have lists of the most common interview questions, with suggested answers. There's no sense rehashing the common "where do you see yourself in 5 years?", "what's your greatest weakness?", "tell me about a time you made a mistake and what you did to correct it", etc.
You should practice telling yourself about your portfolio and past experience. But you should also practice being quiet about it. In some interviews the interviewer will want to look at your work without you saying much, or will want to save his questions until he's done flipping pages.
Uncommon questions: well you can't really prepare for truly uncommon questions. But most of the ones that interviewers think are uncommon, clever, original tests of how the candidate thinks on his feet are really just variations of the old "if you were an animal what would it be" type - in which case it doesn't make much difference what your answer is, as long as you think about it for an internal count of 5, then give a confident answer with a few reasons to back it up. For example I was once asked "if you had to pick a lunch box with a currently well-known personality on it, who would it be and why?" You just want to be seen thinking carefully but not too long, and having a confident answer that fits the question. In most cases this is not the time to launch into your dislike of lunch boxes or why you think we shouldn't pay attention to celebrities. There's a twist cousin to this question that goes "if you didn't have to work, what would you be doing right now?" or "if you weren't an architect what would you be?" - the safest answer with those is to start by saying you can't imagine yourself doing anything else, because you've envisioned doing this for as long as you can remember - but that you do have hobbies you'd pursue if you had the opportunity (then name some travel destination, or dream adventure.) You just don't want to jump immediately to the hobbies and vacations, or even to your plans to save the world, because then you're judged to be less passionate about your current career and this potential job.
Better-compile a list of questions that you ask the interviewer. Interview them. You'll get tons of offers.